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Archive for the ‘WORK – Bad Workplaces’ Category

Did our Legal/Judicial System Fail the U. of Alabama/Huntsville?

In disgruntled worker, WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Workplace Violence on 02/21/2010 at 9:49 pm

In the Workplace Violence case of the Harvard-educated neurobiologist at the University of Alabama/Huntsville, were her previous violent eruptions hidden by a judicial system that often seems to protect offenders at the expense of innocent people?

Even worse, did the judicial system show favoritism in the way it handled her previous outbursts and other accusations against her?  If in earlier years the courts had insisted that the young woman get psychological help or receive anger management training, could the violent episode in 2010 have been prevented?

Due diligence by the University should have uncovered at least some of these  incidents, but it did not.  Why? What prevented the would-be employer from uncovering violent behavior that had occurred before and therefore would likely recur in some form? Because charges were never filed.  Why were charges not filed?  In our system where the majority of offenders are male and not highly educated, would the System have acted differently if this offender had not been a well-educated female?

In a case like this where three people were shot dead and others injured, one would have expected to see some warning signs that a violent eruption could be in the works.  If all the previous incidents had occurred at this university or even in the city of Huntsville, we’d like to think that sufficient information would have been uncovered to cast doubt on this woman’s ability to function safely.  Perhaps  she would not have been hired or greater attention would have been paid to her behavior and to feedback from students, faculty, and administrators.

So what went terribly wrong?  Did the legal/judicial system fail us by not thoroughly investigating significant incidents?  Why? Dismissing or hiding incidents to protect offenders can result in the price ultimately being paid by innocent people instead. Failure to investigate violent eruptions and wiping the records clean to protect someone who needs psychological help are expensive and ineffective ways of solving our Workplace Violence and mental health problems.

Should We Have Predicted the Alabama and Texas Acts of Violence?

In disgruntled worker, WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Safety, WORK - Workplace Violence on 02/20/2010 at 10:30 pm

Did both the untenured Alabama prof and the unemployed Texas pilot show signs of troubled individuals that were apt to commit violent behavior?

Both of these recent cases are consistent with our premise that violence does not just happen, but rather anger and violent tendencies build toward an outright explosion like the eruption of a volcano (Van Fleet and Van Fleet, The Violence Volcano).  What makes them different is that, unlike most cases of Workplace Violence, the signs may not have been visible to the ultimate victims. Thus, there did not seem to be the usual opportunity to intervene before the volcano erupted — or in the case of the professor, before the volcano erupted again.

We know now that the Harvard-trained professor had reached the explosive point on previous occasions — e.g., when she shot her brother at home (not an incident of workplace violence) and when she exploded at another mother in a restaurant.  It is important to note that she was not held responsible for her actions in the first case and only received probation in the second, hence leaving no record that would be uncovered during due process by a future employer. Thus, there was little, if any, opportunity for the Alabama faculty to know about the past.  The observations that were made by students and faculty – “weird” and perhaps not a really effective teacher – are not signs of impending explosiveness.

Apparently the unemployed Austin software engineer/musician/pilot had had disagreements with the IRS over the years, but this would not have been known by the IRS personnel working in the glass-front building in Austin.  His wife and daughter are said to have noted a major change recently in his behavior and temperament but would not have had reason to expect that he would attack someone’s workplace (he did not have a workplace). As with the professor, previous signs occurred geographically removed from the current worksites and therefore not visible to the ultimate victims.

From the information we have at this writing, it seems that no one was in a position to see these explosive acts coming.  However, in hindsight, were there signs that were overlooked? It is very important that both the Alabama department  and the IRS as well as the families take off the blinders now and look carefully for signs that were perhaps missed.

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Did “Sick” Work Environment Cause Missouri Job Shooting?

In bad management, disgruntled worker, WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Workplace Violence on 01/11/2010 at 9:33 pm

There’s still no definitive answer as to why Timothy G. Hendron arrived at ABB Inc. in St. Louis on Thursday, Jan 7, armed with hundreds of bullets and an assault rifle, two handguns and a shotgun. He popped off more than 100 rounds at about 6:30 a.m. CT at the Swiss-owned St. Louis transformer manufacturing company, killing at least three coworkers and injuring five others before shooting himself.

Clearly, there are numerous things that can push an employee toward an act of violence. Although individuals cannot be absolved from blame for violence, in some cases it is the organization itself that is “sick” enough to trigger workplace violence. In a “normal environment” individuals may express their stress or vent their negative feelings in a more-or-less acceptable manner.  But in a “sick environment,” especially if the organization does not acknowledge and change its climate, the hostility continues to build. Eventually, the Violence Volcano can be expected to erupt in the form of more extreme violent behavior, such as death or other irreparable damage.

There is a possibility that this is what happened at ABB Inc. Reportedly, Hendron and a few other ABB employees had been dissatisfied with actions regarding the company’s retirement plan. They had filed a lawsuit in 2006 against administrators of the company’s retirement plan. We don’t yet know the feedback, if any, that may have been given to the plaintiffs or the expected outcome of that case. Hendron may have thought, for example, that it was a losing battle and thus decided to take the case into his own hands.

In The Violence Volcano (Van Fleet and Van Fleet, 2010) we discuss the symptoms of a “sick” internal environment and how to minimize the impact of these negative organizational influences and manage their occurrence and consequences.
http://people.cti.asu.edu/vanfleet/books/1index.html

 

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HARASSMENT: WORKER’s GODLY DUTY?

In WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Harassment, WORK - Workplace Violence on 01/08/2010 at 11:57 pm

Individuals who would probably scream the loudest if subjected to bullying, threatening remarks, or sexual harassment are often unaware that their own behavior, although nonsexual, is considered as harassment by their coworkers.

  • CASE: What can you say when a coworker in the office constantly annoys everyone with her religious talks? A get-together at her home turns out to be a recruiting meeting for her church, not an office party. She sends emails and pamphlets and corners workers in the break room and at lunch to push her views. Conversations start as a pretext to something that’s office-related but always end up with her turning the subject to her religion and how we need to experience what she experiences. By the way, her boss goes to the same church.

Someone, preferably HR rather than a coworker, needs to inform her that harassment is not necessarily sexual in nature and that it can be subtle (shunning, annoying, or avoiding an individual) or very overt (propositioning or making explicit requests). Harassment of any kind can affect workers deeply, although some individuals may be able to cope with them so that they are not so disruptive of the work environment.

We personally have dealt successfully with religious harassment by simply telling the other person calmly, eye-to-eye, that we are happy that she has found the religion of her choice and that it brings her much joy – but that we also have made our choices, that we have our own religious views, and are not open to changing. “We respect your choices; please respect ours.”

If that doesn’t work, tell the person that you would appreciate her not discussing personal, non-work matters at work, as religion is a very private matter and that probably no one here is interested in changing his or her choice.

Notice that we do not suggest telling the person whether we attend church or believe in her God. All such personal questions should go unanswered as they are inappropriate for office discussion.

Have you experienced this type of workplace problem?  Let us hear from you.

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Health and Work Safety: Food Safety and the Food Supply

In 1, disgruntled worker, food safety, terrorism, WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Harassment, WORK - Safety, WORK - Workplace Violence on 12/28/2009 at 11:35 pm

So we forgot that terrorists were still looming large until the little Nigerian hopped aboard the big jet plane to Detroit just a half hour before it lifted off. Let us use this Christmas Day event as a reminder that we are vulnerable in other venues as well. The food industry, for example. Whether it involves international political extremists or just your everyday disgruntled worker who “has had it” with his boss, a coworker, or the company.

If you work in the food industry – or if you buy food at someone’s workplace – workplace violence could suddenly and unexpectedly take on a whole new meaning for you.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 76 million food-borne illness cases occur “naturally” or “non-intentionally” in the United States every year.

This amounts to one in four Americans becoming ill after eating foods contaminated with pathogens such as E. Coli O157: H7, Salmonella, Hepatitis A, Campylobacter, Shigella, Norovirus and Listeria.

Every year about 325,000 people are hospitalized with a diagnosis of food poisoning, and 5,000 die.

How easy would it be, then, for a disgruntled worker or customer to intentionally contaminate our food supply?

Is it any wonder that our Government and the food industry are concerned that terrorists might also target our food supply?

Are you concerned? Should you be?

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Health and Safety at Work: Stress on the Job

In 1, WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Safety, WORK - Workplace Violence on 11/16/2009 at 3:19 pm

Just as you should seek information about accidents and safety for any job for which you are interested, you should also seek information about stressors and the level of stress on those jobs.

Stress is not a simple phenomenon. It refers to individual responses to strong stimuli, which are called stressors. While some stress can be positive— it can motivate you to work to your top level of performance— other stress or too much stress clearly is negative. Positive stress is beneficial whereas negative stress can be harmful if it is not recognized and dealt with at an early stage.

Stress can be caused by “good” as well as “bad” things. Excessive pressure, unreasonable demands on your time, and bad news can all cause stress. But receiving a promotion with a raise can be stressful, too: like the stress of wondering if you can handle the new job, or the disappointment of receiving a smaller raise than you had expected and thus not being able to afford something you had planned on being able to afford.

Positive stress is experienced by meeting deadlines, becoming more innovative, being more productive, and accepting challenges. Negative stress occurs when the pressures of life, including work, increase to a level where the individual can no longer cope. In other words, pressure is healthy until it exceeds the person’s ability to cope and then it can cause illness. Negative stress is the form you want to avoid.

Negative stress can be seriously debilitating and the effects can be long-lasting. Management and organizations suffer because of absenteeism, reduced productivity, increased compensation premiums — medical insurance based on stress are higher than other claims.  Thus, finding answers to questions such as the following will tell you indirectly if too much stress is associated with a particular company or job:

  • What is the level of turnover on this job?
  • What are the major sources of stress on this job?
  • What are the normal working conditions for this job?
  • Does this job involve ever having to handle or be exposed to chemicals, biological agents, or the like?
  • Does this job involve having to come into contact with people who are known to be sick?
  • Does the company have a wellness program?
  • Does the company have an Employee Assistance Program?

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SEXUAL HARASSMENT: MANLY FUN?

In WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Harassment on 10/11/2009 at 9:54 pm

Whether it is the result of a personality or cultural clash, harassment is unacceptable; and a company that wishes to avoid litigation must make an effort to stop the problem. This woman needs to go back to HR and request that they hold a training session that deals with the problem of defining harassment:

Case: Male coworkers sometimes leave rather  explicit pictures (sometimes with phone numbers on them) on the desk of an attractive female who maintains that she does nothing to attract attention to herself.  Her supervisor and HR say they cannot do anything about it since they do not know who is leaving the pictures.  Some coworkers apparently consider it her fault; others say that she “just can’t take a joke.” What can she do?

Those who harass need to understand that what constitutes harassment is defined by the recipients; and both the harassers and the recipients need to understand that everyone’s work world is larger than anyone’s private world, thus requiring that all workers adjust to some degree, just as we do in our homes, our churches, schools, etc. However, when harassment is directed toward a particular individual, as in this case, the only one who needs to change is the harasser, who needs to cease his activity.

Regardless of whether the perpetrator thinks it’s fun or that the female “asks for it,” this behavior is totally unacceptable.  We suggest confronting the entire office (do we know that the guilty one is a male?) in a low-key manner, straightforward, non-whining manner. Explain in one or two sentences that, while it’s no doubt funny to someone, it really does upset you and that you are pleading with them to stop.  In other words, put them on notice that YOU are defining this behavior as harassment.

Depending on your personality, you could ask a few females and males to tell you any behaviors that you should perhaps change.  That feedback would be good information for future reference, allowing you to correct an innocent habit that less astute persons might misinterpret again. Don’t ask, though, if you are the type who gets defensive when told the truth.

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Was Annie Le’s killer a BULLY unchecked?

In WORK - Bad Workplaces, WORK - Workplace Violence on 10/11/2009 at 9:27 pm

Bullying at work is a grown-up version of schoolyard bullying, and far too often it is ignored until the bully’s behavior crosses the line into violent behavior.  Bullies are coworkers who use ridicule, make overt or covert threats, or exert authority that the organization has not given them. At the Yale U. Lab Raymond Clark allegedly tried to give orders to others regarding footwear (not a responsibility delegated to him) and cleaning cages (his job, which he had no authority to assign to others). 

Bullies are insecure individuals who have unresolved personal problems of one kind or another. They intimidate others as a means of getting their way or to compensate for their feeling of low self-esteem. They do not feel capable of winning others over to their side by stating their positions or by competing intellectually.  In other words, they pick on and threaten others to “act out” their own feelings of worthlessness.  For that reason, they often attack the most vulnerable—the coworker who is least likely to fight back—to demonstrate their power and their worth.

Bullies also attack the most competent—the ones against whom they fear they cannot compete successfully on the basis of workplace performance. Their objective may be to get the over-achiever to slow down or quit so that he or she is no longer a threat.  Or bullying may simply be the way that individual has learned to handle his or her jealousy of another’s competence or popularity.  In this case, the negative behavior probably is the bully’s way of showing that, while an individual may be successful or popular, he or she is less powerful and more vulnerable than the bully is.

Finally, there are individuals who are so mentally unfit that they simply enjoy humiliating, embarrassing, or degrading their coworkers. Even at the risk of alienating other coworkers, they savor the moments of control over the targeted person’s sense of well-being.

Whatever the reasons or motivations, bullying behavior does not just cease if ignored.  It can advance to more serious acts, including murder.

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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?