Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 20
Violence in the
Workplace
IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER that any comprehensive security
program must be sufficiently broad to include all conceivable risks
to health and safety and not merely dwell on the dangers presented by
terrorism. As we have already pointed out several times, you are more
likely to become a victim of common crime than you are of being the
victim of a terror attack. This also holds true for a threat that is becom-
ing more and more common every day: the potential of violence in the
workplace from disturbed or disgruntled employees. Such employees are
dangerous because typically they have unrestricted access to the facility,
unless they have already been terminated. Often employees do not go
through security screening, which generally targets unfamiliar visitors to
the building. However, despite the fact that access control measures are
not designed to stop these types of individuals, violent workers are often
the easiest to identify and deal with.
In almost every instance of workplace violence, there have been warn-
ing signs that should have been picked up on and acted on but were not.
In literally dozens of instances, not only were obvious warning signs of
impending violence ignored or not recognized, but actual and direct threats
were ignored as well. It would seem obvious to anyone, regardless of their
level of security training, that an individual who has just been fired and
who states that he is going home to get a gun and then will come back
and kill everyone needs to be given the appropriate level of attention.
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