RE: job-related issues

["Le Vie, DonaldX S" <donaldx -dot- s -dot- le -dot- vie -at- intel -dot- com>]

Those of us around the country feel for you and your comrades. It could
happen to any of us. 


When I worked at a previous employer, we had a similar incident on a smaller
scale. An employee was sitting in his car waiting for his wife to come out
of the credit union (which was in the lobby of the main building). Both
people worked for this company. She had him arrested on the Friday of the
previous week for assault (he frequently beat her up), but then she bailed
him out on Sunday because she was feeling guilty about it (again). I was
walking through the parking lot (as were a few other people) when we hear 5
rapid loud pops. He had walked up behind her as she was getting in to her
car and shot her 5 times in the head with a .357 magnum. He passed within 40
feet of me and several others (ignoring us) as he ran back to his car. He
then sped off. Later that day, the police were closing in on him in a field
not but a half-mile or so from the plant, where he put the gun to his own
head and pulled the trigger.

This event traumatized nearly everyone who worked at the site. You spend at
least 1/3 of your day at work, and while you share facilities with other
people, it is your home away from home. To have that feeling violiated in
such a violent manner is deeply disturbing, I can assure you. While I was
partly in shock from what I witnessed, it didn't him me emotionally until
later in the day and lasted well into the week. I am not ashamed to admit
that I was visibly shaken by the whole thing, and it still gives me the
willies to recount it.

You start wondering "What if he had come inside the plant looking for her?
What if he just started shooting at others in the lobby? What if..." While
entry/exit points were manned by security guards, if you wanted to bad
enough, you could smuggle in a bazooka. You can get paranoid and start
wondering about the person in the cube next to you or on the next row who
collects and displays "GI Joes" or Star Wars collectables in his cube.

The Emergency Response Team held several meetings in the plant's auditorium
to talk about dealing with the feelings (they would absolutely NOT talk
about the incident in particular). I asked if there was anyway anyone could
have known that this was a volatile situation because the woman's coworkers
said she used to come to work bruised, with black eyes...and nobody said a
freakin' thing to anyone. The ERT said they wouldn't respond to any
questions that directly related to the incident. Thanks a lot.

I don't want to get started on an old thread, but I would without hesitation
prefer working next to someone who does a little weed on the weekend than to
someone who beats his wife and terrorizes his kids. Instead of peeing in the
bottle, HR nees to ask "show me your knuckles."

You do not have to be a victim of such a horrible incident to seek out
counseling. Might be a good topic for a local chapter STC meeting (or an
article) to have someone come in and speak about preventing and/or dealing
with workplace violence.

We can only hope that such incidents never happen again.

Donn Le Vie






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