Professor Mario Ruggiero was shot five times early this morning at Northwestern University.
Police say the suspect also tried to run over the professor with his car.
Ruggiero suffered gunshots to the leg and wrist during the attack near Northwestern University housing,
and the shooting may be traced to a dispute with Professor Ruggiero over Minnesota research.
University of Minnesota police say Costa Lupe may have returned to Minnesota,
and they're worried about the safety of other University of Minnesota professors.
In this campus building, where the biggest excitement usually involves chemical reactions,
this respected professor got himself involved in something else that turned
explosive in a personal way. W. Ronald Gentry says he had a romantic relationship with his
secretary, Jenny May, after he separated from his wife in 1990. It was a brief relationship
that turned sour and then, he says, turned violently obsessive. Channel 5 obtained court
documents that detail Gentry's own fears of May. In one incident, he says, she damaged his office
furniture, threw supplies at him, punched and kicked him in a five-minute tirade. He quoted her
as saying over the phone, just watch your head because I'm going to blow it off. At first,
the woman reportedly demanded to see President Hasselbaum. When she couldn't see him right away,
she became agitated. She came in and was extremely upset and was screaming, apparently,
but nobody seems to have understood what the issue was or the particular incident that may have set
her off. She then pulled a gun out of her purse and reportedly fired a shot into the ceiling.
Freddie and Yvonne were together on and off for 10 years.
Family members say at times she truly loved him. I thought I knew him and I didn't think that he
could ever hurt my mother like that. I thought he loved my mother. Yesterday, that relationship
ended in an abrupt and brutal way. Police say Freddie murdered Yvonne. Then for six hours,
he held a gun to his own head. It ended with police trying to distract him with a flashbang
top of smoke. Officers say Freddie pulled and aimed his gun. Police fired and killed him.
I didn't think she had anything to be afraid of. Yvonne's family didn't notice any signs of abuse
over the 10 years. But she knew something that I didn't, that she knew was inside. Andre thought
his mom was safe. Now his only hope is that other women will learn from this, learn what can happen.
34-year-old Michael Scott Moller has an eight-year history with the DNR, but what he learned on the
job was enough to scare authorities. The Greenisle, Minnesota native, started in 1988 working as a
seasonal laborer, spending much of his time as a turkey trapper with the wildlife division.
But in the last three years, Moller worked in trails and waterways, sometimes using explosives.
At times he worked out of the metro headquarters. Yesterday at those headquarters, authorities say
Moller confronted a DNR employee in the parking lot at 6 30 a.m. using terroristic threats. At 9 a.m.
investigators say Moller returned to the parking lot at DNR headquarters, starting a fire in the
lot with more threats. Public safety authorities learned of the threats and Moller's background,
they closed DNR offices until they found Moller at this Stillwater address early this morning.
They arrested Moller and impounded his truck, believed to contain weapons.
He was just overwhelming and everybody is is talking about what kind of a memorial can we
create to him. He was truly an outstanding human being. Governor Carlson knew Timothy Boe well.
Boe once served on the elite team of officers in charge of protecting the governor and his family.
Everything he did, he did very, very well. He was a very hard-working, very diligent person,
but more than that, he cared a lot. Boe was helping Chisago County deputies here this weekend
trying to capture a shooting suspect when that suspect fired a shot that hit him in the chin.
Deputies then returned fire and killed the man. Unfortunately, most of us have become all too
familiar with news stories about violence, but what makes the stories we've just seen even more
striking is that they all deal with violent incidents involving public employees and public
workplaces right here in Minnesota. For some of you, the stories are personal since you may have
been acquainted with or even worked with some of these people. So what are the signs of potential
violence? How can you be safe at work and do you know how and when to report an incident?
I'm Kathy Wurzer from KTCATV and we're going to spend the next two hours talking with a number
of the state's top workplace and personal safety experts about situations like these and find out
also how we can help prevent workplace violence. The goal of this program is to help prevent
violence in the public workplace. Now, violence might originate from total strangers or from
customers, clients, students, or co-workers. Violent domestic relationships can also spill
over into the workplace. This program will look at the workplace violence from all of these sources.
We'll learn steps we can take to reduce the potential for violence and learn some of the
indicators of potentially violent behavior. We'll hear about our responsibilities for providing a
workplace free of threats or acts of violence and about the importance of reporting incidents or
threats. We'll also learn strategies for keeping anger, our own and that of others, from escalating
and you'll leave with a list of personal safety tips. Today's broadcast is being received by the
over 2,000 public employees at 90 sites provided by Minnesota counties and state colleges and
universities. It's the result of a partnership among 11 state agencies and the Minnesota counties
Insurance Trust. Now, you each should have an information packet much like this. We'll be
referring to specific items in your packet throughout today's program so you want to keep
it handy for you. If you have any specific issues you'd like addressed today or would like to
have questions for any of our speakers, phone us at 1-800-657-3677 or you can fax us. That number
is 1-800-657-3678. We'll try to answer those questions a little later on in the program.
Well, our first guest is Lieutenant Governor Joanne Benson. Lieutenant Governor Benson has
provided leadership in the state's efforts on violence prevention. In 1995, she established
the Violence Prevention Interagency Task Force, which helps state agencies develop workplace
violence prevention policies and other initiatives. Also with us this morning, Don Davis. He, of
course, is the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Also, the former
Brooklyn Park Chief of Police for 17 years and Chief of the South Lake Minnetonka Public Safety
Department. He served as a part-time faculty member in the law enforcement program at North
Hennepin Community College. Welcome to both of you. What I'm going to do, I think, is start with
Lieutenant Governor Joanne Benson first. And I want to know, why is the state so interested
in workplace violence prevention? Well, of course, violence affects all of us. And we all have a
responsibility to do something about it. For instance, when I was in Brussels, Belgium, on a
trade mission recently, we had heard there from people about the impact of violence in the state.
About the impact of violence in Minnesota, because they were getting information about
murderapolis. That is not the kind of reputation we want for the state of Minnesota. It affects us
economically. It certainly affects us because we have this fear and the lack of safety. We don't
want that in our communities, in our workplaces. And violence is also costly to the state. When
you think about the human cost, first of all, of suffering and grief that we go through, but also
the cost in terms of prisons that we build, the cost of the judicial system and law enforcement,
and then, of course, the lack of resources that we have because we're spending on that. The lack
of resources we have to spend on things we would like to spend on our children and on education
and other things. So that's a huge cost to all of us. Commissioner, when we talk about violence,
and in fact, the statistics are really pretty amazing. There are a thousand work-related
assaults reported per year in the state of Minnesota. I was really surprised to hear that.
When we talk about violence in the workplace, what are we talking about specifically? Kathy,
violence can run the gamut from something as basic as two employees in a verbal confrontation
with each other to the point of escalation where they may assault one another. It can work all the
way up to the level of homicides. Nationwide, nationwide, I think it's appalling that in the
workplace, more females die of homicide than any other cause. With males, it's the third leading
cause of death in the workplace. In Minnesota, we tend to regard ourselves as very safe. As the
Lieutenant Governor just alluded to, we take pride in the fact we have put into effect some
good policies, but of the 1,000 reported, what concerns me are those that may not be reported.
Also, when we hear about workplace violence, such as in news reports, I think there's a fear factor
that it's co-worker to co-worker often. Is that necessarily the case? The majority of the time,
it could be co-workers taking animosities out toward one another. However, as was alluded to
a moment ago, increasingly relationships outside the workplace are spilling over into the workplace.
It could be clients whom we're attempting to serve as public employees. It could be students who are
attempting to enter a college. Maybe they don't have the credentials to be there. There could
be dissatisfaction with a grade, dissatisfaction with an instructor. So it comes from the full
variety of all those people with whom we deal. We have to be alert to our workers, our friends,
our relatives. What does state policy say about workplace violence prevention?
Well, it says that we all have the right to feel safe and be safe in our own workplace.
And we started that task force with an interagency violence prevention task force,
and we've been working very, very diligently on this. We also have some other things that
are taking place, and I'll get to the answer about what that policy actually states because
we want to get it right word for word. We worked very hard on each and every word.
The media campaign that we're doing that goes along with it is you're the one who can make
the peace, and I'm very pleased that that's the slogan for this conference today. And
this is the information packet that we're sending out to people. You're the one who can make the
peace. And what that really says to us is that every day, each and every one of us have actions
that we take, whether it's cutting someone off or not in traffic or whatever that says, you know,
we can either work towards peace or we can add to the violence. And we want, of course, want to
do an ad campaign that reminds people that every day we can do something to add to the peace.
Workplace violence prevention policies and plans are very important to us, but the legislature
also took action. When I was in the legislature, in fact, we passed this. It's a zero tolerance
of violence. We just don't want any. But it is state policy that every person in the state has
a right to live free from violence. And furthering that policy, we mandate that each agency of state
government adopts the goal of zero tolerance of violence in the workplace. Each agency is also
encouraged to develop a plan that describes how the agency will do that, how they will seek to
eliminate any potential for violence in and around the agency workplace, and also how they will seek
to eliminate any potential for violence by affecting the attitudes and behavior of the
people that the agency serves or regulates. And the definition of violence, which we worked hard
at, violence is words and actions that hurt people. It is abusive or unjust exercise of power,
intimidation, harassment, and or the threatened or actual use of force, which results in or has
a high likelihood of causing hurt, fear, injury, suffering, or death. The definition of violence
prevention, we also talk about how can we do the opposite, how can we build the assets. So the
asset-based programs or services that promote health or social well-being and the development
of nurturing support systems, also improving the security and workplace environment in state
facilities. So those are the things that we're working on in Minnesota.
And all this is quite clear to employees. Is this all employee handbooks and the like?
We have asked each department and agency to actually develop theirs. We have models that they
can work from, and Darcelle Lewis has been working very diligently, and I know that she'll be talking
later about that, but then each department and agency has to put their own flavor to it because
each one has different issues. And then they send it back, we review it, and then yes, they have to
do something with it. Now, Commissioner, it's clear that there is a concrete state policy
surrounding workplace violence. Absolutely. What happens, though, when you start talking about
incidents, potential incidents, if I'm a state employee and if I'm sensing I'm in a dangerous
situation or something is happening that is going against policy, what do I do about that?
Our zero tolerance policy request directs, asks the employee, the manager, the supervisor,
whoever that employee is, that he or she should report this as soon as possible. It could be the
feeling of an uncomfortable setting in your workplace. It could be a threat which you have
received as an employee, but it's imperative that we know the date, the time, the location.
Maybe you witnessed an incident or maybe you've received the threat. Who made the threat? Who or
what kinds of property were threatened? Exactly what was said. What happened as a result of these
actions were weapons mentioned or were weapons seen. A weapon could be anything from a club, a
bat up to a firearm or vehicles involved. So anytime anybody feels uncomfortable, they have
witnessed something, they receive a call, report it. Please report it immediately.
Who investigates?
This goes back to each department. Each department has or should have in place its protocol, for
examining these complaints. And if a department is not sure, we at Public Safety, because of our
function, would be glad to assist in that endeavor. We did provide assistance in the case with the
Department of Natural Resources last year.
Again, going back to reporting, and you had made the comment earlier, Commissioner, about you are
worried about those incidents that are not reported. Is there possibly a fear that employees
don't wish to cry wolf or a fear of retaliation? How do you overcome something like that?
I think that's a natural feeling, Kathy, and maybe it's co-workers. Maybe I've been working side by
side with Joanne and I sense something's wrong and I may have a hesitancy to notify the supervisor.
I think something is bothering Joanne. I would really encourage employees to exercise good
professional discretion. Be concerned about your co-worker. Be concerned about his or her family.
Be concerned for your own safety. I would rather err on the side of caution than not to receive
that notice at all.
There's a lot that has been done thus far on this issue, but what do you two both see, what more
could be done on the state level?
Well, I think bringing attention to the issue is very important. I think it's something we don't
want to really face. So talking about it, doing it within agencies and doing it within small groups
of people within departments is helpful, but also the attention that we can bring to it at a
statewide level. I think that we have to balance the worry that we have and the fear with the
overwhelming bit of information. That is, we do usually feel safe in Minnesota. We want to keep
people having a positive feeling as well. And so we like to bring attention to the good and positive
things that people are doing, which is why I started another thing a few years ago. This is the
third year that Minnesota will be giving out Minnesota Peace Prize to people, an individual, a
young person, an adult, and maybe an organization that is doing something very positive in Minnesota
to promote peace. And that is why in this same ad campaign, we're promoting the positive and the
positive things people can do every day. And it is a positive thing for a person to take responsibility.
And as the Commissioner said, really say something to someone if you feel uncomfortable.
You have the last word, Commissioner.
How can we get the word out? I really applaud this particular effort. I think this is an excellent,
excellent vehicle by which we can disseminate the information, the policies to the employees. And I
just hope, like other good training, be it harassment, the hostile work environment, technologies
we utilize in our work environment, this message has to be repeated and repeated. Let's not end
just with today's find, show, and the information. Let's make sure it's an ongoing process for all
of our employees. Well said. Thank you much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Well, coming up
next, we're going to be talking about responsibility, the responsibilities both managers and employees
have to keep the workplace safe. First, remember that quiz that we told you about earlier? Well,
we sent Tim Price from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities out to survey a few of your
colleagues about the quiz we asked you to look at earlier. Here's what some of them had to say.
Good morning, Karen. Good morning. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.
The policies and practices of an organization can help to prevent workplace violence. Do you believe
that's true or false? I'd say that's a true statement. An organization can provide training
for their employees and helps them be more aware to situations and also increase their respect that
you have for your customers. I think that always creates more safety. Teresa, I have a statement
I'd like you to respond to if you would. Employees should report all incidents of threat or harassment
that they observe or experience no matter how unimportant the incident appears to be. Is that
a true or false statement? I feel it's a true statement. We should encourage our employees to
report all types of threatening, harassing, or violent type of incidents and if they are in doubt,
they should report it anyway. Well, we are back and joining us right now, John Shabitura. He is
with the Minnesota Department of Employee Relations. He happens to be the Deputy Commissioner for Labor
Relations representing the state and its relations with the unions including matters of workplace
safety. Also with us, Pete Benner. Pete is the Executive Director of the American Federation of
State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 6. That is the largest union representing state
employees. John, I'm going to start with you first. We talk about responsibilities, especially for
managers. What is that when we start talking about workplace violence and preventing workplace
violence? The state of Minnesota and the Department of Employee Relations in particular have a very
strong commitment to establishing, maintaining, and fostering a workplace environment that's free
of violence, free of threats of violence. This is the responsibility not only of employees,
but of managers and supervisors as well. And how does that manifest itself?
It manifests itself in the policies which the Department of Employee Relations and the
legislature have promulgated to ensure a violence-free workplace. It's manifested in
the behavior of supervisors and managers towards their employees, towards one another, and really
towards everyone in the public sector workplace. It's the responsibility really of every manager,
every supervisor at the state to clearly communicate to everyone, employees and one another,
what the expectations are in terms of maintaining a favorable workplace environment.
Managers and supervisors also need to be very cognizant of what hazards exist in the workplace
from potential violent people from outside, from clients or customers, and in some cases
even from employees. In particular, all supervisors can take action all the time by modeling
appropriate behavior in the workplace, being aware of their own potential for anger, their own
ability to behave appropriately in the workplace, and being really an example for all the people
with whom they work. And finally, maybe most importantly of all, we expect and hope that
every supervisor will be able to foster an atmosphere of cooperation, of caring for each
employee, for treating them as an individual, for really maintaining an environment where people
can work together harmoniously and effectively. We've heard about managers, Pete, from the employee
point of view. Responsibilities if I am a state employee when it comes to the issues of workplace
violence, keeping my workplace safe? A number of things. For the contracts for this coming year,
we have put in the normal safety article that incidents of workplace violence are to be
reported just like any other safety problem be reported. So this should be treated no differently
than an ergonomics problem, a bad tools, bad equipment problem. We think employees need to spend
some time with their supervisors taking an inventory of what the most likely types of workplace
violence are where they work. In some cases that might be a client, in some cases that might be a
customer, in some cases that might be a patient. In other cases, the most likely type of violence
you're going to run across is a co-worker, a family problem.
And I guess just to echo what John is saying, there really is an issue of all of us dealing
with our own anger, our own tendencies towards rage sometime, and that we should not be bringing
that into the workplace with us. All of us have to learn how to lower the temperature where we work.
How have the relationships been going when it comes to reporting, we talked earlier as you've
probably heard with Commissioner Davis, about maybe fears of what might happen in the workplace
that Commissioner Davis about. Maybe fears on the part of employees to report incidents, you know,
crying wolf, that sort of thing. How are you working with workers and management to try to
smooth that out? That's a very valid concern. We do encourage employees to report whenever there's
a situation where they have perceived violent behavior or where they feel threatened. In some
cases, they may not be comfortable going directly to their own supervisor. In some very rare cases,
the supervisor themselves might be the person who they find threatening. And in that case, we've
set up procedures where they're expected to go to other individuals, such as the manager of the
agency in which they work.
And Pete?
We're learning. We're starting on this. I think an employee who feels threatened should not eat it.
They should make the report. Supervisors, by and large, are adequately trained or sufficiently
trained that we can sort out the incident that does not need action from the ones that do need
some sort of intervention by management. And the union has the ability to file grievances if
somebody feels they've been inappropriately disciplined, inappropriately dealt with for
something they did. So if an employee feels threatened from whatever source they should
report it, our joint local labor management committees or safety committees, once we start
dealing with this as part of our regular agenda, I think we're going to get good at it. We'll know
which ones we can deal with quickly. We'll know which ones need more extensive intervention.
And of course, John, final word, it's a matter of trust, is it not, between supervisor and employee?
Very much so. And it, again, is the responsibility of every supervisor, every manager, to foster an
organizational climate where that trust is present and where employees can feel free to bring forward
those concerns that they have in the workplace. John Ciabattura and Pete Benner, thanks for joining us.
Thank you. Thank you. Well, up next, what makes for a safe, non-violent workplace? And what creates
an unhealthy place to work? A reminder to get your questions ready, we'll include them in a
panel discussion coming up shortly. First, though, a look at those quiz questions.
Tom, when an incident of violence occurs in the workforce, the supervisor is the person who needs
to know exactly what to do. Is that true or false? I believe that is false. All employees should know
what to do in case an incident of violence does occur. You never know what kind of situation is
going to occur and when, and you don't know who's going to be around. It might be yourself out there.
And that especially can occur in my line of work, where you're out there by yourself,
and you know, customers or something, the situation may come up where you may be the only one that may
be able to handle it. Okay, thank you. Good morning, Joanie. Good morning. Can you share with us a few
of the things that you think a person can do in interacting with customers that can
reduce the incidence of violence in the workplace? Sure, simply by taking the time to greet your
customers positively and by making them feel important, listening to their concerns, and
making them feel important, listening to their questions, even though it might have been the
hundredth time that day you've heard that same question, and by using good customer service
skills, all of those things should certainly help to create a safer work environment. Well up next,
Carol Sullivan is with us. Carol is a trainer and consultant to schools and government agencies
across the U.S. and Canada. She has 22 years in violence prevention. She's a specialist in the
treatment, consultation, and program development in violence prevention. Carol, welcome. Thank you.
We've heard a lot of different information thus far this morning about workplace violence and
state policy and the like, but I want to know first from you, when we talk about healthy and
unhealthy workplaces, why are, we'll start with healthy workplaces, why are they so important?
We're all in this together, Kathy. What happens in the workplace affects the family. What happens
in the family affects the community, and people who are working in an unhealthy environment suffer
on a daily basis, with the cumulative effects having a long term and disturbing impact on their
lives. For example, a person who experiences emotional abuse at work is more likely to be
abusive at home or while driving, and people who treat each other in a shaming and disrespectful
manner at work are also likely to treat clients and customers in the same way, which could also
trigger an incident of violence. Therefore, working in an unhealthy work environment can
lead to violence and even homicide. How do you then create a workplace that's free from violence,
that is safe and healthy? Well, in order to do so, we first must look at the role of the workplace
culture in the occurrence of violence, and it's important to remember that there are several
factors that create an unhealthy work environment. It's not simply the outcome of abusive or
authoritarian management. It's about systemic dysfunction with all members feeling disempowered.
So there's, there's, when you talk about systemic reasons, I want to go back to leadership though,
because you mentioned that that's just one of the keys. When it comes to dynamics between
a supervisor and workers, if that's unhealthy, talk about that, the pull and tug.
Well, in an unhealthy work environment, leadership is either authoritarian or there may be a lack of
leadership. Rules are rigid and inflexible, or there may be no rules and lack of structure.
Oftentimes, you'll find a work environment where there's been a lack of structure,
and in order to try to correct the problems, rules become rigid, and that obviously doesn't work.
So basically, that's the type of situation that people are in. Other characteristics of an
unhealthy workplace. Anything else to pass along? Well, when you look at what happens between
employees and management, you'll find a lot of belittling, a lot of shaming,
disrespect, that there's a lack of communication. Communication is often one way or there's no
communication at all. There's a general indifference in the way people are treated.
What about problem solving? When someone finally wants to work on the situation and
comes to problem solving, are there problems when you're in an unhealthy work situation?
People, first of all, because they don't know how to communicate, they don't know how to resolve
problems. So there's a lot of disruption in what's happening in that environment.
Let's talk and move on to, we have tape, as I understand it,
when we start talking about unhealthy work environments. You want to explain this for us?
Right, we'll be showing a tape from Theater at Work that shows the characteristics of an
unhealthy work environment. Okay, so we can kind of illustrate this for us. Okay, great. Why don't
we roll that tape? Angela, I hope you're in a good mood. I need these folded and sorted by four
o'clock. Matt, that's only 45 minutes from now. I'm trying to get this report done for Eleanor.
I understand, but I want you to make this your top priority. It's for Feldman. He was supposed
to get it yesterday. All right, just how exactly do you want these folded? Look, do I have to walk
you through everything around here? Take some initiative. I don't have time to explain every
little thing. This is a really busy time for me. Matt, I just need to- I've got things to do by
four o'clock. This is Angela. Oh, Ben, look, this is really a busy time. Is anything wrong?
Why is Adam yelling? Tell him to be quiet so I can hear you. Ben, we do not say shut up in our
family. Now, what did you call about? What can you have for a snack? How many times have I told you
not to call me at work unless there's a problem? You know how to make a sandwich, don't you?
There's cheese and peanut butter in the fridge. I haven't had time to go shopping. Look, you and
your brother are old enough to figure this out without bothering me at work and without having
to fight about it. Now, don't call me again unless there's blood. I love you too. See you tonight.
I'll give you a simple task and not only does it take you forever, you can't even do it right.
You put it together like this. You fold it and you fold it and you fold it and you fold it and you
turn it over and you fold it and you fold it and you fold it and you fold it and you crease it again
and then it's done. A child could figure this out.
This is Angela. Oh, hello, Mr. Feldman. Yes, Matt's right here. We're working on your order right now.
Oh, let me handle this. Mr. Feldman, Matt here. How are you doing? I know. Well,
didn't Angela call you? Well, I asked her to call you to explain what happened.
You see, there's a mix-up in the color shipments, but we've got it under control now.
Take it easy, Frank. We'll have it to you by 4 30. All right? Okay.
Angela, I thought I could depend on you. I expect you to do what I ask when it really counts.
Look, Matt, I don't appreciate you blaming me for all this. Anyway, what was that bullshit about you
asking me to call Feldman about the color shipments? Don't worry about that. The point is I needed this
done and you've messed it up. Well, maybe I could have figured it out if my kids hadn't called me
the minute you walked out of the room. Well, if you weren't on the phone with your kids all the
time, maybe you'd get some work done around here. I don't need to hear this right now, Matt. Hey,
I know you've stressed out since your divorce, but when you're here at work, I expect you to be
here. If you can't have your head in the game, maybe you should get out. I can't even use these
now. Do you realize what this is going to cost the company? Now do it the way I showed you and do it
fast. This is Angela. Adam, I told your brother that you two are not to call me.
You did what? You broke a window in the living room? Do you realize what that is going to cost
me? What the hell were you doing? His eye is cut. What do you mean? Where's he bleeding?
So it's his eyelid. Oh my God. All right, listen, honey. I want you to tell Ben to lie down and stay
still. Give him a washcloth to put over his eye, okay? And call Mrs. Martin's next door. I want her
to wait with you until I get there. I'll be there as soon as I can, all right? Bye.
Interesting tape. Learned a lot from that. I want to skip now to a healthy environment. What is a
healthy work environment like? Well, in a healthy environment, everyone feels respected and valued.
Everyone feels respected and valued. Therefore, the potential of violence decreases significantly.
And what about, again, we brought up leadership structure in an unhealthy environment. How about
in a healthy environment? Well, the rules are clear and people understand what the rules are.
People know what the rules are. They're made to protect employees and they're humane. They're
mutable and realistic. They're flexible when flexibility is appropriate. Right, okay. In terms
of problem solving, again, another thing that was brought up in fairness when we start talking about
issues in the workplace, how about problem solving in a healthy environment? Well, in a healthy
environment, people, because again, communication is open, they complement each other. They
complement each other. They work together. They reinforce each other's strengths and assets.
So kind of more of an open system? Right, definitely. The system is open. It's open to change,
growth, and creativity. And I'm assuming there isn't a fear factor? There's no fear of retaliation
or recrimination. Okay. As a manager, when you're in a healthy situation, and I've had the opportunity
to work in some situations like this, I've run into managers before who, and you've run into this
too, some managers will refuse to acknowledge any mistakes, that sort of thing, in a healthy
environment. Management admit their mistakes and employees know that it's okay to make mistakes.
All right. And people learn from mistakes. And what about the relationship with management
and employees, among management and employees? Well, management treat employees in a respectful
manner. And employees have a sense of their own worth. Management has a sense of their own worth.
Employees come away feeling valued. And what else are we missing here? Actually, you know what? I
want to go to a little bit of tape, because we had tape of an unhealthy environment. Let's see
what, actually, a positive healthy environment would look like. Let's roll that tape.
Angela, I hope you're in a good mood. These need to be folded and sorted by four o'clock.
Matt, that's only 45 minutes from now. I'm trying to get this report done for Eleanor. I know. I
talked to Eleanor. She wants us to make this top priority. Feldman was supposed to get these
yesterday. What happened? I blew it. There was a mix-up in the color shipments, and I got so busy
yesterday, I forgot to let Feldman know about it. Uh-oh, he must be steamed. Right. But if we get
these done by four, we'll still have his account. Can you help me out? Sure. Just how exactly do
they need to be folded? Like this. It's probably my kids. This is Angela. Oh, hey, Ben. Listen,
honey, I can't talk right now. I'm finishing up a project. I'll call you back as soon as I'm done.
Why is Adam yelling? Yeah, he sounds hungry. I left some cheese and cracker snacks for you in the
fridge. Maybe we'll all go shopping later tonight. Listen, you guys take it easy, okay?
I'll call you soon. Okay. Bye. Perfect. Thanks, Angela. I owe you one.
It's important to remember that all workplaces are going to experience difficult times.
In respectful workplaces, however, employees, because they're able to communicate, they know
that people will make mistakes and they learn from mistakes. In a respectful environment,
people compliment each other, they work together, mistakes are quickly attempted to and attempts
to resolve conflict. In order to create systemic change, what is happening in the unhealthy system
needs to first be identified and talked about openly without blaming, without people being
shamed or punished for doing this. Boy, that's tough. Right. And people have to move back,
pass the blaming in order to work together and create a healthier work environment. Employees
and management must begin supporting each other and creating an environment where people will feel
empowered and happy. Well said. Thank you so much. And you're going to be back later on. Right.
All right. Well, lots of questions on how we can identify potentially violent people and situations.
I'm sure you all have those. And coming up next, we're going to try to answer those in a couple of
minutes. First, two more quiz questions. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions
this morning. I have a statement I'd like to respond to. There is no way to tell whether a
coworker is disgruntled or prone to violence. Do you think that's true or false? I think that's
absolutely false. I think violent people exhibit certain patterns of behavior. And if we're made
aware of some of those behaviors, those signs, then we will be better prepared to act on those.
However, I do think that some of these patterns or some of these behaviors that people exhibit
are the same signs that many of us may exhibit. So we have to be real careful.
Jay, good afternoon. I have a statement that I'd like you to respond to if you would.
There is no way to tell if a person is disgruntled or prone to violence. Is that a true or false
statement? That's a false statement. Normally, once people are made aware of what to look for,
they can usually spot indicators of potentially violent acts. After a situation occurs, most
people can look back and identify certain behaviors which should have made them suspicious.
There are certain instances, however, where no clues were present. Thank you.
You are the one who thought the word that you didn't say. So the fight didn't start.
So the knife didn't cut. So the gun didn't shoot. So the man didn't die.
So the hate didn't grow. So the night was calm and the peace was kept. You're the one who can make
the peace. Well, we talked about what makes a healthy and an unhealthy work environment. I
think we should probably talk now about different indicators when it comes to violence. Who might
be most at risk for workplace violence? With us right now, George Demers. And George is with the
Minnesota Department of Human Services, St. Peter Regional Treatment Centers, Worksite Security
Trainer, as a matter of fact. He's been in public agencies for 24 years. Is that right? That's
correct. All right. He's an experienced group counselor. He's a trainer. He's also a critical
incident debriefer and a consultant to law enforcement. You have quite a resume, George.
Yeah. Well, let's talk about these indicators for potential violence here. Is there a certain
profile that a supervisor can look at and say, I'm seeing different indicators? Well, actually,
the research says there really is no profile per se on a person who might commit violence.
What they're saying is if we're going to take a look at it, we may want to take a look at the
marital history of a person, the personal history of the individual. These are important
ways of maybe judging how they might behave in a critical situation. What I, I should mention
here, what I have is in the handout on page 14, for those of you out there would like to refer to
it, I've kind of clumped out different behaviors together that we've seen over the years and many
of the people that we've worked with, many of the agencies who've reported back to us who have had
some difficulty with employees. And I'd like to refer to a couple of things that we've seen
and I'd like to refer to these particular items. Going to the first one, the history of the person,
as I mentioned, this is probably the most important thing that we might look at. Because people,
some individuals just threaten, they give verbal threats. On the other hand, there are people who
follow through with it. And this could be at work, it might even be downtown where they're fighting
with other people, fighting with their neighbors. So when we do an assessment of somebody, what we
really need to do is we have to take a look at their, their personal history of how they deal
with violence. So if they're having trouble with their girlfriend, their wives, children,
and they're using physical force, then there's always that possibility they may come back to
the workplace and use it also. So it's a, it's a wide range of things that we have to look at.
The second one that we're going to talk about is job misconduct. And this would be basically
where people are just having a lot of problems at work, basically coming to work late, maybe
stealing things, pushing people around, and maybe just their reports to those supervisors,
the way they treat their customers, clients, you know, where people are always being turned in
because of their behavior, being negative, whatever it might be. There's, I want to touch a little bit
upon these people. What we found is that people who deal with, seem to have the nasty attitudes,
they're very negative people. That's the one thing that we find. They're negative, so they're going
to be negative to the clients, they're going to be to the customers. Even if they work in a 7-Eleven,
they're going to be mean to the people when they walk in. And that's what you mean by negative?
Yep. Give an example. Oh, what do you want? Oh, you know, yeah, always kind of real pushy
and always trying to put people down. And one of the things that we found out with this is basically
they have very low self-esteem of themselves. So what might look as somebody who, you know,
is in control and positive, they're really not. So what they try to do is always put people down
and keep them on the defense. The next one is a history of grievances towards the company and
workers. They're constantly complaining about other people. A lot of it is even through rumors.
Some of the things we all make mistakes, they'll use those, of course, against us.
But if they can't find anything that's legitimate, they'll actually make up a rumor to try to make
the other employees look bad or, you know, that customer came in and was rude to me and that's
why I did it. So they try to blame other people. The next category I put in, and we see this quite
often today, is the unwanted romantic relationships. And this happens at work. Unfortunately,
we just saw there was one in Eden Prairie two days ago, I think it was Monday, where the young man
took the young woman and, you know, actually killed her and took her back to the workplace,
but I don't think it really had a lot to do with it. But these are things that we see.
The other thing that's interesting about unwanted relationships, again, too,
it seems like people who do this, again, it's consistent. There's a history of it. They're
always asking people out and they're used to getting the answer no. They finally will find
somebody to go out with them and they get pushy, they intimidate, they scare people. And we see a
lot in the tapes that we view in training, you know, of this happening and it happens in real
life. People just don't quit. They don't get the answer no. Or they don't understand no.
Yeah, they don't understand no. That would be a good one. The next one, when we take a look at
his fear reaction amongst the colleagues, this one here, when we, if we go and do a debriefing,
we'll find that most of the people they worked with and most of the people in the community were
afraid of this individual. The problem with this one is that people always say it's only Johnny.
Johnny's threatening and they don't, they just assume that when he threatens somebody,
he's not going to follow through. And as some of the speakers said earlier, we have to take a look
at the, what they're saying and we have, even though we don't want to respond to it each time
and try to put personal safety nets around us, we still got to consider what they're saying.
So if a person's always threatening people, scaring people, that's going to probably fit into
the type of person we might want to keep an eye out for. Good. The next one would be alcohol and
substance abuse. It seems like a lot of these people are loners and they'll sit downtown at a
bar or some other place and they'll start to, you know, use chemicals. It's interesting, one of the
things that we find with these people, very few, will not warn the people they're going after.
Part of the whole thing about violence in the workplace is intimidation, control, trying to
make people afraid of them, and they do it through their voice. So they usually tell them, I'm going
to get you, I'm going to do such and such, and we'll do a little bit of a role play in a bit here
and see how this all works out. But the thing is, when they're downtown and they're drinking,
and after they've had a few, they start talking about the company, the people they dislike,
and they send out good warning signs. So I think one of the important things that the people out
there need to know is that sometimes it's not just the threats at work that we have to be concerned
about, but we have to be concerned about some of the threats we might hear in other public places
or at somebody's home on who they might attempt to get. And that information should be passed back
to the employee so at least they're aware of it. And actually with the alcohol and chemicals,
we find that a lot of them, when they do commit the actual crime, they'll probably be using
something. So take that into consideration. Quickly over to the next ones, feeling of being
victimized. These individuals, and we'll just go through all of the different ones up there,
but blaming others for their problems and inability to take criticism, it's always somebody else's
fault. They feel they're the victim. And so what they want to do is get back at people. They can't
take the, you know, the criticism that a supervisor may give them. In other words, if I'm doing
something wrong and you call me in and say, George, the way you behaved today with that customer out
there, that's not acceptable. Instead of saying, I'm sorry, Kathy, and going out and changing my
behavior, I go out and find somebody and say, you wouldn't believe what Kathy did. She's given me
the dickens for this and now you're the blame. And so now I target you, I target that customer
as people who are against me. And behavior like this is ongoing then. Ongoing. It's constant.
We all do this to a certain degree sometimes. That's correct. Okay. But these people always
seem to pass it on to everybody else. It's their wives' fault when they get home. Somebody is
always at fault with them. The last category I want to cover, which probably sets a lot of the
people off in the end, you know, most of the stuff early on is threats. But when we get to the end
here of being fired or demoted, you know, sometime when we found, I know we did a workshop with a
private company and they talked about just the demotion, telling a guy he was going to lose his
job as the front load driver and he was going to work in the warehouse. That can set somebody off
also if they've worked many years. And again, they find fault in the employer. And they become upset
and they want to challenge them and it just gets to be, you know, threats and all the way to wherever
it could end up. So basically what we need to do is take a look at that. When they're fired, usually
within 48 hours, they usually see something happening. And all of these things, if there's a
crisis with these individuals, they're going to respond to somebody and she's going to be within
the first 48 hours. Otherwise they'll sort of settle down. The other thing is when somebody's
fired and loses their job, it's a pretty important thing to them. And now they lose their job, they've
got problems explaining that to their spouse or whoever it might be. They've got to talk to the
bank about bills. And what happens is they sort of become depressed. And what we see then is if
everything's really going bad, then we have to deal with the weapons. And I put there, they're
fascinated with weapons. And basically what that means is they have a lot of weapons at home. This
is the last stop. I was talking with somebody just this morning and he mentioned that he knew somebody
who had nine weapons in his house. Within the hour I've talked to somebody. So you know what I mean,
you know, why does somebody have that many things? It's part of intimidation again. It keeps people on
their toes. So what we need to do is to understand which ones would actually go that far. But it
seems like when they're depressed, that's when they'll show back up. And we're seeing a lot of
this more and more where they actually hurt somebody at the workplace and then they turn the weapon
upon themselves. We saw that in Miami last week. The postal worker who shot his ex-wife.
Well as a supervisor, because we have so many supervisors watching us this morning here, George,
if you have to make that decision to let someone go and if you're looking at these different
indicators, what should a supervisor do knowing that if I let you go and you might be depressed
about that, you might be angry at me for that, you might have a lot of weapons at your house,
how should I protect myself and the other co-workers? Okay, basically this is not a one
person show. When we do the assessment, we need a lot of people. We need the EAP. We need to find
people who know the person so we can get that history again. The most important thing we go
by is the history. All these other things are good indicators, but the history is the most
important thing. So we need a lot of different people. Then when we're going to bring them in
to talk to them, and again I don't think anybody wants to just lay somebody off or terminate them.
What we want to try to do is deal with it. What we try to do at our facility is we always make
sure we got some backup. So even if they're talking to a management person, we make sure
there's somebody available outside. So if something should happen, you know somebody can help respond
to it. You shouldn't try to do this stuff alone because basically it all comes down to intimidation.
Okay, can we do our little role play? I'm willing to do it. We've been practicing this. Just kind of
follow me through this. Okay, well basically what we talked about the other day is if somebody is
brought in for evaluation. Okay, we'll take a look at, because remember we're looking at
intimidation and control. So the first thing is I come in for my evaluation and you tell
me what? How has been my work this year? George, I'm really displeased with your work this year.
Okay, we'll see right off the bat. I'm going to become very irritated with you and the first
thing I want to do is what? Intimidate. So I'm going to say I'm going to get you,
but can I get you here? No, I hope not. No, because then I'm going to get into a lot of trouble,
right? Right. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to wait for you. I'm going to wait for you when
you leave. I would try to call security office. Okay, you're going to do that. Okay, but I'm smart
enough and I wait, but as you're driving out, I remember that, you know, you've been taking
martial arts. Now who's in control? I would hope I would. You're in control. See, and I think, gee,
she's going to hurt me. So what do I need now when I get out of the car and approach you? I need a
weapon. So I pull out a knife, but I forgot you carry a gun. So you pull out a gun out of your
holster. So far I'm doing pretty well here. Yeah, but you can see how both people back and forth,
it's control. And that's how this all starts. And in most cases, it doesn't get to the weapon.
It's all the threats. It can start in Kathy, I'm going to get your kids. See, what I want you to do
is I want you to become fearful of me so that you go back into the corner and I don't have to worry
about you. So that's how they do it even with their co-workers. They do it with their supervisors.
And again, I think it's so important, George, if we're talking about co-workers, to be brave
enough to report it to someone. But again, it goes back to, as we talked with the commissioner and
other folks earlier this morning, if I'm nervous about going to my supervisor and saying, George
is kind of strange, he's really intimidating, he's kind of an angry guy, is that proper?
Yeah, that's the way to do it. And I think one of the things that we try to get people to
understand is we have to do it through peer pressure. Sometimes when you deal with it alone,
just as I did with this role play, see, I can intimidate you alone. But if there are several
people there who are saying the same thing, then that will help out. Safety in numbers, in other
words. Safety in numbers. And even if we, you know, and there's really nothing wrong with just sitting
down with the person, but if you do it alone, they're always going to intimidate you. They
will control you. That's the one thing you have to remember. They know how to intimidate. All right.
Is, are all people at risk for violent behavior? Yeah, everybody can become angry enough to do
something real bad. But I would think to be so focused to want to hurt somebody,
to go to the weapons, that would be somebody who's real, real angry. The other thing is,
it seems like they calculate it all out. They have it planned. When we follow up on the debriefing,
we find out they were real calm. That was last week in Florida. The guy walked,
when he walked away, the people said he didn't even show any anger. He was just totally calm.
So they're so focused in what they want to do. And that's basically to hurt us. If that's what
their final, you know, as he sees the final goal, right. And are you seeing this as a person who
works with this day in and day out? Are we seeing more incidents of violent behavior in the workplace?
Yes. And if so, why? I think it's just our society. I have to say at our place down at St. Peter,
probably, we used to see a lot with clients, you know, coming after staff. We have very few
problems with that now. I think we've learned how to deal with them verbally. But I think in society,
it's very violent. There are more guns out there. I mean, we grew up, people might square off and
punch each other. Now they don't do that. Everybody seems to have a weapon. And that's what the scary
part of it is. And again, I think the threats were always there, but it just seems to be
a little more serious right now. And to keep uppermost in your mind, these different indicators
and to report it to your supervisor to feel comfortable doing that. That's correct.
Always go by the indicators. What we find is that most people do not fit into just one particular
indicator. They will have several of these. And then use a group of people to review it and assess
the person on their level of violence. And you'll be back with us in a few minutes. I'll be back a
little bit later. All right. Thank you, George. You're welcome. I appreciate it. Well, a panel
discussion, as a matter of fact, is coming your way next with experts. Remember now that you're
an important part of the conversation. Coming up, you will have some numbers in front of you, the
fax numbers, also the phone numbers where you can call in your questions. Before we get to that
panel discussion, a couple more quiz questions for you. George, thank you for inviting me to
your classroom. I have a statement I'd like you to respond to, if you will. If an individual
overreacts or sees casual conversation as criticism, we should just describe it to them having a bad
temper or a bad day. Is that a true or false statement? I think that's a false statement.
If someone's constantly overreacting to criticism or just general conversation that may be or may
not be about that individual, there may be a potential for something more there that should
be addressed by the organization. Jay, good afternoon. I have a statement that I'd like you
to respond to, if you would. A person who blames others excessively is a cause for concern in the
workplace. Is that a true or false statement? That's a true statement. The blaming of others
and the inability to accept personal responsibility are among the most common signs of those who later
commit an act of workplace violence. Thank you. I want to hear your questions for our panelists.
As a matter of fact, they're all with us. We have quite an array here. Again, Lieutenant Governor
Joanne Benson, Don Davis, Commissioner of Public Safety, John Shabatura, who is with the Minnesota
Department of Employee Relations. He happens to be the Deputy Commissioner for Labor Relations.
Pete Benner with AFSCME Council 6, and we have a new addition to our panel. Darcelle Lewis is
with us. She's with the Minnesota Department of Employee Relations. She is the State of
Minnesota Health Promotion and Safety Director, and she represents the Department of Employee
Relations on Lieutenant Governor Benson's Violence Prevention Interagency Task Force.
That is a mouthful, Darcelle. You are a busy woman. We have a number of different questions
that we've received from across the state, so I'm just going to throw them out. Again,
toss them up, and feel free to interact between one another, and I'll just be the referee here.
Lieutenant Governor, I'm going to start with you first. A question here. How do we create a culture
of respect and compassion in the workplace? Well, first of all, I think it has to come from two
places, from the top down and from the bottom up, and we'll meet and cross in the middle and
continue going, and I really think that that just speaks to the fact that it is everyone's
responsibility. The peacefulness of a workplace depends upon the people in it. The people in it
need to know one another, support one another, and do it not only personally, but also then through
our policies and make sure that they are reinforced, that they are known, and they're acted upon,
and that's what this conference, of course, is about. But also the continuous reminders that we
have, whether it's through an ad campaign or through just each other's behavior. It's very
important to do that. And, Pete, how does a union fit into this? A lot of this, I think, is us
learning to walk the walk on this. If the only time management, or the workers for that matter,
deal constructively with workplace violence situations are the easy ones, but when something
really hard gets up or comes along, we've had difficulties with one state agency that has
enforcement duties. And when some poor dairy inspector got confronted by a somewhat irate
farmer with a weapon and was not backed up, that sends a very bad message to the workers in that
agency about how much violence is really going to be tolerated. If we're sending a consistent message,
whether it's co-worker on co-worker, whether it's client or customer on employee, the message is
consistent. We treat everybody the same and intervene the same. Then we're going to get a
long way towards dealing with the violence situations. I would like to mention one other
thing, and it leads right off to what was just mentioned. We're talking about violence
prevention in our own workplace in state agencies and departments, but I think we also have to
realize that we interact with our public, with the good citizens of Minnesota, and that we need to
think about how we are interacting with them as well, and so that we do that in a very dignified
peaceful kind of way, and that we understand that people sometimes don't understand that
communication is really the basis of all of it. How well do we communicate with one another so
that we get the best cooperation? Commissioner, I have a question for you. It's kind of a long one.
This is coming from the handout information from Montana on page 16 indicates that local law
enforcement should be contacted to attempt to gain further information about a person perceived as
threatening. This is in Montana now. With this work in Minnesota, will law enforcement give any
information to non-law enforcement agencies? How does that work? It's a very general question,
Kathy. However, Minnesota does have a very restrictive Data Practices Act. I think it would be
the other way around. Law enforcement will come in, assist, and seek information should there be a
report of violence in the workplace, and especially if it's of a criminal nature. But to just have
law enforcement arbitrarily turn over something, it's a very restrictive, very difficult thing to
do. If you're going through a background check, as Pete mentioned before, or George mentioned
before, a person's history is a very good predictor of the future. There are those bits of
information which can be acquired from a legitimate background check, but to just arbitrarily exchange
information. Call up if I'm a DNR officer. I can't really call up and say, do you know anything about
Don Davis? If it's not a public history, a public criminal history, it would be very difficult to
obtain. Okay. John Chabature, I have a question from you. This is from a caller in Dakota County.
Please comment, if you would, on complacency. How can a violence prevention plan be implemented
when there is a lack of commitment? Often agencies are not interested in developing and implementing
a plan until an incident has occurred. I think the key word which appears in that question is
commitment. As Lieutenant Governor Benson said at the opening of this discussion, that commitment
begins with the agency and from the top down, as well as the bottom up. It's therefore incumbent on
the top management of agencies to explicitly communicate that there is a need for a violence
prevention program and that it is a work objective for managers and for supervisors, just like any
other work expectation that there will be a program in place and that it is their responsibility to
help maintain a workplace environment that's free from violence, just like it's a work expectation
to produce a product. Darcelle, I'd love to hear from you on this. Well, the other thing I was
going to contribute to that is the fact that what we're talking about doing is changing people's
behaviors for a long term. And in order to do that, it's very important that we set examples as
managers and supervisors ourselves. And again, like Lieutenant Governor said, from the top down and
the bottom up. And I think that as we do that, we'll find that behavior change occurs over time.
And it does take time. And that's what we're trying to do is affect behavior change long term.
And management must also follow the same policies. It must be consistent with the policies
and it must be consistent adherence to that. Do not have expectations for your employees that you
as a supervisor or manager are not doing. That does send a complacency or a disregarding kind of
message. Pete Benner, a question from you from Century College in White Bear Lake. What about
retaliation? And George and I talked about that just a little bit a couple of minutes ago. What
about retaliation from coworkers for reporting incidents? What is in place in state agencies to
protect an employee who happens to report? Our experience in general has been that if an employee
engages in self-help, if an accused employee engages in self-help, what they're likely to do is
get themselves a second hit of discipline on top of what they were going to get for the initial
incident. If an employee, if a coworker comes to you and says, I'm angry at you for reporting me,
you report that. And the alleged harasser is going to get hit again. What we tell employees,
when someone comes to us and says I'm being disciplined for whatever, the first thing we say
is don't engage in self-help on this. We have a grievance procedure, we have policies and procedures
where you're going to get your day in court, you're going to get to do your side, give your side of
the story. Don't try to help yourself. All you're going to do is dig the hole deeper. What about
protection, John, and or Commissioner? Because I'm sensing in this particular question a little fear,
obviously, about retaliation. If I report, is there someone that's going to help me,
walk me to my car perhaps or something like that? I think there are a couple of points that I could
make with respect for that. First of all, retaliation, just like violent conduct itself,
is misconduct in the workplace and it needs to be effectively communicated to employees that that
is every bit as unacceptable as the violence itself. Second, it is the responsibility of
management to try and establish an organizational climate where employees know and understand that
not only is that behavior to be discouraged, but it is their responsibility as employees to report
retaliation as well as violence when it occurs. And finally, yes, there are measures that can be
taken in the individual workplace to protect employees in these kinds of circumstances. It
can include escorts, providing parking closer to the building, a variety of measures dependent on
the situation. Darcelle, I have about two minutes left. This is a question to you from Laurie in
Winona County. How can I obtain sample copies of workplace violence policies? Okay, when this
project originally started, Ellie Webster and myself worked together to develop guidelines for
workplace violence. And as a result of that, the guidelines were distributed to all the state
agencies and I now have probably about 70 plus policies and I have some that are very, very good
and would be more than willing to share them and use them as examples or guidelines for other
people to use. In addition to that, after DNR had the situation there, they are going to work more
on their policy and help us determine if there's items in the policy that we've missed or items
that would make our policies better. So we will be looking forward to working with them for that
initiative. Comments about working, this seems like a work in progress as we speak. This will
always be a work in progress because we'll always be in the position of having to attempt to
come back to a more peaceful place. And I think as Darcelle said, it's a long-term thing escalating
in violence in Minnesota and it will be a long-term coming back from it. And it takes every day
attention to it and working on this and changing your policy as needed. Pete, final thoughts?
If state government, state management, really decides that this is a priority issue, a lot can
be done. When the state decided 10 years ago, 15 years ago, that sexual harassment was something
that we were not going to tolerate and put serious resources and management commitment into training,
into enforcement, the state has been a far better place to work for both men and women. If we do
the same sort of thing for that or for workplace violence that we did on sexual harassment and
some other issues, it's going to take a while. But the state workplaces are going to be much more
fun places to go to, much more secure places to go to. Commissioner or John? I agree with that and
again, it's ongoing. It's, I believe, proactive. It's for the benefit of all employees and our
clients. And again, I would reemphasize, it's not just management down. This is a joint venture
between all state employees, regardless of your position. All right. Good panel discussion. Thank
you so much. We will return, by the way, with another panel discussion later on in the program.
As we've been talking though, and we were talking about retaliation, there could be some really
frightening moments when we talk about workplace violence and fear, as you know, such a powerful
emotion. Kim Peck is with us over at the news desk right now. Kim is the employee assistance
consultant with the State Employee Assistance Program. Kim? Thanks, Kathy. Whether violence is
directed towards an individual or a group, the reaction of its victims follows a basic pattern.
It can be said that there's a normal or typical response to events that are well outside what is
perceived as normal everyday experience. However, nothing about these responses feels normal to the
persons experiencing it. Almost without exception, the intensity of the irregularity of the
reactions is well beyond one's normal range of experience. Unfortunately, because of this fact,
people often feel further victimized after the acute trauma has passed because they don't
understand the complex set of reactions they're experiencing. When an individual or a group
experiences violence, their state of equilibrium in the world is disrupted. In many cases, their
long-held world worldview is destroyed, causing intense physiological, emotional, and spiritual
reactions. Their world, as they've known it and experienced it, has been turned upside down.
Their sense of safety and security has been shattered. In essence, they've experienced a
loss of innocence, marked with intense feelings of fear or terror, profound vulnerability, and loss
of control. An individual's response to trauma is instinctive. This instinctive response involves a
physiological shock that's characterized by numbing sensations, immobility, or fear of
immobility or fainting, a so-called frozen fright. The instinctive response also involves a
psychological response of denial or disbelief. Violence isn't within a person's normal range of
reality or experience, so the mind rejects much of its frightening images. Once this frozen
fright thaws and the victim begins to perceive reality, a cognitive survival state takes over.
What this means is that all cognitive functions focus on one thing, survival. In this case,
a person's affect will appear flat, giving the false impression that he or she isn't being
seriously affected by what's happening. This cognitive survival state can last for several
hours or several days. After the acute trauma has ended, victims will experience shock that
the event is indeed over and that they've survived. Then, depression will set in. And as the
depression begins to dissipate, then severe mood swings will occur. These can include anxiety,
fear, confusion, grief, guilt, and even self-blame. During this time of extreme emotional
turmoil, victims are trying to reestablish some sense of equilibrium. However, they often feel
that they're going crazy, as they've never before experienced such a multitude of emotions.
Their experience of powerlessness or loss of control often leads victims to self-blame or
guilt, because believing they're in some way responsible is sometimes easier to accept than
the notion that they are in every sense of the word, innocent victims. During this period of
emotional turmoil, victims will be searching for an answer to that question, why me? And will
often be actively challenging their faith or spirituality. Anger typically follows the mood
swings, and this anger may be overtly expressed or repressed, depending often on whether the
violence is acute or chronic. Only after working through this myriad of emotion will the victims
be able to reflect on the fact that they are no longer the same person as before and consider
the implications for their future. The laying to rest comes when the victim accepts that his or
her life has been forever changed. It's important to normalize these reactions to violence, and in
spite of the fact that there may be a predictable pattern of responses, individual reactions may
vary, so there needs to be tolerance, understanding, and acceptance. We must take whatever steps are
possible to restore a sense of safety and control to victims of violence, and we must take these
steps as quickly as possible. The recovery cycle can take days, months, and even years. Above all
else, support must be made available to victims of violence. The services of the State Employee
Assistance Program are available to assist employees and family members who have experienced
trauma and violence at home or at work. Kathy? Thank you much, Kim. We appreciate it. We've
talked a lot about healthy and unhealthy workplaces, also some of the signs of a potentially
violent personality. Coming up next, how to handle potentially violent situations. First, though,
I'll look at those quiz questions. Tom, it occurs to me that a certain level of intimidating and
or verbal harassing behaviors is to be expected in the workforce, and that employers should not be
concerned. Do you believe that's true or false? I believe that statement is false. Any behavior
such as that, be it occasional or not, is not appropriate behavior and can lead to potentially
violent situations in the workplace. We should treat each other, our other employees, users,
clientele with respect, and communicate well with them without using harassment behavior of any type.
Thank you. Phil, true or false? Verbal threats should be acted upon immediately and taken
seriously. Well, I believe in general that's very true, that it's important to act as quickly as
possible on threats and also never to ignore them. I think that although I don't have a lot of threats
directed at me personally, though what kind of work I do as an appeals referee for the Department
of Human Services is such that sometimes social workers and financial workers will be aware of
particular service consumers who are either angry or hostile or mad at the system, and in situations
like that they tend to arrange for protection during the course of a hearing. Most often what
will happen is that they will call a deputy from the Sheriff's Department either to be stationed
right outside the hearing door room or sometimes they will even have a deputy right in the hearing
room depending upon the tendency of a particular individual to be violent. Well, George Demers is
back with us once again. Early on we talked about indicators of a potentially violent personality,
what we might want to look for. So let's go into something that I know a lot of our viewers are
thinking about right now. What if I have to get, what if I'm walking into a potentially violent
situation? How can I prepare myself? Okay, I think one of the things that I'd like to address today
is basically we need some training. A lot of people, a lot of agencies, they really don't want
to get into this until something bad happens. Then the phone rings and everybody wants some training
and I think what we need to do is understand that early on we need the training, we need the
information on how we're going to respond, we have to practice. One of the interesting things
about training and mental preparation is that when we get into a critical situation,
depending on our level of training or what we know, when the actual critical incident happens,
we lose 70 percent of our skills. Because of fear, as Kim was talking about. Fear takes place but
everything just shuts down on us. So the more training we have, we may be apt to able handle
the situation. Otherwise, we just sit there and freeze and then the person can hurt us
or we don't respond and get out of there. So it's really important, the more training we get,
the better off we're going to be. One of the things down at our institution is that everybody's
trained. Down at St. Peter, everybody's trained. That's from the CEO, all the professional people,
the guards, the social workers, everybody goes through training in this and we go through it
every year. And I think one of the important things that we have to understand is, and I think
somebody mentioned it in the panel discussion, is that we have to have leadership at the top.
The people at the top have to believe this is important or the people at the bottom aren't going
to buy it. So we really need, wherever we go, what we're always trying to do is get somebody from
management to support it and then you need somebody in that agency or company, whatever it might be,
who want to follow up with it. You have to have these two components. If you don't have it,
it's not going to take place. So then you've got to have good policies and with the policies,
I think it's important that when we look at them, they're competent policies and everybody
gets the information through training, what they have to do, how they're to respond.
Because it's fine to have something written down, but you have to actually act that out.
Right. You've got to know how to do it. It's just like the fire drills.
A fireman told me one time a lot of people just burn up in buildings because they don't realize
the door opens a certain way. It opens in and they're trying to push out. And very few people
take fire drills seriously. Same thing with this stuff. We have to take it seriously. People have
to understand it and follow through when it happens. Okay. Let's start with mental preparation.
Again, if I'm going to walk into what I think, I'm not feeling too good about the situation. What
should I be thinking about? Okay. There's a couple of things. You know, there's a lot of people have
backup where they work. The way you're describing it right now, you're sort of alone. You may be a
social worker, DNR officer, wherever it might be out in the field and you have to go someplace.
Basically, you should always call ahead. Let them know you're coming. Look for signs. If they've
got dogs, keep out signs of probably places you don't want to enter. But let them know you're coming.
Park on the side of the road so you have access to get away. Don't drive in the driveway if you're
going to, because then if they block it off, you can't get away. And always back in if you've got
to go into somebody's driveway. These are just little things and basically we learn a lot of
these things from each other. You learn from workshops. The police departments have a lot of
little seminars they put on. And this is where you learn all this stuff. And what you've got to do is
you've got to follow them because there are ideas and ways that are considered positive ways of
handling this or doing it. All we can do it with luck. Let me give you one example of this one.
Sort of like walking. You know, you walk alone on the trails at night? I don't like to do that.
Okay. But that's one of the things is that people, knowing that's not the correct way of doing it,
competency says you do it with another person or several people. But what happens is people say
there's nothing has happened in this neighborhood or in this area so they do it alone. And that
particular night that's where somebody grabs them. False sense of security? False sense of security.
But they didn't follow the rules that were set up. This holds true for the rules set up in your
agencies. You've got to follow the rules. If the rules say we're going to lock the back door
when we're working, that's what's got to be. The door has to be locked. And we can't compromise
these safety issues. But it seems like sometimes people want to take shortcuts. Well, if I don't
lock it, I can go to the bathroom quicker and get back in. If it says it's supposed to be locked,
you've got to do it. Again, mental preparation. And I'm thinking, can you give some hints about
what should you be thinking about? You mentioned those were all great. Parking the pickup truck
facing out of the road, that sort of thing. But should I be thinking of something if I'm a worker,
a field worker, a DNR field worker or what have you? Yeah. Before, I should have mentioned too
early on here on page 15 through 19 is all of the information. For those of you watching out there,
you can review that after. One of the important things I think to remember is go with your
intuition. You know, there's all kinds of stuff on those four pages. But the final decision comes
down on how you want to approach it. And if you don't feel right, it doesn't look right, it's
probably not right. One of the things that we have to, again, working with management, your supervisor
and yourselves, we have to understand that we have to work together. If you don't feel right,
you should be able to drive away without the idea that my supervisor is going to discipline me because
I didn't do my job today. They have to understand sometimes it's not safe and you're going to have
to go on intuition with support from the other people. Another thing that we might want to take
a look at is backup. In a facility like we work at, everyone has to respond to an incident. So
if something happens, we could have 20, 30 people there. Other people out in the field may not have
any backup. So what they need to do is maybe work with the police departments. And if they don't
feel comfortable, again, calling the police and saying, you know, would you mind, you know, kind
of following me to that particular area. I think there's one thing that if I can get across today
is if you're dealing with somebody who's violent or potentially violent, don't deal with them alone.
That's the most important thing we can do. Always walk away, go back, get some help, then come back
and deal with them. There was a question that was brought up during the panel discussion about if,
is there a way to get information about a potentially dangerous situation? Does that mean,
can I communicate with my other co-workers about this farmer who might be, you know, upset or how
can you get that information so you know you're getting into a potentially dangerous situation?
Well, I think the commissioner said that, you know, with the data privacy, it's pretty hard.
But again now, if you feel uncomfortable going to some place, you can always call the police. Now
they can get all that information or they may even have the history on the person and they can at
least be your backup. That's the key we have to understand. Don't do it alone. Always have backup.
Can you also have someone page you? Which of course now we all wear pagers and beepers.
Yeah, they can page you. The problem is if when we deal with violence, somebody's going to attack
you. You know, sometimes you're not going to get to your phone or whatever it might be. So I think
you've got to have the people there to start with. One of the other things that I'd like to mention
real quickly here is what we have is if there's a problem at work or the facility is what we call
critical incident coordinators. And these are pretty much, it's a term used across the state now.
And this is a person who works for that agency who has an aptitude for dealing with critical
situations. So when we talk about reporting, working with the police, this individual,
that's their particular job. They have an understanding of all of the key components to
violence in the workplace and then assess how it should be handled. So that would be a good person
to go to if it's available at that particular agency. But in the state policy, the critical
incident coordinator is listed and has a definition for that individual. We've covered a lot of ground
here, George. What have we missed? We're talking about mental preparation, a little physical
preparation. What's the watchword? Just be alert, trust your gut? Be alert, look for signs. Remember
perpetrators, people who want to get us, have the advantage. Most of us have other things on our mind
and perpetrators or people who are going to commit some type of violence, they're preparing
to commit the violence and they're doing what we got to do too. We always have to be mentally
prepared, understand where we're at, the lighting, where our vehicles park, people around us. We have
to counteract what they're trying to do to us. All right, George, join us for a panel discussion
coming up shortly. Thank you so much, appreciate it. Well, we've covered a lot of ground today
and you sure have a lot of questions, I'm sure. So please write them down. We'll try to answer
them coming up in a minute or so. First, some more safety tips. What should you do if you're
in a situation that has the potential of becoming violent? One of the first things to remember is
to remain as calm as you possibly can. Do not say or do anything that will elicit shame in the other
person. Rage is often a response to reinforce shame. It is a defense that is used to protect
oneself, to keep others from seeing one's sense of inferiority or fear. It is psychological and
physiological in nature and it protects against exposure, giving a false sense of power.
Rage is different than anger is in that anger is a healthy emotional response that people experience
when they feel they've been hurt by someone else. When a person is angry, they think clearly,
they're in control of their actions and they have no no want to hurt the other person.
In a shame-rage response, however, the person loses control and is unable to think clearly. All
focus is placed on the belief that others see sees the person as inferior or defective. When a person
is moving into a shame or rage response, they oftentimes begin using defense mechanisms such
as blaming, shaming, or judgment. As the stress increases from the situation, the response will
move into rage. Therefore, it's really important to try to de-escalate the situation. Be as calm
as you can when talking to the person. Do not be judgmental. Do not be shaming. Don't say things
like you're making a fool of yourself. You're going to be sorry for doing this. Instead, use phrases
like, I can understand you're feeling angry, Ray. I'd feel that way if this was happening to me, too.
Or, I know you're a good person, Ray, and I know that you don't want to hurt me. What can we do to
resolve the situation? Some of the things to remember if you're ever in a situation that has
the potential of becoming violent is to remain calm, size up the situation, and make a plan for
escape. Be aware of your physical surroundings. If possible, stand at a right angle to the person
and en route of an escape route. Speak slowly and calmly, confidently and assertively, but not loudly.
Do not talk down to the other person. Don't be judgmental. Be careful of not shaming or threatening
the other person. Be aware of your body language and the words that you choose. Respond rather than
react to the other person. Make eye contact, but don't make this prolonged. Use eye statements,
such as, I can understand this has been a very difficult time for you, Ray.
Do not make sudden gestures. Do not conceal your hands. Place your hands on your hips or cross them
in front of you. Let the person express his or her anger. Nod your head and acknowledge what is being
said, if appropriate. Don't get hooked into arguing or defending yourself for past actions.
Don't take what the person is saying personally. Never make promises you can't keep. Point out
choices and ask for recommendations, repeating what you hear the person saying. Keep your body
posture as relaxed as comfortable, but be ready to run if need be. The following is a videotape
done by Vicki Sanders and Doug Kosulke, demonstrating a situation in which an employee is
potentially becoming violent. Doug, I'm glad you could come in today. What's up? What's going on?
I just wanted to discuss with you a couple of things. It seems that I've received some disturbing
reports about some threats that you made. What do you mean reports? Is that what that says? Well,
Doug. Who's been saying this? I want to know who's making these allegations. Well, I'm not at liberty
right now. Why don't you have a seat? We can discuss it further. You tell me what's going on.
Sure. Have a seat, Doug. This is all a bunch of crap. I work with a bunch of stinking idiots.
Well, Doug, it's that type of language. What are they saying? What I need you to do is to change
the way that you talk to employees. So now it's the way I talk to people. Right. The way that
you're talking... It just keeps going downhill, boy. Doug, we've changed our... Can't say anything
anymore. We've changed our policy. What we need you to do is not to talk in a negative manner
to employees. Not to be threatening them. You can't use physical... I've never hurt anybody.
Well, it doesn't matter. You hurt people by intimidating them, inhibiting their freedom.
You can't say anything anymore. How am I supposed to get those idiots to do their jobs?
Doug, do you remember the sexual harassment training that we had? What a joke. You can't say
anything because someone will interpret it wrong. Well, same thing with violence. People can
interpret violent statements in the wrong manner. So you've got to be very careful what you say and
how you say it to employees. Now, what I need you to do is look at our policy and begin to follow it.
And follow it in a manner that you are not making physical threats in order to get the employees to
do things for you. Well, what does... Let me see the policy. What does it say? Sure. Okay. Now,
you notice this line here. It says the department will not tolerate violence in, on, or around
department premises, on lease or operated, nor any off-site work location either by or against
employees or members of the public. And that protects you also, Doug. That means that nobody
can do violent statements against you. Clients can't come against you. Don't let them try.
Did you notice how Vicki remained calm in this situation? She stayed in charge and when Doug
suddenly jumped up, an indicator that he might be moving into rage, Vicki stood up also. She
maintained eye contact and talked to Doug in a non-shaming and confident manner.
Doug's defenses went down and he calmed down, which de-escalated the situation. What should
you do if someone brings a weapon into the workplace? The most important thing to do is to
try and leave the premises immediately. If you find yourself trapped in the situation, follow
these suggestions. Stay calm. If the person senses you are losing control, it will most likely
escalate the situation. Avoid rushing the individual. Attempting to disarm the person is extremely
dangerous. Focus on the individual, not on the weapon. Negotiate. Try to get small yeses from
the person. Start with simple requests such as, is it okay for me to take a deep breath?
The more yeses you get, the more of a chance you'll have that the person won't use the weapon.
Step back. Try to negotiate permission to take at least three steps away from the individual.
The increased distance will reduce the person's anxiety and the accuracy of the weapon if it is
used. By time, the longer you can talk to the individual, the less likely they are to use the
weapon. By taking a proactive approach, we can significantly decrease the possibility of violence
occurring within the workplace. Every member of the workplace should understand what violence is,
know that this type of behavior will not be tolerated, and be familiar with violence in the
workplace policies, procedures for reporting concerns and incidents, and crisis response
procedures. An assessment of risk factors, the building layout, furniture placement, and escape
routes should be conducted with necessary changes incorporated. If the culture of the workplace is
an unhealthy one, immediate steps need to be implemented to begin creating systemic change.
In many cases, it will be feasible to have a neutral third party assist with facilitating team
building, training employees in conflict management, and dealing with people who act
disrespectfully. The Make the Peace campaign makes the following recommendations for creating a
respectful workplace. If you're a supervisor, consider your management style,
is it fair and respectful, or do you bully to get your way?
Be accessible, not intimidating, so your employees won't be afraid to come to you with concerns.
Be a problem solver, not a voider. Communicate your concerns to those around you, as well as
your gratitude. Be cautious in your judgment and your blame of others. Foster a sense of pride in
the workplace. Always treat others the way you would like to be treated. When someone on staff is
experiencing problems, encourage him or her to seek help without recrimination. If you're an employee,
don't just complain about or trash others. If you're upset about something, confront the source in a
direct and helpful manner. Consider whether your actions help or hurt the work environment around
you. If you don't feel safe in the workplace, tell your supervisor about it. If your supervisor
is the problem, tell his or her supervisor. Be quick to help your co-workers and slow to judge them.
Whoever you are, keep your sense of humor, take responsibility for your behavior,
value everyone's contribution. Remember that workplace problems can affect your home life
and vice versa. Get the support you need to do the best you can in both situations.
Respect different ways of working. Respect different classes, gender, and races.
Encourage others to do the same. Remember, you're the one who can make the peace.
Carol Sullivan, good job. Thank you very much. Well, coming up next, more Q&A, question and
answer with our panel of experts. But first, remember those safety tips I told you about
earlier? Well, here they are. If you're leaving the office late at night, try to use an escort
service. If that's not possible, it's a good idea to have your door key in your hand before
you walk out the door. As you approach your car, try to make sure if it's in the same condition
it was when you left. When working at off-site locations, it's a good idea to heed no trespassing
signs. If you need to meet with a property owner, perhaps they'd be willing to meet you on public
property. And when went off-site in someone's home or someone's property, trust your judgment.
If something doesn't feel right, it's usually best just to leave and contact your supervisor.
You're the one who watched the children who lived with the neighbor who had lost her job,
which made her so mad that she needed a break instead of a drink. So she talked with her husband
and told him her fears, which helped her relax and hunt for a job, which paid their bills,
which lowered their stress and saved her from rage. You're the one who could make the peace.
Well, we've heard we have a lot of questions, and so we have a panel of experts that will
answer those questions for you. Joining us once again, Kim Peck. And right next to Kim,
Carol Sullivan. George Demers is with us as well. Doug Kosalki joins us. Now you saw Doug in that
role playing. Doug is with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. He's a security counselor
at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter for 22 years. Is that right? You and George,
obviously know each other pretty well. He's a trainer in safety and security for law enforcement
corporations and public agencies. He also is an expert in hostage negotiation and critical incident
stress debriefing. Right next to Doug is Vicki Sanders. And you saw Vicki also as well in that
role playing. Vicki's with the Department of Labor and Industry, and she's the State of Minnesota
Workplace Violence Prevention Coordinator. Did I get that right? All right. A lot of questions
here. George, I'm going to throw the first one to you. It's from St. Paul. This deals with
confrontations with members of the public, which many of our viewers can get into every so often
because they have a lot of public interaction. At times, we deal with the public who are angry,
for whatever reason. The anger has nothing to do with our responsibility. So how do you handle
something like that? Yeah, that's a really good question. Basically, one of the things I think we
need to do is we've got to learn to negotiate. We have to be able to talk. Carol mentioned in
her segment to stay calm. That's probably the most important thing. Don't put them off, but just
listen. One of the important things that we have to remember is that probably 85 to 90 percent of
all conflicts can be resolved by talking. So that's what the people out there need to know today.
If we talk, most of these things we can resolve. And besides staying calm, remember time's on your
side. Sometimes people are in a rush to end it. Hey, look, it's not my problem. I would rather
just pass it on to somebody. Take your time and deal with it, and maybe the person will calm down.
Doug, do you have any other words of advice for this? Yeah, I would agree with what George is
saying. Let time take its course. Too many times we're in too much of a hurry for a quick resolution
to the conflict. We bypass a lot of safety issues, but it takes a lot of energy to be angry.
And I think, you know, if you let time take its course, people just normally will calm down.
What happens even if time, if you think time's on your side, and if it isn't, then what? I mean,
if things just keep escalating and escalating, then what? What's good advice for someone watching
today? Well, I know George has talked about it too. I think one of the things that you need to
remember is to get other people involved as quickly as possible. That could make all the
difference in the world. Question to Kim from Bob in Duluth. Would you discuss, please, how the
fitness for duty exam may be used before, during, and even after a violent act? Well, you know,
the issue around fitness for duty exams is one that we address often at the employee assistance
program. And unfortunately, when it comes to our attention, it's often, in our opinion, thought of
too late, where the employer is dealing with a situation that is volatile and are hoping that
somehow, magically, an evaluation can be done to determine what are the risks with this individual.
And as we've heard discussed earlier this morning, we really need to take a step back and take a look
at the culture of the workplace and take action long before a fitness for duty evaluation is
considered. Now, certainly, if there are some of the indicators, as George described in our session
earlier this morning, then I think that is an appropriate option. But it's important to remember
that all the answers are going to be provided in a fitness for duty evaluation, that if an employer
is looking for a guarantee of will this person be violent or not, they're never going to get that.
So they have to take, again, that step back and look at the bigger picture and say, what can we do
to create a healthier, safer environment overall? And Carol, you're nodding your head in agreement
over here. George, comments about this as well? There's really no guarantee.
No, there's never any guarantee. What you have to do, then, you have to put your safety nets
up around your agency. If the person has been sent off to therapy, taken some time off from work,
and we don't want them around until they feel they're fit to come back to work, they may not
be allowed in the building. So if they show up again, you have to have procedures on how you're
going to deal with them. I think I don't want to leave you out. Do you have anything to add to this?
I think, again, it probably is one of the last steps. One of the first steps is just to recognize
the warning signs of progressive or escalating behavior differences that the employee is displaying.
Carol, we have a question to you from Bob in St. Paul. When talking on the phone with an
individual from the general public now, what is the best way to end the conversation quickly
yet not doing more to upset the individual? Well, I think it's really important to remain calm and
not get hooked into arguing with a person. Give the person some factual information. If possible,
make a referral and then just tell the person firmly that you need to get off the phone and
get back to work. Without hanging up abruptly or losing your cool. Right. All right. How about a
question, I think, to Kim here. Why does it seem that most of the violence that occurs in the
workplace seems to be a result of family relationships, family violence, domestic abuse?
Well, you know, I don't know that I would agree with that assessment, but certainly I think as
people manifest violent or threatening behaviors in the workplace, it probably suggests overall
the lack of skills that they have in managing conflict. And again, that's why it's so important
for an employer or for the workplace as a whole to be watching for those initial signs and indicators
that a person may not lack the requisite skills or ability to de-escalate or to manage conflict.
Anytime you have more than one person in a room, there's going to be conflict. So we can't make the
assumption that just because people are at work and are successful in their job that they know how
to manage conflict effectively. So again, employers have a responsibility to provide training and to
provide resources for people to develop those skills. And if they are dealing with violent
situations or threatening situations at home, certainly it is going to affect them at work.
But the employer can be supportive overall in providing resources and skills for people to
know how to manage conflict more effectively. Kind of a philosophical question here, statement
actually. This is from John in St. Paul. We hear so many messages in this country that promote
violence. Clearly we all know that. Examples, movies where the bad guys are killed or radio
commercials that stress beating the competition. I see that the solution, John's solution, is
stressing the good in everyone and learning to stress cooperation, not competition. Kind of a
philosophical thing to toss around here this morning. What do you all think of that? Especially
when it comes right down to what we've been talking about all morning long here.
I think the Make to Peace campaign exemplifies what he's trying to say. And even this video,
because what it has done is taken violence prevention practitioners from across the state
together for one purpose and has to provide information and educate the public of the
resources that are available for violence prevention. So one agency and one person can't
solve the problem. It's going to have to be a cooperative effort. I'm curious here. This is
also another question which I think, Vicki, you might want to take a shot at and then please,
everyone else chime in. In your opinion, what role does racism play in workplace violence?
I think it's just an example of disrespect of a person. Racism or any type of prejudice against
a person because of culture and nature. As far as violence prevention, I think it's very important
not to stereotypify a person because of your own fears about a person's culture, background,
or the way that they live their lifestyle. If I could add to that, as much as an employer
may be tempted, employers are never in a position to mandate how a person is going to think or what
their attitudes are. But they have every responsibility, again, to manage behavior. So
when it's evident that people are behaving in a disrespectful way towards others because of
they represent a particular class or what have you, again, the responsibility is there to say,
we don't tolerate this kind of behavior. People will maintain or will hold on to whatever attitudes
or biases they have as much as we might like that to change. So again, our role is to support and
manage behaviors so they are respectful and help to create a safe work environment.
You're talking about managing behaviors. This is a question from Dave in Bemidji,
which kind of is a little segue. What is the best way to correct an employee who has hostile
tendencies, Carol and or George? It's important, first of all, to be prepared ahead of time.
If you're going to be disciplining an employee that has acted out previously, I think it's
important to know what you're going to say, to have someone else in the room, have security
alerted in case there's a problem. When you look at the video that Vicki and Doug did, Vicki did a
wonderful job of dealing with Doug in that situation. You did, you did. And I think that's
what people need to do. And also be prepared and have a list of referrals for counseling
or whatever is necessary. George? Just quickly, Annette, I would say don't take it personal.
That's so hard to do. Do not do. But I think that's the most important thing we can do is
just listen. Don't take it that they're attacking you. Even though they may be, you've got to let
it go through one ear and out the other. That's the most important thing we can do with verbal
communications. I know it seems hard, but you've just got to do it. Doug? I guess I would just add
to that a little bit. Just that you try to deal with it at the lowest level possible. That you
don't let it fester. That you don't let it continue. You know, if you deal with small issues first,
hopefully there's small consequences. But if you let the thing go and the thing festers for a long
period of time, usually the consequences are going to be a lot greater because the violence is going
to be greater. So try to deal with that at the lowest level possible. Well, I have you here.
I have a question from Susan in St. Paul, directed to you, Doug. I have some concerns about my
building security. What can an individual do about this? Well, that's a loaded question. I know a
lot of the information has already been given. Maybe I can just recap on some of the things that
we've already talked about. I think one of the things as individuals, your awareness is probably
the most important issue that we have to deal with. You need to be aware of your environments. You
need to know where you're vulnerable. You need to know the type of clients that you're going to be
coming in contact with. So you always have to be on your toes. Always constantly remembering where
you are, who you're dealing with. That's very important. I think attitude goes along with
awareness. You know, to be a secured facility takes a lot of work. And I think you have to have an
attitude that, first of all, security is important. And that you have a positive attitude towards
security. I can enter in policies that are important. And as individuals, we need to follow
those policies and procedures. Because if you don't, they're really useless to you. So there's a
lot of different areas. Reporting, we talked about, was very important. I can go on and on and on.
You know, and being involved, too. So much to cover, too. Yeah. I'm sensing you want to say
something, George. I do want to say something. Go ahead. I don't have the telephone number. Maybe
Vicki can help. But one of the things we talked about is what can we do out there because of the
violence in society. And over at Ellie Webster's office, do you have her 800 number off the top
of your head? Maybe somebody can sneak it into us. That's all right. We'll see. But what we need is
we need the 800 number. But she has a lot of good information, pamphlets that can be used in your
organization to be handed out. And it all talks about, you know, being positive in your work
environment and avoiding violence. So it's something that maybe we can get a number. We'll try to get
that number here before we actually go off the air. Thank you so much. There was a lot of information
that we covered in a very brief period of time. But of course, you know, the responsibility is not
only with your supervisor, but also with yourselves, co-workers. And it goes, as we were
talking about, ah, and here's this number. Ask and you shall receive. It's not an 800 number. I have
a 612-296-2407 or 6-7. That's what happens when you're writing fast. 612-296-2407. That's a zero.
There you go. We're high tech here. Thank you panelists so very much. I appreciate your time.
I've learned an awful lot the past few hours here, a couple hours. Well, I want to thank everyone on
the panel for answering questions from our viewing audience and to thank all of our presenters and
program sponsors who made this broadcast possible. We've heard today that preventing violence in our
workplace and in our community is everyone's responsibility. When it comes to violence, we are
all connected, our work sites and our homes, customers and employees, city streets and country
roads. Stress at work affects our home life and violence in the community spills over into the
workplace. What happens to one of us happens to all of us. If you need more information on this
topic, several resources are listed on page 20 in your handout materials. Now turn to page 22 in
your handout. There are three questions for discussion. As we end this broadcast, we hope you
will discuss your answers to these questions with the other participants at your site.
Also, please remember, videotapes of this broadcast will be available by contacting your agency
training office or the Department of Labor and Industry. I'm Kathy Werzer. Thanks so much for
tuning in and remember, you're the one who can make the peace.
Thank you.