Jack comes to work with a chip on his shoulder. He is antagonistic towards his co-workers, and places blame for his unfinished projects on management. Jack has occasional profane verbal outbursts and confrontations with his supervisor. Jack presents two serious challenges for corporate management:

1. This type of passive-aggressive or openly aggressive conduct is anxiety-producing for his coworkers and has an intimidating effect on those around him.
2. When an employee believes management or company policy chooses not to or cannot address or enforce work standards or discipline for provocative and disruptive behavior, Jack and his coworkers will loose confidence and respect for the management structure, the supervisor and the company in general.

After traffic accidents, work place murder is the cause of more work related deaths than any other reason. We live in a society affected by drugs, alcohol, and violence, so when employees bring these into the work place we should not be surprised. It is almost certain that at least some of them have a history of violence. You can attempt to find out from candidates whether they have a history of violence, although most will lie about it. Only through the use of a firm that will interview neighbors, former spouses, and former co-workers will you get more reliable information.

One important tool to preventing workplace violence or for dealing with it when it occurs is to have a strong written policy on violence publicized to all employees. The policy must clearly define behaviors that are prohibited and state that infractions are subject to discipline up to and including termination. It should be fairly and consistently enforced with zero tolerance for violations.

Workplace stresses on an individual who is prone to violence can be quite serious. One stressor linked with violence is more overtime and pressure for greater productivity. Another is an autocratic, overbearing, or insensitive supervisor. Upward communication systems that allow employees to report problems with their immediate supervisors without fear of reprisal are important.

All supervisors should be trained to recognize the potentially violent employee. There are warning signs, such as threats, depression and frequent absenteeism (which is also a sign of drug or alcohol problems), talking in an abnormally loud voice, irritability, impatience, being jumpy or startling easily, a tendency to blame others for one’s own failure, an inability to stay focused or to concentrate on work, and any behavior or talk that seems particularly unusual or irrational. Establish a procedure for documenting such observations and take steps to get the person into the Employee Assistance Program or counseling.

There is a standard profile of the person who is most likely to commit workplace violence. The profile is a male, 35 years or older, has a history of violence toward women, children, and animals. He is usually withdrawn and a loner. He has a tendency to blame others for his disappointments. He may have a military background and history of substance abuse. Recent losses in a person’s life often precede an outburst of violence.

Being proactive in preventing workplace violence will require some supervisors and managers to become more caring about those they supervise.

Some of the worst cases of workplace violence have come from non-employees, including former workers, spurned spouses or lovers of employees, customers or clients.

If there has been a credible threat of violence from an employee or former employee, the wise course is to hire professional protection and security people until the threat subsides. For the most part, police are powerless until violence occurs.

AUTHOR: Joe Dickey is the President and co-founder of Government Initiatives, Incorporated. He is a retired Special Agent and Manager with the National Security Agency (NSA) with 37 years of military, federal and civilian security experience in DOD and the Intelligence Community.  Joe is a subject matter expert in Antiterrorism, Physical and Industrial security, is a former adjunct faculty member of the National Cryptographic School and touring speaker in a number of venues. His background is in criminal, counterintelligence, industrial security,  antiterrorism and polygraph. He is a commercial pilot, flight, firearms and tactics instructor with domestic and overseas experience in executive protection. He teaches a variety of security and first responder related courses.

Contact:  Joe Dickey
                Government Initiatives, Incorporated
                (410) 758-8403 
                joe.dickey@starband.net