Bryce Eishold
Mark Waller is a champion.
Not because he competed in the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in 1999 or because he played in Morwell’s premiership side against Traralgon in ’93 – but because he’s on the lookout in the workplace for victims of family violence.
Mr Waller, 50, is one of 16 people slated with the champion status at AGL Loy Yang – a role created to identify the signs and support people who are victims of the nationwide “epidemic”.
The roles coincide with a company-wide program which encourages men and women to learn the signs of family violence and what to do if employees come across a victim.
The program is being offered to the station’s 600 employees plus contractors after it was launched earlier this year.
More than 140 people have participated since it began.
“The culture in the power station has improved dramatically in the last decade – the education and awareness has improved hugely,” Mr Waller, a generation capital projects manager, told The Express.
“When it was advertised we were doing this [family and domestic violence] training I know it made some individuals feel very uncomfortable.
“The fact that the training is out there has made some people self-reflect and I get the very strong feeling that they haven’t been all that comfortable with what they’ve seen because they’ve had an awareness on their own behaviour.”
Influential employees, like Mr Waller, have been selected to undertake additional training run by Gippsland Women’s Health to help identify and work with victims of family violence – through education, support, promotion and connection.
Those people are called champions.
“You get an extra level of education and knowledge so then you can start to raise the profile of how epidemic the issue is in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria and Australia,” the 30-year power industry veteran said.
“The most important thing a champion can do is, once you’re educated, you’ve got the knowledge and the confidence to call out inappropriate behaviour.”
While Mr Waller does not act as a counsellor, he has witnessed the effects of family violence and hopes his role will help fellow employees and community members raise awareness about the prominent, and often rarely spoken about issue.
“Research shows [perpetrators] are extremely good at hiding it … on the receiving end I guess it takes some fairly sustained, acute observations to get the feeling that someone could be on the receiving end,” Mr Waller said.
“The most obvious thing to look for in a victim is a change in behaviour – if you see someone who is normally positive, warm and engaging and all of a sudden that changes, that would be one aspect.
“People absent from work that aren’t normally absent and just generally people who look worried that don’t normally look worried – it’s certainly not easy to see it.”
The program is opt-in for all AGL Loy Yang employees and contractors and falls under the company’s immediate focus of addressing family and domestic violence.
“I don’t want it to be the flavour of the year,” Mr Waller said.
“I want it to sustain over time and the only way you can do that is pick out relatively influential people in their work groups, give them an extra level of information and confidence to call out inappropriate behaviour.”
