Stopping Violence in the Workplace Starts With Acting on Warning Signs

Once upon a time, two supervisors were engaged in a romance at a Sorrento Valley biotech company. Then, one day, the woman broke it off, leaving her spurned suitor to simmer and steam and eventually blow a gasket.

Or, so it seemed.

“He was doing these scary things,” recalled Robert Levy, a partner in the San Diego office of Luce Forward’s labor and employment practice group, who conducts training seminars for managers.

Among the chills: The woman discovered her locked desk drawer had been opened, and the contents strewn about, while another time she was greeted with cut-out letters proclaiming, “I know where you live.” Finally, there was the coup de grace that really freaked her out , going home and discovering the head of her cat deposited on her bedroom pillow.

During a training session at the company, Levy took the opportunity to check the fellow out.

“He had these piercing blue eyes,” he recalled. “I took one look and came running back to my high-rise tower.”

Levy next conferred with an industrial psychologist, who painted a profile of the man. The shrink’s advice: Find an older male vice president in the firm to “reach out” to him.

“I thought, ‘What have you been smoking? This guy is dangerous,’ ” said Levy. “But we agreed to pursue this, and a vice president talked with him, and it all was defused.”

Absent any hard evidence against the former beau, there were few options, said Levy, and the woman finally agreed to let it go.

Creating A Bubble

Balancing the rights of privacy with the health and safety of office workers is a delicate balancing act for businesses, said Levy.

“It’s a very difficult situation,” he said. “We try to do a combined legal, psychological and practical analysis , a three-pronged approach. There are certain laws protecting the privacy rights of employees, and there are limits on restraining orders.”

When faced with a potential threat, it can get dicey, said Levy.

“Someone in the office will say, ‘This guy is creepy. We want you to get a restraining order,’ ” he said. “I tell them, it’s a game of Uzi beats paper. If he is ready to blow, goes home with the restraining order on Friday, and comes back in with an Uzi on Monday, the restraining order is meaningless. It is an illusion, where you are creating a bubble that can burst.”

Levy prefers to “think outside the box” , not crossing legal barriers, while having a free flow of conversation, and thinking practically, too.

“I just don’t go running out and get restraining orders,” he said. “There are violent, crazy people out there, and you want to get them out of the workplace. But, in the vast majority of cases, you have someone in a pressure cooker, pushed to the edge, and they become unstable for a period of time. Then, they get through the storm and get their feet back under them and get on with their life.”

Overall, Levy said, “San Diego is, by and large, a very mentally healthy town. We have a beautiful location, and people are out and about, active. But, there will be a percentage who will get into trouble.”

In his 27 years in the business, Levy said, “No one has ever gone postal anywhere I have guided them through, but we have come very close.”

Elaine Rogers, a shareholder with the San Diego law office of Wertz McDade Wallace Moot