Having a place where people can talk to someone about a particular behavior is important. We had someone in my previous job who had a very serious anger management problem. Many people were aware of it and they reported it to our HR department, and it became extremely important to documents details, dates and specifics about incidents so that there was a record of everything. Even after all that, and the company spending money on coaching and 360 reviews, the person could still not manage to keep things in check. This person decided to physically intimidate another employee who called me, and we left the building because they did not feel safe. My friend's English writing was not very good, and so I helped him craft an email to our HR person describing what had happened, and he told the HR Director that he was going home for the day due to concerns about his personal safety. After reporting this kind of thing for more than a year, the person in question (having had many chances to take action to rectify this situation) was summarily fired. Needless to say, all the employees thought that this went on way too long. We all knew that because this person was extremely good at his job, he was given too many passes along the way. It is good to have a process in place to deal with this kind of thing so employees don't have to worry about these kinds of issues. Even if there is no HR person, there should be a phone line where people can report incidents, even anonymously.

My previous employer was horrible....after seven years of abuse and neglect within the office atmosphere...I left with health conditions that resulted from me being stressed and worried all the time....now my blood pressure is better, my hair is growing nicely and I found a work environment that is supportive (happened after many failed jobs)

I work in the retail industry and would agree that most of the abuse is customer driven.