badworkplace

Archive for September, 2009|Monthly archive page

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Annie Le’s Workplace Murder – Why?

In WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Workplace Violence on 09/21/2009 at 12:12 am

Annie Le’s murder is an act of workplace violence because it happened in the workplace; it may also have resulted from a workplace disagreement.  But why did Clark allegedly commit this hideous crime?

Often it’s difficult to differentiate between causes that stem from work factors and those that come from personal and environmental factors. Personal life and work life are symbiotically related. So operating in an environment characterized by change, innovation, uncertainty, and stress, a worker’s behavior may stem from that general environment as well as the company’s internal environment.

To a large extent, we have been transformed into a violent society by shortcomings in our general environment. Consider some of the sociocultural environment influences that make violence more acceptable and workers more vulnerable.

Violence is “forgiven” or left unchecked by an inefficient judicial system supported by large legal fees, rationalized, glamorized in our entertainment industry, practiced through computer and video games, provoked by the failure of the world’s greatest economic system to provide enough good jobs, and worsened by stresses brought on by our economy. We all become desensitized to some degree, but emotionally fragile persons can become totally desensitized, legitimizing their actions on the basis of others’ violent acts.

Other sociological reasons include the detachment from family, church, and community so that those institutions are no longer there to pull them through in times of trouble.  And, of course, we can’t overlook the increased presence of, and access to, both alcohol and legal and illegal drugs.

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Health and Safety at Work: Should You Be Concerned?

In WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Safety on 09/20/2009 at 11:51 pm

Is your job a safe place to work? Do you know? Should we be analyzing our jobs to see whether they are safe?

There was a time when citizens could feel safe at work unless they were employed in a high-risk job like law enforcement, fire service, the military, or maybe construction.

There was a time when mothers and fathers taught their children that they would be safe if they went to work or school and “stayed out of trouble.”

Today, you may have a responsible, high-paying, accident-free job in a high-class company located in a high-rent district and still be unsafe.

The only machine you operate may be a computer; yet you could still face debilitating illness from your job.  You may make a business trip to another company location and encounter a terrorist’s bomb.

Unfortunately, all jobs are not safe, so everyone should be concerned about safe jobs. About 8% of all private sector employees will suffer lost time during any given year due to injuries or illness. Over a million American workers each year suffer disabling injuries.

Shouting “everyone is going to die,” a fired Fort Lauderdale maintenance employee walked into a meeting of his former co-workers, chased them around the office, and methodically shot them — killing five and injuring another.

A female teacher was left dead and a second critically wounded after an expelled student at a South Carolina high school returned to the school building and starting shooting.  He then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

After re-organization, downsizing, or restructuring, employees are expected to assume more duties and work longer hours with no change in their pay.  Mandatory overtime is required by many employers, placing a burden on employees but particularly those with families with small children.  Higher levels of stress often lead to workplace violence.

Such incidents have become all too common in organizational life.  As a result, many people have become interested in learning more about job safety and, in particular, which jobs seem to present the lowest risk to people holding those jobs.

Think about it.  How may YOU be able to make your company or your child’s school a safer place to work?

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Did Raymond Clark Resent Annie Le?

In WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Workplace Violence on 09/20/2009 at 11:46 pm

Throughout our history workers have vocalized or otherwise expressed their anger at being stuck in boring, unchallenging, or underpaid jobs.  Now these stressed workers have a larger problem:  keeping any job. As women began to gain ground in society and in the workplace, more men attacked women because that secondary anchor for women was a challenge to male authority and potency.

Diversification and stratification of the workforce are two environmental changes that affect employee relationships both inside and outside the organization.  Some males simply are not accustomed to relating to women as coworkers, supervisors, or subordinates in the workplace. Some are quick to resent women who show great confidence and don’t appear as submissive as the male prefers.

Some workers are emotionally affected when they find themselves working in close proximity to any workers from other cultures, races, sex, sexual preference, or age. They may be uncomfortable with their relationship with coworkers, their coworkers’ personalities, work patterns, communication styles, etc.  In such cases the worker may elect to act out his displeasure either by attacking the employee directly or indirectly.  Such workers are more likely to feel threatened when they already harbor negative attitudes toward coworkers who differ from them.

In addition, employees who are “stuck” in low-level jobs may resent workers whom they see as moving up in the company or moving on to better jobs. Le seemed to be a young woman on her way up; Clark seemed to be in what appears to be a dead-end job with no status.  Many of us have difficulty believing that we could be the cause of jealousy, especially to such a degree that the jealous person would harm us.

People experience stress when they face anxiety or frustration from aspects of their work that they cannot control. They may not be able to fully utilize their skills and knowledge or receive the respect or recognition they expect for their accomplishments.  Employees may become frustrated from overly repetitive work or from unclear or conflicting job responsibilities that lead to confusion and frustration.  Some work processes separate people and create feelings of isolation, which may in turn cause stress for some workers.

The point of all of this information is to help us identify coworkers whose stress and anger are building toward a violent eruption, like a volcano.

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HARASSMENT TO GET REVENGE

In WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Harassment on 09/20/2009 at 11:42 pm

Some individuals never seem to discard  their childhood playground antics, regardless of how high they rise in the workplace.

CASE: An employee is  experiencing retaliatory harassment after speaking (confidentially, she thought) with her supervisor and that person’s supervisor about the difficulty in concentrating with all the extraneous noise in a room of cubicles — workers talking and laughing, radios playing, loud telephone conversations, etc., in addition to the normal office noise such as file cabinets being opened and closed, normal conversations and telephone voices, etc.   A memo was sent to everyone, pointing out that the area sometimes gets very noisy and that all should work together to create a better working environment.  The person who “complained” is now the big-E, as in Enemy.  She experiences dirty looks, talking behind her back, bumping her, ‘accidentally’ messing up her papers, and other things. Also, some workers now seem to be intentionally noisier—slamming books on tables, banging file cabinet drawers shut, bumped carts into walls, etc.

You can surely sympathize with this worker if you have ever complained or reported to a supervisor in confidence, only to find later that the entire office knows about your conversation and the subsequent action, which now makes you Enemy #1 and the subject of ostracism.  The supervisor is probably as surprised as the worker to find that the positive memo would cause a problem for the worker who requested help.  Such an ugly reaction is frequently caused by one individual who functions as a “leader” in agitating others – often by circulating incorrect information. This same “leader” may sabotage other persons and projects without suffering any personal blame.

Does the worker in this case dare go back to her supervisor and explain that the situation has worsened? Can we assume that her coworkers received accurate information about what she said in that “confidential” meeting? Should she try talking with some or all the coworkers to be sure that her complaint has been fairly represented by the boss?

Should she try to pretend that the intentional noise is not bothering her, so they don’t get the “sick joy” of thinking that they are “pushing her buttons”?  Should she just smile at the worst offenders and hope that most offenders will cease to annoy her if she stays quit and friendly?

What has worked for you or someone you know in a similar circumstance?  Let us  hear from you.