Unfortunately, violence on the job is occurring with more regularity. Taking preventative steps will limit the potential for violence to occur while you are on the job. Perhaps your organization, department, or division has been lucky enough not to encounter overt acts of violence, i.e., one individual striking or attacking another, perhaps not.

The Perils of Downsizing

Getting fired or let go is the factor most associated with workplace violence. “Downsizing” continues to be prevalent among organizations–not that downsizing itself is the cause for increased violence. Kevin Flynn, Ph.D., says a key problem with downsizing is that management is often “ill-prepared to deal with the turmoil and anguish to employees. Instead of dealing compassionately with it, they ignore it.” Too many employees are hired with the message, “yes, we value loyalty,” only to be let go with the message, “sorry, things have changed, your services are no longer necessary.” Flynn observes that the stress of change is bad enough, “but the way it is handled can be a massive blow to one’s sense of fair play and self esteem.” The obviously disgruntled employee represents, perhaps, the most easily recognizable scenario in which violence may ensue.

One industrial psychologist believes that the single most devastating blow to a person’s psyche may be being laid off. Such circumstances can set off a cycle of denial, anger, grief, bargaining, and acceptance. If this looks similar to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ cycle laid out in her landmark book, On Death and Dying, you’re correct, it’s exactly the same.

Professionals who specialize in working with people who have been let go find that approximately 10% of the newly unemployed experience problems, including severe anxiety or depression, sufficient enough to warrant professional help. When ex-workers go weeks and months without finding new work, the strains on their family, and themselves, can lead to undesirable behavior. In thousands of cases each year, ex- workers show up months after being terminated to seek vengeance on an immediate boss or supervisor, someone who they identify as the source of their misfortune.

• So, if you suspend a worker for breaking rules, he/she may come after you? Maybe.
• If you need to fire someone for gross incompetence, do you also need to worry about them coming back with a gun? Possibly.

Treating Termination Carefully

Employees who lose their jobs can react with furious anger. More than a few have experienced outwardly destructive outbursts in exit interviews with departing staff. A situation developed where a supervisor was about to put a problem worker on probation, and soon thereafter, terminate the employee. In this instance, there would be no severance pay or benefits forthcoming. A co-worker who knew of the situation told the supervisor that the supervisor had to watch out because the employee, about to be put on probation, had expressed his desire to kill the supervisor, should the employee lose his job.

The supervisor was shaken to his roots. He called his boss, who ended up bringing in a specialist in handling work place violence. In this case, things worked out for the best. The specialist was able to devise a plan, whereby the employee was not only fired, but eventually rehabilitated. This doesn’t happen usually, but it did this time. The supervisor, his boss, and the specialist met with the problem employee and presented the plan in a calm and even-handed manner.

The employee realized the gravity of the situation and agreed buy xanax india online that he would accept counseling, as well as additional job training so that he could retain his position and standing in the company. The plan worked because the problem employee wasn’t found to be dangerous, according to the specialist. He simply was suffering from emotional distress in his domestic life which spilled over to his work life, and predictably, treatment would work.

Too often, supervisors handle termination the wrong way. They dispense their decree in a heartless manner, hoping to get things over with as soon as possible. Such supervisors have read books that say to terminate an employee on Friday, in the afternoon, so as to minimize any work place disruption. The problem with dispassionate termination is that the employee’s support system is placed in a strangle hold. All of a sudden, everything is cut off. For those who are borderline, hostilities can be triggered.

Is there a more practical approach? Yes, many specialists today are advocating that the problem employee needs to be dealt with as early on in the procedure as possible, while there’s still real potential for improved performance. In addition, here are other steps when dealing with problem employees:

• When confronting such an employee, be firm, listen as much as you speak, and visibly show empathy.
• Create a threat management team, which can consist of a psychologist, someone from your legal department, someone from human resources, someone from security, and perhaps an outside specialist.
• Devise organizational policy to let employees know how and where to report threats.
• Give supervisors at least an hour’s worth of training each month on recognizing trouble signs.
• Instruct supervisors as to when and how to refer someone who’s becoming overly confrontational.

In most cases where violence occurred, the violent party’s immediate boss didn’t recognize the potential threat. Often, co-workers are aware of problems, but weren’t informed as to how or when or to whom to report them.

Some organizations recognize the need to dispense confidential employee surveys on a regular basis to take the pulse of the organization, a department, or division. If your organization goes that route, make sure that you have the assistance of an impartial third party which is skilled in dispensing such surveys. Otherwise, you may simply be coaching employees to report back to you what you want to hear as opposed to how the climate really is.

Progressive organizations are also starting to put more time and attention into the process of firing. They recognize that someone who has been laid off or terminated has to be treated with respect and compassion. The longer a person has been with the organization, the more time they need adjusting to the change in status, being helped with finding another position, and getting their professional, if not personal, life together.

What about acts of subversion in the work place? Consider the following: Subversive Acts: A Checklist

• Has anyone damaged a PC, printer, fax machine?
• Has anyone tampered with the postage meter?
• Has anyone vandalized a vending machine?
• Are the public phones in and around your grounds operable?
• Are electric door, escalators, or elevators frequently, and mysteriously, breaking?
• Are appliances in your kitchen in good working order?
• Does the plumbing in your wash rooms get backed up often?
• Are any cars in employee parking lots vandalized?
• Are any pictures, posters, display windows, bulletin boards and the like vandalized?
• Are office furnishings breaking with increased regularity?
• Is the landscaping outside being vandalized?
• Are objects frequently missing from the waiting room?