“Oh,
come on, Nicole,” Derek scoffed. “The poor guy probably has a cold, and
you’ve got him on antipsychotics. This is how rumors get started.”
“I
know everyone around here thinks I’m a drama queen,” she whispered,
“but honestly, doesn’t he give you the creeps? I mean, I used to think
he was just a harmless oddball, but haven’t you noticed he’s getting
worse—like, ever since last Tuesday?”
No
one had to be reminded of the significance of last Tuesday. That was
the day a disgruntled office worker in Seattle had walked into his
workplace, a .38-caliber pistol in each hand, and shot several coworkers
before turning one of the guns on himself. Nicole continued, “These
things always set off copycats. And they go interview the guy’s
neighbors, and it’s always the same: ‘He kept to himself,’ or ‘He was
kind of a misfit.’ Does that sound like anyone we know?”
As
if on cue, Max Dyer walked by, ducking his head and concealing as best
he could a paper plate bending under the weight of three bagels. It was
easy to imagine this tall, awkward man as the kid nobody wanted to play
with back in grade school. His beard needed trimming, his shirt was
untucked, there were coffee stains on his pants, even the lenses of his
glasses were speckled with dirt. When he was out of earshot, Nicole
arched her brow and continued, “The man will not even make eye contact.
I’m telling you, he’s a freak.”
“And
what’s with the stockpiling of food?” Paige chimed in. “He’s always
lurking around the kitchen, just waiting to scavenge any leftovers
someone drops off after a meeting. I mean, really, have some
self-respect.”
Derek
shrugged. “Okay, he is a little strange. I’ll give you that. But guys,
lighten up. So he’s got a big appetite, and he’s cheap—big deal. We’ve
all got quirks. The fact is, he’s a great programmer. Everybody’s on
edge because of all the layoff talk around here. Cut him some slack,
would you?”
As
Lynne Tabor walked toward the watercooler, she noticed three of her top
programmers engrossed in conversation. Normally, she’d have thought
nothing of it, but something about their expressions gave her pause.
Nicole had that “sky is falling” look on her face, and Paige appeared to
be annoyed. Derek seemed calm enough, but then, he was possibly the
most laid-back man on the planet. “Please don’t let Nicole be stirring
up layoff rumors again,” Lynne thought. “Morale’s been low enough since
the last round.” Smiling brightly, she approached the group. “Hi, guys.
What’s up?”
“Doesn’t
he give you the creeps? I mean, I used to think he was just a harmless
oddball, but haven’t you noticed he’s getting worse?”
They
exchanged pleasantries, talked about the school play Nicole’s daughter
was in, and vented their horror at the Seattle shooting, which was all
over the news. The conversation wound down with a status report on
Derek’s current project. In short, everything seemed fine, but Lynne had
a nagging feeling that she was missing something.
Odd Man Out
The
recession had hit manufacturing giant MMI hard, Lynne reflected as she
walked back to her office, and people were understandably jittery.
Originally called Mailing Machines International, the company’s name had
been shortened 30 years ago when it expanded into other electronic
office equipment. MMI had been good to Lynne: She’d started as an intern
and was hired as a full-time programmer when she graduated from
college. A few years ago, she was promoted into management. After 15
years at MMI, Lynne cared a great deal about the company, and
particularly about her staff. But if MMI missed its quarterly targets
again, there might very well be a second round of layoffs.
Lynne’s
unit had already lost two people, both of whom qualified for the early
retirement package. But that meant the others had to pick up extra work,
and long hours had become the norm. Luckily for her, Lynne had great
people on her team—they worked hard, they helped each other out, and
everyone seemed to get along. Everyone except Max, that is.
Max
Dyer had a strong work ethic; she couldn’t fault him there. He was
always in the office before she got in at 7:00, and he was still there
when she left most evenings. She was concerned about burnout with that
sort of schedule, but the one time she brought it up with him, he had
answered in his typical monosyllabic style. When she pressed him, he
said he was fine and then asked if that was all she needed and if he
could get back to work. Max was not one for idle chat.
In
fact, he was pretty terrible in the “interpersonal skills”
department—so bad that three years ago his position had to be reworked.
According to his original job description, he was supposed to work with
the engineers who designed MMI’s mailing machines—he created software
that mapped out the plans for assembling the parts. The plans were
accessed at workstations by the workers on the production floor who
built the equipment. The job itself was complex—no question—and Max had
to field questions and revision requests from both the engineers and the
production workers. But soon enough, both groups began asking Lynne to
assign someone other than Max to their projects. They couldn’t fault the
quality of his work, exactly, but neither could they warm up to him as a
collaborator. According to the engineers, in meetings at which he was
supposed to be eliciting their requirements, he sat silent and let them
do all the talking. It wasn’t clear he was even listening, they
complained, because his few comments were often non sequiturs. And when
he did make a valuable contribution, it took some doing to find the
thread between what he was saying and the topic at hand. The production
workers were just as unhappy: They thought he talked down to them. When
they pointed out problems with the plans—such as the schematic appearing
on a different screen than the assembly instructions—he turned
defensive, even belligerent.
Lynne
remembered well the awkward conversation she’d had with Max at the
time. His fidgeting and obvious unease in response to a series of
questions about people and projects satisfied her that these weren’t
specific personality clashes; Max was socially inept across the board.
So Lynne appeased the engineers and production workers by assigning
Paige to their projects and managed to retain Max’s programming
expertise by rewriting his job description to call for less interaction
with users. It seemed like the perfect solution at the time, especially
considering that the whole IT industry was engaged in a war for talent.
Paige was a winner, too, since her expanded role merited a raise.
Lynne
was proud of the way she had handled that problem, despite some initial
reservations she’d had about Max’s compensation. Ideally, she would
have reduced his salary to reflect the scaled-back nature of his job.
But that, she knew, would have been adding insult to injury, and Max
seemed more than a little humiliated about what others would perceive as
a demotion. In the end, he had deserved the pay, anyway. He drove
himself hard, increased his output, and got good performance reviews.
Lynne
did worry that he had become even more antisocial, perhaps because his
job no longer forced him to interact with people on a regular basis. Max
never went to lunch with the other people on his team, and it was rare
to hear him discuss weekend plans or current events with anyone. But she
had more pressing concerns than one wallflower programmer. The most
important thing was to keep the whole team focused and motivated.
Growing Unease
“You don’t like pickles, do you?” Paige asked as she reached across to Nicole’s lunch tray.
“Help yourself,” Nicole replied. “I’m not really hungry, anyway. I’m worried sick about the whole Max thing.”
“What’s
the ‘whole Max thing’?” asked Sam, another programmer in their group.
“Wait, don’t tell me: He’s wearing those sandals you hate so much, is
that it?”
“She’s convinced he’s going to snap and take us all out with him. Isn’t that right, Nic?”
“It’s
easy to laugh, Derek, and I hate to say it, but what if she’s on to
something?” asked George, one of the engineers. “Get this. I stopped by
Max’s cubicle the other day to drop off some printouts, and what do I
find him doing? Pinning up a certificate from some shooting range. I
guess he’s been getting in some practice.”
Paige’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God!”
Sam
hastened to calm her. “Hey, come on. I’ve been known to spend some time
at the range. If you’re a hunter…” But a note of uncertainty crept into
his voice.
Paige
jumped back in. “Did any of you hear him lose it on the phone last
week? I don’t know who he was talking to, but he totally flipped out. I
swear, I thought he was going to hurl something across the room. Then he
slammed down the receiver and just stormed out. It was scary.”
“Hey,
at least now we know that he does leave the building sometimes,” Derek
said, trying to lighten the mood. But it didn’t work. Sam was starting
to look as jumpy as the rest of them.
“Yeah,”
he said slowly. “Why is he always in the office? It’s like he lives
here now. Maybe that explains the stash of food at his desk.”
“You
know, I’ve stopped coming in most weekends,” Paige admitted sheepishly.
“I know we’ve got a ton of work to do before the next rollout,
George—and I’ll get it done, I will—but I just can’t stand the thought
of being here all alone with Max. It skeeves me out. He’s got that
‘bodies stashed in the basement’ sort of look to him, doesn’t he?”
Nicole
scanned the table. “I’m not so crazy after all, am I? I’m telling you,
Max is on the edge. And I don’t want to end up a statistic.”
An Unsettling Meeting
Lynne
took a deep breath before launching into the explanation of why she had
called Max into her office. “One of your coworkers has expressed some
concern about you, Max. Apparently there was an incident last Thursday
with a phone call?”
Max’s
head jerked back, almost as if he had taken a physical blow, and when
he met her eye she was surprised at the intensity of his stare. She
swallowed. “It sounds like you were extremely angry.”
Max’s
expression turned to a sarcastic sneer. “Oh? They’ve been telling you
things about my performance? Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
It
quickly became clear that Max believed the people around him were
conspiring to make him look bad, if not to undermine his work outright.
It made sense, he pointed out to Lynne. Layoffs were looming, and his
output was higher than theirs. “The rats,” he said, “are beginning to
panic.”
For
the next several minutes, Lynne tried to get to the root of his
suspicion and assure him that no one wanted the team’s performance to be
compromised. But as she talked, she saw him regarding her carefully. At
some point it occurred to her that he was trying to size her up. Was
she on his side—or theirs?
As
she closed the door behind him, she drew her first deep breath since
the conversation had started. “My God,” she thought, “that’s real
paranoia.”
“And yet,” she admitted to herself, “Max is absolutely right: They are out to get him.”
Time for Action?
Lynne
wasn’t sure what to make of it, she explained to Gene Kozlowski, the
vice president of human resources. Layoff anxiety she was ready for. And
feelings of burnout? Yeah, those were expected, too. But fear for one’s
personal safety? She hadn’t seen that one coming.
Gene
took a swig of coffee. “Okay, let’s have it. What’s going on with Max?
Last I heard, he was doing well ever since we took him off the process
plans.”
Lynne
started by recapping the conversation she had had with Nicole the day
before. A visibly upset Nicole had walked into her office and claimed
that she was scared that Max might become violent. She had also said
that Paige and Sam, as well as George in engineering, shared her
concerns, and they wanted to know what Lynne was prepared to do to
ensure their safety. Lynne had assured her that safety was, of course,
her primary concern and then had asked Nicole to explain why she felt
threatened. Nicole had listed a host of reasons, and Lynne had thanked
her for her honesty and had promised to think seriously about what the
next steps should be.
“Isn’t part of being a professional learning how to deal with all sorts of people, even those who make you uncomfortable?”
The
problem was, none of Nicole’s reasons held up very well under scrutiny.
Even Nicole had admitted that Max had never made so much as a veiled
threat to anyone in the office. Yes, he owned a gun, but so did lots of
other MMI employees. He was definitely a loner, but was that really an
indicator of future violent behavior? The fact that he had bought some
type of prescription drug was hardly worth considering—except that it
reminded Lynne that she needed to pick up her allergy pills on the way
home. And that “explosive” phone call, as Nicole put it? Well, one
outburst wasn’t grounds for dismissal, which seemed to be what Nicole
was looking for. Moreover, Lynne couldn’t ignore the fact that Nicole
had a well-known flair for the dramatic—she joked about it herself at
times. Was this another case of her blowing things out of proportion?
On
the other hand, the fact that Paige—and maybe others—had stopped
working late or on weekends to avoid being alone with Max was a definite
cause for concern. And Nicole was right when she pointed out that
people here used the same words to describe Max that employees at that
Seattle company had used to describe their gunman coworker. And Max had been looking more disheveled lately.
Lynne
explained to Gene that after her meeting with Nicole, she had talked
with Max about his coworkers’ concerns. But instead of feeling reassured
by their conversation, she had ended up feeling more anxious.
Her
thoughts took another turn. “Isn’t part of being a professional
learning how to deal with all sorts of people, even those who make you
uncomfortable?” she asked Gene. “It’s not as if I’m asking Nicole and
the others to like
Max. I’ve got to think of the big picture here. What would happen if we
did decide to get rid of him and he hired an attorney? Do we want to go
down that road? But if we don’t take action and something tragic
happens—I just couldn’t live with myself. I don’t want to be the next
workplace violence story on the news.”
Lynne
trailed off and shrugged. “So that’s where things stand. I’m at a loss,
Gene. I just don’t see an easy fix—or even a hard fix,” she smiled
wanly. “I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re at risk, but I don’t
see how we can take action against a guy who hasn’t done anything
wrong.”
James Alan Fox is the Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston.
In
the wake of any episode of workplace vengeance, like the Seattle
shooting described in this case study, employees in companies near and
far commonly identify with the victims. More than just sympathizing,
they may fear that similar rampages could occur within their own
organizations.
The
media reports that everyone at MMI is hearing are probably sprinkled
with suggestions of an epidemic of workplace violence and most likely
include some alarming statistics. Homicide is the leading cause of
workplace fatalities for women, and second for men; more than 1,000
workers die each year in homicides on the job. The message is painfully
clear: You had better watch out, because the next mass murderer may be
working in your office! In this kind of hypersensitive climate, is it
any wonder that Max Dyer is so frightening to his colleagues?
Treating Max like a ticking time bomb can actually do much more harm than good.
The
scary statistics cited in newspapers and magazines are quite
misleading, however. The vast majority of workplace homicides and
assaults are the result of robberies at retail stores or of taxi
drivers. Of the millions of Americans in the labor force, a few dozen
die each year at the hands of disgruntled colleagues. There is a risk,
to be sure, but a miniscule one.
Of
course, there are reasonable steps we can take to make that risk even
smaller—whether or not a layoff is coming, whether or not there is
someone like Max around to stir up emotions and rumors. But it is
important not to make the situation worse out of fear and panic.
Many
supervisors try to minimize the risk of workplace violence by looking
for warning signs, comparing employees with profiles found in books,
pamphlets, and on the Internet. The typical workplace avenger is a
reclusive, middle-aged white male who feels that his job and financial
well-being are in jeopardy. Facing yet another disappointment or failure
at work, he senses that his career is slipping away. He also believes
that he is not to blame. Rather, it’s the supervisor who gives him poor
assignments or doesn’t appreciate his hard work; it’s his coworkers who
get all the credit when profits go up; it’s the human resources
personnel who are out to get him.
Max’s
colleagues have surely spent too much time studying this profile.
Undoubtedly, Max does exhibit certain disturbing characteristics. As a
loner, he lacks the support systems that most of us depend on to help us
cope with adversity. His long hours at the office suggest that he
devotes too much of himself to his job and not enough to hobbies and
other outside activities. Problems tend to arise when work is the only
meaningful part of someone’s life. Fortunately, Max has not indicated in
any overt way that he is dangerous. His certificate of marksmanship may
say more about what gives him a sense of pride than about any desire to
harm his coworkers. Despite our wish to find safety in profiling, such
prediction strategies are doomed to fail. Tens of thousands of
disgruntled Americans in workplaces large and small are frustrated,
never smile, and live alone. Yet very few will ever translate their
inner feelings of anger into outward expressions of violence.
Treating
Max like a ticking time bomb can actually do much more harm than good.
If he senses that he is being targeted in a negative way, it could
reinforce any feelings of persecution that he may already harbor.
Singling him out could precipitate the violent outburst that it is
designed to prevent.
The
best strategy is to reach out to him, affirm his worth as an employee,
try to involve him in group lunches and social events, and help him find
balance in his life. These are the right things to do with all
employees, not just the ones who scare us.
Ultimately,
the best approach for reducing the risk of workplace violence is not to
focus on the Max Dyers of the world—the oddballs, geeks, and
misfits—but to focus on humanizing the entire workplace. Civility,
respect, decency, and worker satisfaction must become a critical part of
the bottom line.
Steve Kaufer is the cofounder of the Workplace Violence Research Institute in Palm Springs, California, and the coauthor of The Complete Workplace Violence Prevention Manual, which was published by the institute in 1997 and is updated quarterly.
After
someone becomes violent in the workplace, people often come forward and
say, “He was a nice guy, but…,” and then they list all these disturbing
things about him that they had never reported to anyone. That’s why I
think Max’s coworkers have taken a positive step by airing their
concerns to management.
That
said, they may be reading too much into the situation. They’re trying
to apply a profile to Max, and profiles don’t work. They are thinking
that if he does certain things—if he fits the profile—they should be
concerned. But everybody has what you could call a baseline behavior.
Max’s baseline is being a little creepy and looking unkempt and wearing
some of his lunch. That’s not weird behavior for Max because he’s always
been that way. In most cases, the trouble starts only if the baseline
behavior changes. Max’s changes only a little in this case: He has one
angry outburst, and he’s started to spend more time at work—but perhaps
he doesn’t have a lot of outside interests or his workload is heavy. If
it changes more dramatically—if his hair’s going in 18 different
directions and he looks like he slept in his car—then I would be
concerned. For instance, I saw a situation in which a government
employee moved out of his apartment and made no attempt to find another
place to live. He used facilities at a campsite to clean himself up and
slept in his car. His behavior said that he was not making any attempt
to relocate, that perhaps he had other plans that would obviate the need
for a long-term living solution.
Getting
back to Max, Lynne Tabor has stumbled in the past by accommodating him
rather than dealing with his unwanted behavior. She sent the message
that it’s okay for Max to be grumpy and cranky; the rest of the staff
will work around him. She should counsel Max on his behavior. Chances
are she’ll find an underlying issue: a problem at home, an illness, the
fact that he doesn’t believe he’s been treated fairly at work. If she
can get to the heart of the matter, she’ll be more likely to help him
become a better colleague. But if she’s walking on eggshells around him,
afraid to take disciplinary action because she’s scared he’s going to
do something, that’s a huge problem.
Litigation
is the outcome of almost every serious incident of workplace violence.
In terms of liability, MMI is obligated to investigate now that it knows
that employees are concerned about Max. If it doesn’t, and Max does
become violent, the plaintiff will use that information against MMI. On
the other hand, the company might face a wrongful termination suit if it
fires Max without building a proper case. Too often, especially when
dealing with somebody who’s a little weird, companies haven’t built a
strong case because nobody ever wanted to deal with the person. So when
the last-straw incident occurs, there’s nothing in the employee’s
personnel file. At that point, management either has to start from
scratch or terminate the employee and hope the company doesn’t get sued.
But
in a case like this, particularly when the employee is fairly good—Max
is performing his job, he’s just strange—I think the company has to
adopt more of a benevolent perspective than a punitive one. Lynne and
Gene Kozlowski need to find out what’s driving Max’s behavior. They’re
never going to change his weirdness, but other issues have surfaced that
seem to be getting worse: paranoia, anger, changes in his already odd
appearance. Something is behind that, and they need to find out what.
They should consider what MMI can do so that his behavior does not
escalate. A lot of organizations have employee assistance programs
(EAPs), for example, and they’re great resources in situations like
this. So, unless there has been a direct threat or a serious violation
of company policy—like an assault or something else totally
inexcusable—the best approach is the benevolent one. They should try to
figure out what’s going on with this guy and how to help him become a
productive and collegial employee.
They’re trying to apply a profile to Max, and profiles don’t work.
Christine Pearson
is an associate professor of management at Thunderbird, the American
Graduate School of International Management, in Glendale, Arizona.
Christine Porath
is an assistant professor of management and organizational behavior at
the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in
Los Angeles.
As a manager, Lynne has fallen short: She’s harboring an uncivil employee, colluding with office gossip, and running scared.
Max’s
behavior is costing MMI big bucks, in ways the company probably doesn’t
realize. According to our research on incivility in the workplace,
about one-quarter of those who have to interact with Max will cut back
their hours—as Paige has done—and another quarter will intentionally
reduce their effort. Additionally, roughly one-third of Max’s coworkers
will spread rumors and withhold information, another third will avoid
him, and many will engage in organizational deviance, behavior that
violates the norms of the workplace and is harmful to the organization,
its members, or both. Some people will sabotage their bosses out of
anger for not correcting the situation, and one in eight will actually
change jobs—but they’ll never tell you why.
Given
those numbers, Lynne can’t ignore the situation. But before she can
deal with Max, she needs to take a look in the mirror. As a manager,
Lynne has fallen short: She’s harboring an uncivil employee, colluding
with office gossip, and running scared. But encountering a workplace
avenger is less likely than being struck dead by lightning. So while
Lynne needs to address the fear that’s brewing at MMI, her most pressing
problem is that employee relations have run amok because she didn’t
deal with Max years ago. By giving him a new job description and great
performance evaluations, she has reinforced his antisocial tendencies
and fostered costly norms of incivility. Now she’s afraid to act because
Max might hire an attorney and because he just might live up to the
rumors.
At
this point, Lynne should involve others at MMI in creating a written
statement about employee interactions. It can be as simple as “At MMI,
employees treat one another with respect,” and it can be folded into an
existing mission or values statement. (The breadth of incivility in
Lynne’s department suggests that no such statement exists; if it does,
Lynne is in trouble for not holding her subordinates accountable.) Even
if MMI is not willing to set a companywide norm, Lynne should do so in
her division. Such a statement becomes a benchmark against which all
uncivil behavior can be monitored and corrected before it damages
organizational culture, employees, and customers.
Lynne
should discuss three issues with Gene: creating the company policy,
obtaining relevant details in Max’s employment record that she may not
be aware of, and enrolling Max in training programs to correct his
interpersonal deficiencies. Lynne should then talk with the head of
MMI’s security to make employees’ safety concerns known. She should also
request a confidential criminal background check on Max as a
precaution.
To
put a stop to the incivility in her own area, she must meet with her
direct reports to stress the importance of the new policy and the
consequences for those who violate it, regardless of their special
competencies. She should institute 360-degree feedback to track how
employees treat one another. Lynne should also tell Nicole, in private,
that her behavior violates the new policy and that she will be held
accountable.
Lynne
must also meet again with Max. Since their last conversation failed to
uncover the reason for his unprofessional phone encounter—the only
misbehavior that she could have disciplined legitimately—she should
revisit that topic. Then she must explain that he needs coaching and
training from HR, and together they can establish a timetable. This
discussion should be framed as an effort to help Max so that his
technical abilities will not be held back by his interpersonal
incompetence. Lynne must explain that the standards for coworker respect
that apply to all employees also apply to him. She should document this
meeting and add it to Max’s personnel file as a contract and as
evidence of a corporate attempt to correct the problem, should Max ever
hire an attorney. If, after these steps, Max’s uncivil behavior
continues or escalates, he should be fired.
Ronald Schouten,
a psychiatrist and attorney, is the director of the Law and Psychiatry
Service at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and president of
KeyPeople Resources, a consulting firm in Boston specializing in
corporate health, disaster management, and behavioral health services.
Workplace
homicides are rare, but when they occur, their devastating effects
extend beyond the loss of individual life. Family members and coworkers
are also victims, and the organization itself can experience serious
business repercussions from lost productivity and a damaged public
image. As if that weren’t enough, the situation is a legal minefield.
It
is not surprising that Max’s behavior makes his coworkers nervous,
especially given the layoffs and the workplace shooting in Seattle. Such
events raise anxiety and often lead to a lot of talk about profiles.
But if workplaces were to exclude all employees with commonly cited risk
factors (white men, 30 to 50 years old, like to work alone, have
trouble getting along with others, can’t accept criticism), they’d be
practically empty.
Is
Max a threat? His deteriorating behavior, difficulty accepting
criticism, angry outbursts, and accusations that others are out to harm
him are all risk factors, as is his involvement with guns—but only
because it proves he has access to weapons. The fact that Max has not
threatened anyone is worth noting, but as research from the Secret
Service has shown, it’s important to focus not on whether someone makes a threat but on whether he or she poses a threat.
That
puts Lynne in a difficult, but not uncommon, situation. What if Max has
a documented mental health condition? She might be tempted to delay
taking action for fear of a suit under the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) or a state equivalent. The ADA makes it unlawful for employers
to discriminate against individuals on the basis of a current or past
physical or mental disability. It also prohibits discrimination against
those perceived to have a disability, even if they do not. But
appropriate workplace interventions and discipline can be applied to
disabled individuals—they are subject to the same workplace rules as
nondisabled employees. Max is unlikely to have an ADA claim if Lynne
handles him the way she would any other employee who disrupted the
workplace. Additionally, she might fear a wrongful termination or
defamation lawsuit if Max is let go or is escorted out of the workplace
and portrayed as dangerous.
But
if Lynne does nothing, and Max acts out Nicole’s worst fears, MMI could
face negligent hire or negligent retention lawsuits. There may also be
federal and state Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
citations for failure to maintain a safe workplace. In fact, the stress
of the situation may lead employees to seek workers’ compensation.
Even
so, many managers are reluctant to intervene, either because they don’t
want to intrude into an employee’s personal life or because they fear
that their action will push the person over the edge. But most
struggling employees respond positively to good-faith inquiries about
their well-being. And the concern that your action will topple someone
over the edge is actually the strongest argument for doing something.
My
advice to Lynne is to ask Max again if he’s all right, comment on his
apparent stress level, and engage him as a fellow human being. The next
steps depend on his response. Under the best circumstances, he will
acknowledge that he does not get along with people. Under the worst
circumstances, he will become hostile and threatening. Most interactions
like this lie somewhere between these extremes.
If Lynne does nothing, and Max acts out Nicole’s worst fears, MMI could face negligent hire or negligent retention lawsuits.
Policy
and procedures for cases like Max’s are important: Workplaces should
have teams—with representatives from management, HR, legal, mental
health, security, and public relations—to handle such crises. More
important still is the ability to strike a balance between fear and
denial while addressing everyone’s interests in an objective, concerned
manner.
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