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Maybe because I work in a factory environment with men its not a big deal. Just the other day a guy was running air (very loud)on his machine for a few hours. I told my buddy if so and so dont shut his air off soon im going to murder him. It was taken for the joke that it was and left at that. We both laughed( the normal reaction to that)
Cry me a river,work place shootings happen and trust me most of the people that are doing them are not putting it out their that, that is their plan. Getting fired is not going to stop a person that is planning on shooting up their work. It would probably just add fuel to the fire and make you their number one target.
It is pretty easy to tell when someone is joking around especially if you interact with them on a daily basis, you should have a good grasp on what their personality is like. People need to lighten up! If you are that worried about it than call the cops. If you don't think it is serious enough for you to call the cops, than drop it.
In our company, that remark would require a report, which can be made by anyone who heard it to his own supervisor or to an anonymous hotline/email.
While that particular remark in that circumstance is likely to be shrugged off with no more than a counseling session, the circumstance would only have to be slightly different for the same kind of remark to be a sign of something much more serious.
Yes. We had a guy in one of our field offices who was a bit odd. Lived with his mother still in middle age, and used to talk about his guns and blowing people away. One day a written report came from the resident engineer in that office. "Richard" had made pantomimes of shooting a gun and said to his coworkers, "When my mother goes, you all go."
He reached the early retirement age of 55 before his mother died and left, fortunately.
Bah. It's good ol' fashioned hyperbole.
I prefer something more creative. "Feed 'em into the wood chipper" is a personal favorite.
If you've ever witnessed workplace violence, you would instinctively know that a person saying: "Feed 'em into the wood chipper" cannot actually haul a wood-chipper in and begin toppling each coworker into it without them having a chance to get away. This is not a logical next step. Your example is indeed hyperbole.
If you have experienced or witnessed workplace violence, and overhear a coworker saying they want to slit someone's throat, there is a much scarier image and feeling attached.
There are people walking around and working who are mentally ill, and not diagnosed or not medicated. There are also situations where someone has their personal 'last straw'.
I personally feel safe at work due to the set of policies in place and enforced. They are very basic life lessons learned by people who should know better. It's not my job to examine every conversation and make a judgement call on whether or not the intent is there. It is my job to act as a responsible person and follow simple rules. The person being escorted out with their cardboard box of personal belongings can exclaim all they want about hyperbole and freedom of speech. Maybe they will be free to start their own business now and make up rules they can follow.
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.
In 1998 (before 9/11), we had a team member who was always bringing Guns & Ammo magazines to work and wore long black coats (Ã la Columbine shooters). One day he came to work and told us he was going to make a bomb he saw on the internet. He even pulled up the page on his work computer.
I immediately reported him to building security, and they had a team of armed guards come into our office, remove his badges, and escort him off the campus. He was summarily fired, and never held another decent job after that, at least not around here. He moved to another state and we never heard from him again.
Now, after 9/11, and the increasing terroristic-style events happening all over the world, your fellow employee would be suspended or fired if a manager overheard that.
I'm in mind of a grade-schooler who had made a list of people he wanted to kill and how that was handled. You'd think he'd been a budding axe-murderer though the chances are good that he was angry and using the list to blow off a little steam.
I get angry and I don't make lists of people I want to kill.
If you've ever witnessed workplace violence, you would instinctively know that a person saying: "Feed 'em into the wood chipper" cannot actually haul a wood-chipper in and begin toppling each coworker into it without them having a chance to get away. This is not a logical next step. Your example is indeed hyperbole.
If you have experienced or witnessed workplace violence, and overhear a coworker saying they want to slit someone's throat, there is a much scarier image and feeling attached.
There are people walking around and working who are mentally ill, and not diagnosed or not medicated. There are also situations where someone has their personal 'last straw'.
I personally feel safe at work due to the set of policies in place and enforced. They are very basic life lessons learned by people who should know better. It's not my job to examine every conversation and make a judgement call on whether or not the intent is there. It is my job to act as a responsible person and follow simple rules. The person being escorted out with their cardboard box of personal belongings can exclaim all they want about hyperbole and freedom of speech. Maybe they will be free to start their own business now and make up rules they can follow.
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.
Cry me a river,work place shootings happen and trust me most of the people that are doing them are not putting it out their that, that is their plan. Getting fired is not going to stop a person that is planning on shooting up their work. It would probably just add fuel to the fire and make you their number one target.
So with this logic you're displaying, a person who cannot control themselves and keep threats from coming out of their mouth should not be fired because it'll just make it worse?
Outside of work when someone is making obnoxious remarks, one can walk away from them. At work, when when the employee is making obnoxious remarks that are specifically defined as terrorist threats, or viewed as harassment, the employer is responsible for eliminating the act or person.
If it is impossible to control what comes out of one's mouth, they are the one with the problem, not the people around them.
We've all wished some of our coworkers would just drop dead, and most of us have probably secretly wished to kill a few of them ourselves from time to time. But we don't do it, and we don't say that we want to out loud, publicly. It's called self control.
Someone who outright says they want to slit your throat... Clearly, they don't have the intelligence or self control to know that you DO NOT make something like that public, so who is to say that they don't have the intelligence or self control to not go through with their threat?
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