We all know about the perils of taking your work home with you, but what about the perils of doing the opposite?
You never know what’s going on in a coworker or employee’s life, but when it starts to create a hostile work environment, it’s time to intervene, and when dealing with a possibly violent individual, you need a safety plan, and you need back up.
Violence in the workplace is not limited to physical attacks, nor does it occur out of the blue. There are warning signs that show when an employee’s actions are causing a workplace to be hostile, and safe ways to intervene before the situation escalates.
Workplace violence occurs when someone’s actions make the workplace a physically, emotionally, or mentally hostile environment. A triggering event that can send someone over the edge into causing serious harm can happen in their personal life, on the job, or after having been let go for their behavior.
An employee who may become violent displays warning signs. For example, behavioral changes, decreased productivity and depression, paranoia, and other irrational beliefs are reason to be concerned about an employee. One or two of these warning signs doesn’t mean a violent outburst is likely, but several interwoven is a red flag that needs to be addressed. Even if the situation doesn’t escalate into physical violence, this kind of attitude creates an emotionally and mentally taxing environment for coworkers, which is bad for your employees and bad for business. If this behavior escalates into making threats, displays of violence such as throwing things off of desks, punching walls, or slamming doors, or other intimidation tactics, it’s time to let the employee go.
Approaching firing a violent employee with a safety plan is essential to keeping you and your employees safe. First, make sure you have at least one other person in the room when you let the employee go both for your safety and so that whatever is said in the room can be verified. Second, set a time limit on how long the encounter will take and let someone who is outside of the room know. At that set time, the person outside of the room should call, text, or let you know that someone is here to see or you on the phone line to talk to you, and this person should stay OUTSIDE of the room. That way, if you don’t answer, they can call law enforcement. For no reason should this person enter the room.
Before letting the violent employee go, the decision to fire them should be kept on a need-to-know basis. Immediately after, however, everyone in the workplace needs to be alerted that this individual has been fired and is no longer allowed on the premises. That way, if they are seen in the parking lot, in or around the building, or attempt to get buzzed in or enter, everyone knows to not let this person enter, alert a supervisor, or even call law enforcement. Remember, loosing the job can be what sets a violent employee over the edge. In the weeks following letting a violent employee go, everyone needs to be on alert and aware of workplace security procedures.
The best way to avoid workplace violence is to conduct a thorough background check on each employee before you hire them, and have periodic check-ins. Their lives outside of work may begin to affect how they act in the workplace. Strong security infrastructure, procedures, and employee training need to be in place so that when a violent situation occurs your workplace is ready to address it. For safety and security consultation, and employee investigation and background checks, contact me at Mignolet@Bellsouth.net.