Memo to bosses be afraid: Workplace violence, death threats surging<br />By John Strahinich<br />Friday, May 6, 2005<br /><br />Memo to Boston bosses and corporate chieftains everywhere: It isn't paranoia if your people really are out to get you. <br /> <br /> Nearly six out of 10 companies say disgruntled employees have threatened to assault or assassinate senior managers in the past year, and they have made these threats either in person or in an e-mail, a nationwide survey shows. <br /> <br /> Some 17 percent of the companies reported that enraged and embittered employees had deliberated downloaded computer viruses onto corporate computers, and 10 percent said workers had tampered with their products. <br /> <br /> Likewise, some 82 percent of top executives say the number of violent incidents at their workplaces has increased over the past two years, according to the poll of 602 companies nationwide. <br /> <br /> The reason for all this work rage: The softening economy, said Paul Viollis, president of Risk Control Strategies, a New York security consulting firm. <br /> <br /> Everything from downsizing to outsourcing and offshoring and pay cuts and wage garnishments,'' Viollis told the Herald. <br /> <br /> Things are only going to get worse for (human resources) managers and security managers,'' Viollis added. <br /> <br /> In fact, Viollis believes workplace violence is becoming an epidemic. He cited a recent report from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health showing the United States averages 17 workplace homicides a week. <br /> <br /> Murders accounted for 16 percent of all worker deaths in 2003. Homicides rank third among causes of work fatalities, after highway accidents and falls, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. <br /> <br /> For all that, few companies are doing anything about workplace violence, the survey shows. Only 15 percent of the companies said they had hiked spending to combat workplace violence. <br /> <br /> Barely 11 percent said they had trained HR managers to handle firings of potentially violent workers. <br /> <br /> And a meager 2 percent said they had trained workers to recognize and respond to warning signs of violence. <br /> <br /> The bottom line,'' Viollis said, is that we have a high probability of workplace violence, and yet we aren't taking responsibility to prevent it.''
.<br /> I did work in some machine shops with some serious nut jobs. one or two had the managment terrified and very much intimidated. quite a few guys had pistols in the top of their tool boxes just in case. man texas was wonderful.<br /> if some shooter had showed up on the shop floor would have been 10-15 shooting back. never saw it but was rumoured the late president of the company carried a model 1911 as well.