- NEW YORK - Stress
on or off the job can cause workers to snap and turn violent, but the warning
signs may not always be apparent to fellow employees, mental health experts
said yesterday.
-
- "Very often, with someone who's upset in the workplace,
things are going on in their private life at the same time," said
Manhattan psychiatrist Jeffrey Kahn, president of WorkPsych Association,
which advises companies on mental-health issues.
-
- "Every situation is different and usually it's a
combination of factors that lead someone to get violent.
-
- "The actual reasons are not always obvious to people
in the workplace. There are different levels of anger that range from people
who just yell to people who end up shooting."
-
- Kahn, who sometimes counsels companies about how to deal
with potentially violent workers, said there are some warning signs to
look for.
-
- "One of the things you should pay attention to is
someone who makes other employees feel scared," Kahn said.
-
- Other tip-offs are "anybody who makes threats, who
carries weapons into the workplace, someone whose emotions or behavior
have become more erratic than they used to be," he said.
-
- Salt Lake City psychologist Mark Zelig said he tells
companies to keep in mind a profile of potentially violent workers.
-
- "Typically the individual involved is a white male,
35 years of age and older, who lives alone and has relatively few social
contacts," Zelig said.
-
- "The reason it's an important variable is that if
people are undergoing some sort of stress or anger, they may not have the
social support network available to discharge their anger in more appropriate
ways."
-
- He pointed out that most men who fit the basic profile
are not prone to violence.
-
- "In general, individuals who resort to this sort
of violence do not have a rich social network in which to correct distorted
feelings or vent anger," Zelig said.
-
- He said workers who turn violent may believe they are
in trouble at work or in danger of being fired or disciplined.
-
- "For whatever reason, the person is feeling some
threat and in their distorted way of thinking, this [getting violent] is
a way of neutralizing the threat," he said.
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