Workplace Violence: Murdered when asked for a raise...

Anyone interested in one of the roomates to the left? Of course not - none of us want to end up there. This can be a quick consequence to workplace violence...

I blinked and almost missed this article on CNN but was obviously shocked by it. The article I ran across is titled, "Police: Boss kills workers who asked for raise".

As fellow HR Professionals, we would all agree that workplace violence is something that we never want to see at our company. We do our best to coach managers and employees on the best way to work and interact with each other - confrontation and difficult conversations is just about the biggest area that needs improvement. We can make recommendations, give examples, and even role play with each other but sometimes our advice is ignored and either party can be found guilty of reacting in a way where the immediate and future consequences of that reaction is the last thing on their mind.

In the story on CNN we aren't really given a lot of information - just told that the employees weren't happy about their pay and they had asked their boss on numerous occasions about an increase. Their boss just snapped and killed them both. This is obviously the worst possible scenario and outcome...

Here are some resources I found on-line that can be very helpful...

I found some information on Workforce that linked to a couple great pdf's from the FBI and ASIS International. If you're wondering what ASIS is, check out this link.

OSHA has some great resources available. Check out this bit of information from the OSHA website...Its most extreme form, homicide, is the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 564 workplace homicides in 2005 in the United States...

For a great post from a Workplace Violence/Anger Management perspective check out this post from The HR Capitalist...