Municipal Staffers Learn To Recognize Workplace Violence Warning Signs

By John Voket

One afternoon, as town workers continued their efforts to clean up and widen local roads following the recent intense snowfall, the collegial banter of radio traffic among town highway workers suddenly stopped as one plow driver shouted out, “Send police right away to my location.”

And a few days later, in the hushed confines of the Newtown Municipal Center, police were nearly called upon again as a resident who came to the tax collector’s office began yelling at the clerk who was trying to assist the individual at the counter.

While these scenarios are few and far between in Newtown, confrontations in the workplace between employees or complete strangers have taken their toll. One of the state’s most notorious incidents of workplace violence occurred in a quiet, suburban Newington office in March 1998, after state lottery employee Matthew Beck showed up for work, hung up his coat, and produced a knife and handgun, killing four co-workers before taking his own life.

And as recently as August 3 of last year, Omar Thornton showed up for work at Hartford Distributors in Manchester and following a disciplinary meeting, opened fire with two handguns he stashed in a lunchbox, shooting 10 co-workers and killing eight of them before turning one of the guns on himself.

With incidents like these never far from their minds, more than 70 Newtown municipal employees gathered at the municipal center on February 14, not to celebrate Valentine’s Day, but to attend a workshop to help them recognize the warning signs and possibly prevent or diffuse a potentially violent workplace confrontation. The workshop was hosted by the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency (CIRMA).

According to Newtown Human Resources Director Carole Ross, neither of the two local scenarios got too far out of hand to the point of becoming physical. But the police did have to respond to the highway department call, and in the case of the person in the tax office, verbal threats were made before First Selectman Pat Llodra was notified and helped to calm the resident involved.

In almost a quarter-century working for the town, Tax Collector Carol Mahoney has had to call police to either intervene or stand by and observe individuals who appeared to be threatening on several occasions, including one where the person at the counter said he was armed.

But she said any town employee could find themselves confronting either an irate visitor, or in some cases a co-worker who is motivated to either do harm to others or themselves. And especially today, with the strain of weather-related issues playing as much a role as the rough economy, she said the workplace violence workshop came none too soon.

“It was really helpful, I thought,” Ms Mahoney said. “It gave us some ideas about how to handle a situation if it starts to get out of hand.” The tax collector said in difficult economic times, “sometimes people are way more on edge.”

The tax official said that various town employees may come in contact with angry or upset individuals who are going through hard times.

“And people may be more inclined in those situations to speak their mind at the local level,” Ms Mahoney said. “And we’re here to listen and to try and help, but the interaction has to occur in a way that doesn’t make an employee feel threatened.”

Assessor Chris Kelsey said that advice from the CIRMA representative also shed some light on recognizing a fellow employee who might be prone to some sort of violent situation. In a previous position, he attended a similar workshop that was conducted by local police officials.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley said the workplace violence talk was extremely valuable, and he hopes that the town can hold another one so every town staffer can attend.

“I thought it went far toward clarifying that workplace violence is not just a product of a one-on-one confrontation,” he said, adding that the workshop reinforced that a workplace has to be a place that fosters an “atmosphere of mutual respect that can go far toward reducing the potential for incidents.”

“Ultimately, a verbal interaction can quickly escalate into a physical one, which on occasion we have seen can lead to a tragedy,” Mr Hurley said.

The highway chief said that on the part of town workers, everyone has to understand “you can’t be abusive.” And he said in situations like one of his drivers faced during the recent storm cleanup, it was likely fatigue on the part of his crew member, as well as the citizen, that caused a somewhat routine situation to escalate.

“Sometimes there’s an assumption on the part of a taxpayer that you can verbally beat up on a town employee, but it becomes unhealthy when this type of overreaction occurs, on the part of both people involved,” Mr Hurley said.

He said his employees learned that there should always be a sense of awareness for the potential of workplace violence, and he was glad town workers learned how to negotiate themselves away from situations that might create a violent confrontation.

Ms Ross followed up on the presentation with the introduction of a local employee policy on workplace violence. In part, the policy states that: “Warning signs, symptoms and risk factors [for workplace violence] may include discussing weapons, displaying overt signs of extreme stress, resentment, hostility or anger, making threatening remarks, deterioration of performance, inappropriate irrational behavior, intimidating statements, lack of empathy, history of personal conflicts, strange behavior. Supervisors should be aware of these indicators.”

The February 14 session was the first in a series of workshops Ms Ross is planning for municipal personnel. Those sessions continue Monday, February 28, with meetings to discuss sexual harassment, Ms Ross said.