Page 13 - Door Supervision Training Booklet

CONTROLLING AGGRESSION
All door supervisors will encounter aggressive behaviour at some time or another. People sometimes get upset when things don't go their way, and can get very emotional when trying to put a point across during an argument. Rude, insulting or antagonistic behaviour towards door supervisors is a regular occurrence, and to a certain extent they have to learn to ignore it and try to find out what the real problem is. Occasionally, however, people exceed what is generally seen as an acceptable or understandable level of aggression, and so door supervisors then have to react in an attempt to either diffuse the situation, or to use controlling or even defensive measures against the aggressor. Each situation needs to be assessed on its own merits, and the door supervisor must then react according to the threat to himself and to others.
Aggression may be defined as 'an expression of violence or hostility, made verbally or physically by an individual in reaction to a situation'. Door supervisors need to be able to control their own aggression, and should certainly not adopt an aggressive attitude as a matter of course.
Door supervisors must learn to anticipate aggressive behaviour by others before it happens. They need to be aware of subjects or incidents that are most likely to bring out aggression in others, such as ejections and refusals to entry. They should know the appropriate laws and house policies, and understand which ones may be unpopular with some people.
They also need to identify ways of diffusing aggression so that they can avoid encounters turning into confrontational situations. Telling someone that they have had too much to drink as they join the end of the queue will get a more sensible reaction than if you wait for them to come all the way up to the front doors before letting them know that they cannot enter the premises.
Door supervisors should also have pre-planned answers to the most common sources of conflict. This is why knowing the law and house policies is so important here. Having set answers to peoples' complaints and reasons for particular policies that they might not agree with or understand will help as well.
ANTICIPATE --- AVOID -- ANSWER
Stages Of Aggression
Provocation - Either party in an encounter can provoke the other towards aggression. If a door supervisor, for example, handles an encounter badly by being unsympathetic, rude or threatening towards a customer, then that may well provoke an aggressive reaction from them.
Door supervisors themselves should endeavour to diffuse potentially violent confrontations, and not to provoke the other party into behaving more aggressively than he already is. It is worth remembering here that some members of the public still have a negative stereotype of door supervisors, and that that in itself can provoke a bad reaction when spoken to by one.
Escalation - If a person is protesting to a door supervisor about a decision that has been made against him, and realises that that decision is not going to be changed, he may well increase his level of aggression in an effort to enforce his view or just to vent his anger. As the encounter
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