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One of the people who will be attending Thanksgiving dinner with my family was nearly the victim of workplace violence several decades ago. Her late husband was a jealous man and he suspected (wrongly) that his wife was getting "too close to her boss". He burst into the office one day and shot and killed the boss and several other people before killing himself. Several other people in the office, including his wife, narrowly escaped being killed because they were able to run and hide when the shooting started.
Apparently, he had said that he was going to "shoot up her office" several times but everyone thought that he was just joking.
I have a similar incident. No one died, but the guy still had his badge to swipe to get in. You can be sure that no longer happens.
It's all about context. It's one thing to say "I'm going to kill them" in a generic manner for some workplace issue; everyone has said that about somebody at some point at work to blow off some steam. If someone said that it's assumed to be a joke.
It's different to say "I'm going to slit their throats"; that requires forethought of an actual method of murdering someone and sounds much more serious than just a generic comment to blow off some steam. If I heard a comment about slitting throats, I would likely feel compelled to report it - anonymously if possible.
The other day my coworker said in front of our manager that she was so annoyed with some of the outside sales reps that she wanted to "slit their throats". Of course it was a joke but I'm concerned that might be a bit too much. I might say I want to slap them or something but murder them? I don't think my manager would do anything since he is pretty easy going but you really have to be careful in the workplace.
To be blunt, normal people say they're annoyed with someone. They don't say something specific like they want to slit his throat -- and saying that is about as far from a joke as you can get. It needs to be reported to HR and the person's manager right away.
Slit their throats? That's pretty specific and graphic. It's one thing to vent about coworkers to your friends outside of work but saying that in the office in front of people is totally inappropriate, esp. in light of the fact that real workplace violence is nothing new anymore. Do they say this kind of stuff all the time? Who'd want to listen to something like that every day?
Depends. If you work on a construction site, no biggie. Everyone's heard worse. If you work in an uptight office, and most of them are, yeah, not acceptable. Just depends though. I've had a supervisor tell me he'd blood eagle me if I did something again. That was more serious than the regular stab you in the face with a soldering iron line. He was sort of a nerdy version of James Mattis and awesome though, so no one ever complained about it.
I get angry and I don't make lists of people I want to kill.
Maybe you could get a job teaching nonviolence in the workplace. You could travel to different venues where they could point you out and say, "See this guy? No matter how angry he gets he never makes a list of people he wants to kill."
The other day my coworker said in front of our manager that she was so annoyed with some of the outside sales reps that she wanted to "slit their throats". Of course it was a joke but I'm concerned that might be a bit too much. I might say I want to slap them or something but murder them? I don't think my manager would do anything since he is pretty easy going but you really have to be careful in the workplace.
I don't think either comment is appropriate, especially in the work place. Kinda wonder what kind of atmosphere you all have in your work place that someone would even think these comments are ok.
Sounds like some work place violence and boundary issue talks are in order asap.
Although it may be hyperbole I was not suggesting it should be condoned. The manager should have said immediately after that We do not use comments like that here. Then he should have later followed that up with a private meeting with the employee explaining why that was not acceptable and that it would not be tolerated in the future. But, firing the person would have been a little extreme that first time IMHO.
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