I have been following stories and incidents of workplace violence, bullying and harassment for most of my 24 years in law enforcement and security. Most of these stories, if not all, when investigated further, reveal patterns or previous signs and indicators that a bully or perpetrator of workplace violence has previously engaged in similar activities and in retrospect should have been easily predicted. Details of the headline story, see link here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/11/18/bc-saanich-red-lion-stabbings.html are at this point sketchy at best and I am sure more details will come to light in the coming days, however the details available at the time of penning this blog entry, seems as if the boss who stabbed 5 of his employees was a stable stand-up guy with no previous history of violence. In fact, he was also known to the police. Usually when this term is used, it is negative; however the police stated to members of the press that on more than one occasion the accused actually assisted them with providing evidence against bar brawlers. This should serve as a warning to us all that we should always be vigilant and aware of our surroundings, particularly to mood swings and sudden `out of character’ behaviours. What is particularly disturbing about the story is that the perpetrator calmly walked through the hotel stabbing a total of five employees. My first thought is that clearly these employees were not provided with adequate training to deal with an incident of this magnitude. The details point to the fact that the accused had time to walk through the hotel stabbing employees at random. Although it isn’t always possible to predict when a work colleague will snap and cause harm to others, there is certainly training available on how to minimize risk of injury should you find yourself in circumstances similar to those highlighted in the headline story. I implore company management at all levels to set training employees a priority as it is at least something tangible that can be done before an unpredictable situation manifests through a disgruntled colleague causing harm to those around them. I have seen an increase in levels of training that is provided to employees but I feel we are not doing enough, fast enough. More can and should be done to arm employees with as much as possible to prevent harm not only to themselves but also colleagues, clients and members of the public.
