Bring Your Own Gun (BYOG) and the Workplace: Seven Proactive Protocols for Personnel Actions One afternoon last year, an employee who had just been told he was fired, responded by retrieving a
Hand gun from his vehicle parked in the employee parking lot and opening fire in his workplace. The shooter killed several co-workers before killing himself. The family of one of the slain workers filed a wrongful death lawsuit, which is still pending. The family claims the company was grossly negligent because the shootings were reasonably foreseeable based on the shooter’s history of misconduct and his known propensity for violence.
There are 22 states that guarantee employees the right to possess firearms in their vehicles while commuting to and from work, and to store them in their locked vehicles once at work. Forty-eight states have laws that authorize citizens, including employees, to carry concealed weapons in public areas, and 38 states have laws that prevent public disclosure of the names and personal identifying information of right-to-carry permit holders, which impedes employers from obtaining that information about their employees. Putting politics aside, easy and immediate access to firearms near or on company property presents challenges for employers and their duty to provide ‘‘a safe and healthy work environment.’’
Easy and immediate access raises concerns about the potential for employee violence as an emotional response to anything from the imposition of disciplinary action to simple interpersonal conflicts in the workplace. This article discusses the security challenges that may arise as a result of state laws requiring employers to allow employees to store guns in their vehicles at work, and suggests some protocols for employers when engaging in corrective action.
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ARTICLES FROM THE VAULT
Creating a Respectful Work Environment May Be Your Best Defense By W. Barry Nixon, SPHR
Global competition is ferocious and unrelenting. At every level of the organization, employees are being asked to take on more demanding tasks and being asked to achieve higher results with fewer resources and support. In most cases, the demands include cost cutting, improved efficiency, innovation and strategic thinking. While some people thrive in this changing environment, many people are becoming its casualties. We are witnessing the rise of the
dysfunctional workplace, one in which there is mounting work related stress combined with a perceived or real lack of job security, increased worker anxiety and volatility.
To effectively decrease the likelihood of violence in the workplace companies need to anticipate the stress caused by their dynamics and culture, and implement comprehensive workplace violence prevention programs. Interestingly, there appears to be a correlation between the change from a human relations to human resources approach (the 'science' of managing and utilizing people as resources) and the rise in violent incidents. Management's view of people has changed from thinking of employees as assets to be developed, to thinking of people as costs to be reduced or commodities who possess certain skill sets to be bought or sold.
Too often, human resource executives and other company leaders get so caught up in rapid change, re- organizations, reengineering, etc., that they forget to look at the human consequences of the changes they are shaping. Ultimately, the best strategy for preventing workplace violence is to develop the right corporate culture - one that eschews power and authority in favor of more humanistic approaches that embraces the principles of emotional intelligence.
This article was originally published in The Workplace Violence Prevention Reporter, May 1998. Read more
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