Your SB 553 Plan Looks Great on Paper. It Won't Stop an Attack.

A compliant workplace violence prevention plan reduces risk. But when violence actually breaks out, only one thing keeps your employees safe: a trained, practical, physical response in the moment.

That's exactly what California's SB 553 requires. Employers must train employees, every single year, in "strategies to avoid physical harm." But unlike almost every other piece of this law, California never defines what that means.

That's not an oversight. It's the right call.

Every situation where violence develops is different. Boilerplate strategies don't hold up in a real one. What actually protects people is the ability to read a situation and respond to it — and that's a skill, not a script.

Why De-Escalation Isn't Enough 

De-escalation gets mentioned constantly as the strategy to avoid physical harm, and it has real value. I learned it serving hundreds of court papers, where people often react emotionally to being served and a calm approach can keep things from spiraling.

But most workplace violence happens without warning, and when it does start, the attack is typically over in seven seconds or less — the victim incapacitated before there's any opening to talk someone down. You can't de-escalate a punch that arrives without a word first. Avoiding physical harm takes more than one tool.

And the tools have to match what your employees will actually face. Plenty of companies run "run, hide, fight" active-shooter training, often bundled into the same online module as sexual harassment training. Useful to know — but active shooter events make up less than 1% of workplace violence incidents. Isn't it more useful to train your people for the 99% they're actually likely to run into?

Reading a Threat in Real Time 

Years ago I was working late and walked to a 24-hour donut shop for coffee. A man stepped out of the shadows and planted himself on the sidewalk ahead of me, positioned so I couldn't easily walk past. I assumed panhandler — the area had a lot of aggressive panhandling.

Then a streetlight caught something metal in his hand, and he moved to hide it at his hip.

That changed everything. Whatever it was, it was metal, and he didn't want me to see it. But I already had. I was walking into what was, at best, an armed robbery, and I had seconds to decide what to do.

Turning around wasn't an option — traffic was too heavy to cross back. So I decided: keep walking, no matter what. To rob me, he needed me to stop.

As I got close, I saw it was a shank — a sharpened metal rod. He asked me for the time, a classic move, since most people stop and look down at a watch. I didn't stop. I glanced at my wrist mid-stride and answered without breaking pace.

A few steps past him, I looked back. His body language told me he was surprised it hadn't worked — like this was a routine that usually did. Recognizing the threat early enough to build a plan, before I was in it, is what got me past him safely.

That's the strategy I've relied on ever since: situational awareness. Later, doing cold-call witness interviews for attorneys, I'd walk into homes with no idea whether the person had a history of violence, what weapons might be inside, or who else was there. So before I ever sat down, I'd already located the doors and windows, planned an exit route, made sure I couldn't be boxed in or blocked, and identified anything nearby I could use defensively. Sometimes the right call was never going inside at all — conducting the interview standing in the doorway instead.

Matching Strategy to How Violence Actually Happens 

Beyond situational awareness and de-escalation, I use an "if-then" approach with the small employers I work with: specific tools matched to the most likely source of violence at that workplace — a member of the public, a customer, a coworker, someone personally known to an employee — and the way violence from that source typically unfolds. Depending on the risk profile, that can include:

• Communicating safety concerns to others at the workplace
• The buddy system
• Parking lot safety strategies
• Changing the dynamics of an attack to take away an attacker's initial advantage
• Violent incident response teams
• Simple self-defense strategies

Training employees in strategies to avoid physical harm isn't a box to check under SB 553. It's the single most important thing standing between your team and a bad day. I help small employers build this out — either as part of a full workplace violence prevention program or as a standalone training.

[Schedule your free 15-minute California Compliance & Safety Snapshot call →]