Waging War In The Workplace

If managers hear of a problem, consultants believe, intervention is possible. Late last year Blythe was called into one company after a longtime employee began to act menacingly. He had swung a piece of pipe at a wall near another worker's head and told the plant nurse that he'd like to kill people. Aided by plainclothes police and a psychiatrist, Blythe and a union/management team confronted the man, demanding that he take a paid leave and get help. Six months later he is on medication for depression-and back on the job.

Particularly autocratic work environments can be a problem. When an employee feels powerless, he may be more likely to strike out. The Postal Service now holds focus groups for employee input and is hiring managers with better interpersonal skills. Sensitivity to employees is particularly vital when layoffs are announced. Don't follow the example of General Dynamics Corp., warns Northeastern's Dean Fox. Earlier this year the company gave a longtime employee a pink slip on the day he returned to work after burying his 6-year-old son. This is especially striking, says Fox, because it was at General Dynamics a year earlier that former employee Robert Earl Mack shot and killed a supervisor, after he was fired while on a forced leave he believed was temporary (page 34). General Dynamics admitted that the layoff this year was mishandled.

Even where violence clearly comes from outside the workplace, employers can make a difference. When you hear of yet another convenience-store robbery, for example, you may not think of it as workplace homicide. But robbery has become an occupational hazard, say safety advocates, akin to handling molten metal in a steel plant. An employer, they say, must provide bulletproof glass for a store clerk, just as he would a pair of safety goggles. A NIOSH taskforce is studying the design and operation of convenience stores to develop a set of such safety measures. Some states have already acted; a new Florida law requires that such stores install cameras and alarms and put at least two clerks on duty at night.

Domestic violence that migrates to the workplace can also be an employer's business. Mathiason cites a client who intervened and saved a life. When the company discovered that its receptionist's husband was threatening her, says Mathiason, he advised that it contact police, get a restraining order and move the woman from the lobby to the second floor. Days later the husband drove a truck into the building, crushing the desk his wife had occupied.

Still, there are obstacles-many of them legal-to companies' efforts to protect employees. Firing an employee who seems dangerous because of an alcohol or emotional problem could violate laws protecting disabled workers. Warning a prospective employer about an unstable applicant could provoke charges of slander. Investigation of an employee's problems can raise issues of violations of privacy.

But companies will have to find answers, if for no reason other than financial. Courts in Florida and Texas ruled that employers found negligent have to pay awards to families of murdered victims. Insurance premiums are going up, and fearful employees and managers alike are preoccupied. In 1977, when Johnny Paycheck sang "Take This Job and Shove It," millions could sing along-and laugh. These days, there's little to laugh about.

With PATRICIA KING and CAROLYN FRIDAY

© 1993