
Apr. 1--The risk of being killed on the job is not as high as it is on the
street or many other places. But the threat has gained notoriety because
people assume they are safe at work, said Wayne Anthony, director of the
business resource center at the Pastoral Institute in Columbus.

Unfortunately, sometimes they are not. And their chances of being killed at
jobs once considered safe are higher now than ever.

Violence in the workplace, which includes violence during the commission of a
crime, has now become the No. 1 cause of death on the job for women in
Georgia; it's the No. 2 cause for men. In Alabama, violence is the second
cause of death on the job for women, the third cause for men.

According to Muscogee County Coroner J. Donald Kilgore, about six to eight
violent deaths have occurred in local businesses in the past two years.

In October 1994, scrap metal yard owner and developer Harry Kamensky was shot
to death by longtime employee James Elliott ``Jack'' Thomas one Monday
morning, apparently following an ongoing dispute. Thomas then shot and killed
himself.

The Kamensky family is still so distraught over the incident, they did not
wish to discuss it.

In January 1994, 19-year-old Jennifer Berry was fatally shot outside
Peachtree Mall as she was leaving work by her ex-boyfriend, Jeffery Price,

who was upset over their breakup a few months earlier. Price also shot and
killed himself.

Violence filters into the workplaces in the employee who's a walking time
bomb waiting to explode, in the criminal who guns down a store clerk during a
robbery or the ex-husband who seeks revenge on his wife in the only place he
can track her down - at work.

But employers don't have to wait like sitting ducks for violence to erupt.

In general, employers fall short on prevention in three areas, said Columbus
police Maj. George Potter.

``They don't require background checks,'' he said. ``Thus, people with
criminal records could be hired. A lot of companies don't have a no-drug
policy. And a lot don't have a no-harassment policy.''

Abbott Turner, director of human resources with Char-broil in Columbus, said,
``Prevention starts at the (employee) selection process.'' He rattled off the
same prevention measures, adding training programs for supervisors.

``(Workplace violence) is definitely happening more and more,'' Turner said.
``A very small percentage is happening here. With a proactive attitude,

it can reduce the risk tremendously.''

Potter, who conducts seminars on workplace violence prevention, said the
prototype of the violent worker is a white male, 35-50 years old, a loner,

with a series of psychiatric problems and a cache of weapons.

``Somehow this person has kept a job,'' he said. But companies shouldn't rule
out any kind of employee or any stressful situation that could turn vio lent.

``About once a month, someone is going to be terminated or going through a
nasty divorce or breakup,'' Potter said. ``Sometimes good employees get
divorced or suffer from severe financial problems, and they may have a short
fuse in this day and age of global competitiveness.''

Bruce Blythe, certified psychologist and president of Atlanta-based Crisis
Management International Inc., said the biggest problem companies face is not
violence itself, but the threat of violence.

``Multiple threats for the very act causes significant stress if you're on
the hit list,'' he said. ``The key is to diffuse the threat of violence early
on, mitigating the issues before they blow up.''

Even homicidal killers have a sense of integrity, Blythe pointed out. They
don't want to promise to commit an act of violence and not follow through.

``Managers can intervene, saying things like, 'We all say things we don't
mean when we're upset. Sleep on it and you'll feel better,''' Blythe
suggested. ``You're giving them an out. They need that out. They are
responding appropriately.''

Ann Henderson, human resources manager at AFLAC, said Blythe's message makes
sense.

``What he's saying is that the sky is not falling,'' Henderson said.
``There's no reason to go off the deep end. We definitely need to be aware of
potential problems. It's an awareness kind of thing.''

AFLAC has taken safety precautions such as tightening security and making
employees wear badges and escorting visitors from the front.

``You have to do all this to a point, but you ask yourself, too, if you want
a Fort Knox situation,'' Henderson pointed out.

Firms with employees who have worked together a long time and have a network
of people who know and care about each other are not as hesitant to intercede
if a potentially violent incident arises, Anthony said. But in businesses
where there is a high degree of turnover, this is rarely the case.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, worker-
on-worker violence constitutes 4 percent of all homicides in the workplace,

although some experts in the field say these numbers are skewed due to low
reporting.

Domestic violence that spills over into the workplace accounts for
approximately 20 percent of all workplace violence, according to Thomas Brown
area OSHA director.

Char-broil managers said they called the police a couple of times because
they feared a domestic incident might erupt into violence.

``We don't take any situation lightly,'' Turner said. ``We try to be very
proactive,'' he said.

Laurie Gibbs, a consultant with criminal justice consulting and training
division of Sedgwick James of the Carolinas Inc., said employers should
empower their staffs with a sense of security.

``Give them tips about home safety because if they start thinking about home
safety, they will start thinking about office safety. Research proves that,''
Gibbs said. ``They're a lot more confident when they have not let someone
make them a victim.''

Other tips Gibbs tells employers: - Heighten employees' sense of crime. -
Provide employees with techniques to enable them to better manage conflict
and hostility in the workplace.

- Establish a security task force, conduct a security assessment, write a
zero-tolerance policy on such matters as harassment and threatening conduct,

theft, vandalism, etc.

- Develop and implement formal crime prevention/awareness training programs.

These are programs, Gibbs pointed out, that should be offered to all
employees, not just the upper echelon.

``Disgruntled employees are a significant threat to human resource employees
and executives,'' Anthony said. ``Every time they terminate someone,

it becomes an issue in the back of their mind.''

Employers should ask themselves, Anthony noted, why they think an employee is
violent. Do they have guns? Are they are loners? Have they made veiled
threats?

If a company is planning to terminate someone, choose a good time of week for
the firing.

``A lot of managers think the end of the week is a good time, but it leaves
the fired employee with a whole weekend where they can't do anything about
re-employment,'' Anthony said. ``They can feud or drink over the weekend,

and it only gets worse by Monday. Sometimes families come down on them and
this only adds fuel to the fire.''

Anthony advises employers to get their troubled employees into counseling as
early as possible.

``Train supervisors to look for the symptoms,'' Anthony added. ``Intervene
with an employee who is having difficulty and use progressive discipline.
Take corrective action.''

If companies don't take preventative steps, workplace violence will only get
worse, Potter warned.

``It's much easier to prevent than to clean up the mess afterward,'' he said.

While people have some faith in safety at work, the fact is the workplace
doesn't stop violence just like theaters don't stop violence, Potter said.

