WORKPLACE VIOLENCE TODAY


The Most Critical Element of a Threat Assessment and it’s Often Overlooked! By Dr. Michael Corcoran


You‘re the Human Resources Manager for your company and one day you get a call from Jerry who has been an employee of the company now for over 12 years. Jerry and you have worked together on a couple of training matters for the company and you both feel you have a pretty good working relationship. Jerry starts off by saying, ―I really wasn‘t sure if I should call Human Resources or Security on this, but I know David and I think he‘s just having some outside issues in his life right now. Yesterday I overheard David and Tim talking and I heard David say that he wants to ―get even‖ with his supervisor, Phil.‖


Nothing you haven‘t heard before, but now that you have been told about it, you must take action. Technically you have an ―indirect threat‖, but what is the actual level of the threat…or was David just blowing off steam yesterday. You carefully interview Jerry on the who, what, where, when and the why‘s of what he overheard and other elements he may be aware of as you want to be sure you have all the facts – at least from Jerry‘s perspective. But all Jerry can really share is that he has known David for the last 3 years, always thought of him as a pretty nice guy, but he doesn‘t work with him on a regular basis so Jerry is unsure if this behavior is ―normal‖. He has heard that David has recently been served with divorce papers by his wife. You have decided you now have enough to at least say you have a potential workplace violence situation. But you know you need more information before making a lot of calls. So you start your process. Maybe you look-up David‘s employee records to see if there have been any issues in the past – or has he been a rather stellar employee? As usual, you find much of nothing as David appears to be an average employee for his entire 3 ½ year tenure with the company…and he certainly has never come-up on your radar. Should David be put on leave at this point, for safety reasons?


You decide it‘s now time to conduct a few interviews to get more facts. You talk to Tim about his conversation with David. Tim confirms what Jerry had told you and says that he has worked with David since he started with the company and he often just says things like this to vent about almost everyone. Tim tells you that David does seem to have a temper that he is usually able to keep in check, but sometimes he will slam something down on his desk, or slam a drawer or a door. Tim also says that David told him he is suffering from PTSD because of his time in the Army before coming to work at the company. Finally, Tim says that David shared with him that his wife had recently filed for divorce but that he‘ll fix that the next time he gets his hands on her. You ask Tim the inevitable question, ―Do you think David would ever commit a violent act and are you afraid of him.‖ Tim‘s response, ―I‘m not afraid of him at all but I could see David‘s temper boiling over one day and he might do something stupid.‖ That‘s good enough for you – time to send this over to the Threat Management Team, if you are lucky enough to have one. So let‘s move on – what else needs to be considered?


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Predicting Workplace Aggression in Individuals: Harnessing the Latest Psychological Research and Modern Technological Developments


Modern psychological research has prov ided a num ber of clues about how to predict m any f orm s of workplace aggression, and pilot studies combining and applying some of that research have shown promising results. Screening tests that predict workplace aggression, especially when combined with thorough background checks, are powerful tools and should be a part of every employer‘s workplace violence prevention program. An online psychological screening service is now available to assist management in addressing these issues. Prevention programs to reduce violence and counterproductive workplace behaviors can be drastically improved by adding modern, reliable, and cost-effective screening methods.


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Pass a copy of this edtion of The Wokrplace Violence Prevention eReport to a colleague in Human Resources, Security, Safety and Risk Management.


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