Workplace threats - how do you convince a manager to drop a dime?

[Carol]

One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was fire someone from their job.

Fortunately I have not had to do that often, but the times I have, it was incredibly difficult.

When a person is involuntarily terminated from their job, it's not unusual for them to make contact again with the company a few days after the event. Sometimes the ex-employee has a question about references, or a personal belonging left at work. Sometimes they call to vent their anger.

I have heard (but thankfully never experienced) about situations where the terminated employee called their old boss to vent their anger. The call starts out with the normal angry-former-employee stuff ("You'll here from my lawyer")...and then escalates. In rare cases, in the heat of passion, the employee threatens some kind of violence, such as coming back with a loaded gun.

What bothers me is that there are many managers that don't take this sort of threat as seriously as they should.

Certainly, the manager wants to believe that the ex-employee is all talk (and who can blame them)? But that does not mean the threat should be ignored.

For some reason, dropping a dime in the workplace seems to be harder. Perhaps there is a fear of bad press. Perhaps there is a fear that calling the police would be seen as rocking the organizational boat. Perhaps they feel apprehensive because they do not have much proof of wrongdoing?

If you were to meet a manager in such a situation, how would you convince him/her to take these threats seriously, and call 911 when/if they happen?

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

I have been in similar situations in which people threaten to shoot the manager he locked himself in the manager office and called the police.
I have been threated at work I called our third party who presses down on Human resource in which the person was terminated from work.
Always get things documented call the police yourself if you are in doubt.
Better to loose your job than your life.

 

[grydth]

Odd how things can looks so different from another vantage point. I am the manager that hires/fires and I am also the Security Coordinator. It doesn't take much for me to call the guards or even send the police over to talk with a blusterer. I never take any threat lightly.

But - - - I have a continuing frustration with ordinary people who are slow tp report serious threats. It simply defies belief.

One example - walking through Customer Service one afternoon, I was told I had, "missed all the excitement that morning". When I asked what that might have been, I was told that a dissatisfied person yelled he, "was coming back with a bomb and blowing the f- - - ing building up".............Now, this was at about 2:30, and the threat was at 10:30 that morning. Nobody had reported this to anyone in Security or Management!!!!!

So, go figure.:hb:

 

[shesulsa]

I worked at a packaging plant for a well-known oil company in Portland and there was careful discussion from time to time on when and who shall drop that dime. Press know the address of big companies, especially ones who are potentially environmentally "dangerous." They hear the address on the police scanners, perhaps even the company name, and they can sometimes arrive before the police do. Then the company managers have to deal with the press.

Companies don't want to deal with the press in moments like this, it could be bad for them legally and economically.

I've come to the age in life, however, where I don't think I'd care what my manager had to say. I'd make the call if it were necessary and if they reprimanded me for doing so, I'd try to make them pay for it.

 

[grydth]

My workers are told that any one of them can and should call 911, or pull a fire alarm.

 

[jks9199]

Odd how things can looks so different from another vantage point. I am the manager that hires/fires and I am also the Security Coordinator. It doesn't take much for me to call the guards or even send the police over to talk with a blusterer. I never take any threat lightly.

But - - - I have a continuing frustration with ordinary people who are slow tp report serious threats. It simply defies belief.

One example - walking through Customer Service one afternoon, I was told I had, "missed all the excitement that morning". When I asked what that might have been, I was told that a dissatisfied person yelled he, "was coming back with a bomb and blowing the f- - - ing building up".............Now, this was at about 2:30, and the threat was at 10:30 that morning. Nobody had reported this to anyone in Security or Management!!!!!

So, go figure.:hb:

You think that's frustrating... try being a cop. It's not at all uncommon for us to canvass an area after something, and get several "well, y'know, I saw this car sitting there for 4 hours..." or something similar. One of most frustrating examples occurred several years ago. I was working day shift, and as I came on duty, the night shift was trying to catch some people who had been breaking into cars. One of the victims actually laid hands on the suspects briefly, but couldn't keep hold of them. They got away. A few hours later, I'm dispatched on a "suspicious event" call. A woman who'd been up with a hungry baby had looked out, and seen some kids trying to get into cars on her street. Yep -- the same street. About 20 minutes before the one victim caught them in the act. Gee... you think a call to the cops might have prevented some larcenies that morning? Like I tell people -- you're not going to take a cop away from something more important; at most, you'll save someone a traffic citation!

Sure -- most of the people who call and scream at or threaten the boss who just fired them are simply venting, and would never carry the threat out. That's not ALL of them. Hindsight sucks... Take two minutes and document the call, at least with the internal security people or in a memo to HR. At worst, you're out a few minutes of your day. Make it a policy -- and discipline people who don't report things. Reward someone who does report something.