TORONTO — In light of the tragedy that struck the Virginia news station WDBJ-7, which saw two of its own lose their lives on a shooting by a suspected disgruntled former employee, experts say employers must be hyper-vigilant to prevent workplace violence.
“Leaders of organizations need to pay more attention to certain signals that are being sent,” said Robert Bies, a management professor at Georgetown University in Washington.
That becomes especially important when an employee leaves in anger.
“When people believe the system didn’t take care of them, they take care of themselves. And unfortunately, in [some cases], in a very violent fashion.”
Tracking employees
The first step for employers, according to Bies, should be to conduct more thorough background checks on prospective employees. He suggests security divisions of companies may also have to take on tracking social media accounts of certain employees after they leave, something he’s already seen happen at some offices.
“A lot of people are posting stuff on social media…Corporations, when they’re hiring somebody, will go there to see what someone’s said or did. I think now people are going to pay more attention to [the social media sites] of people who exit unhappily.”
Mount Royal University Calgary criminologist Janne Holmgren agrees that would be helpful. Both also believe today’s unstable economic climate can contribute to people feeling anxious about their future, which can lead to lead to volatile emotions.
READ MORE: The psychology of a disgruntled employee who kills
She explained that when a person’s monetary income is threatened, there can be a tendency to feel very hopeless and fearful. Those feelings can sometimes escalate into suicidal thoughts. Holmgren added that there is a correlation in criminology between people who are suicidal and people who are homicidal.
“I think when a person’s made a decision that they are going to do harm, everybody’s in danger.”
Breaking the mental illness stigma
Holmgren feels a major problem that still needs to be addressed in our society is the stigma that comes with seeking help for mental illness, which she said can often be linked to high stress in the workplace.
“As a society we need to be talking more about mental illness. We’re all at risk for suffering from some type of mental illness. It doesn’t have to be something that we carry long-term. It’s something we can overcome with counselling or some other form of help.”
Three things managers can do
Laurence Miller, a clinical and forensic psychologist in Florida, has the following advice for managers wanting to reduce the probability of workplace violence:
1. Have reasonably fair employment policies
It’s important to have a mechanism where employees can air a grievance, have that grievance listened to and be assured that something will be done about it.
Even if you disagree with them, they’ll be less likely to resort to violence if they feel you’ve truly heard them.
2. Have a fair system of discipline
Make sure the rules of the workplace are known clearly in advance, and that discipline is based on behaviour and not the person. Don’t resort to character assassination and make it very clear to the person what they need to do to keep their job.
3. Remember there’s a right and wrong way to fire someone
You can still be respectful to someone while telling them their time with the company is over. Show them concrete facts to demonstrate the reasons(s) behind the firing, so it’s clear that this is not a personality issue but based on their performance.
“The things that I hear from people who have been in employment situations is just the crude, crass and insulting way people are treated at work,” Miller said.
“It’s not surprising that if one of these people have a personality disorder and if they’re pushed beyond their limits, they’re going to come back and try to shoot up the place.”
READ MORE: What we know about Vester Flanagan aka Bryce Williams
Based on discipline memos involving suspected gunman Vester Flanagan aka Bryce Williams, it appears Miller’s suggested protocols were followed by the news managers at WDBJ-7.
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