Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 8, 1993 TAG: 9302080030
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT DVORCHAK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RILED WORKERS STRIKE BACK - WITH LETHAL INTENT
Bosses, beware. Killing sprees by disgruntled employees are on the rise in the workplace. Some say it's because of a growing sense of despair, frustration and alienation in workers who have lost their jobs."A lot of them are actually trying to kill the company because they think the whole stinking place is against them. They just want to get even, and the more people that die, the sweeter the revenge," said James Alan Fox, dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston.
"It's called murder by proxy. The reason why they kill co-workers is they're associated with the boss, an extension of the original target," Fox said. "The message is: `Look who's doing the firing now.' "
So far this year:
Paul Calden, 33, a claims manager fired by the Firemen's Fund Insurance Co., killed three bosses and wounded two others at an office cafeteria in Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 27. "This is what you get for firing me," Calden said as he pulled a gun from his suit. He later killed himself with a shot to the head.
Michael Wayne Burns, 37, is accused of killing one co-worker and wounding seven others Wednesday at the Prescolite Inc. factory in El Dorado, Ark., where he worked. The shooting spree ended when one of the wounded hit Burns in the head with a pipe. Investigators said Burns apparently was upset over harassment from co-workers.
Phone company lineman Paul Hannah, 46, is charged with killing a Chicago union steward on Thursday as Hannah was being suspended for refusing to take a drug test. He aimed the gun at a company manager, but it misfired six times. The union steward was killed as he tried to intervene.
Fernando Ruiz, 30, shot his boss to death and wounded a female co-worker at Dahn's Fresh Herbs in Houston on Saturday because his boss planned to fire him for theft and for harassing the co-worker. Ruiz shot and killed himself in the building attic.
"It is a growing problem. We have to prepare for more of this for many years to come," Fox said.
Fox's profile shows that the killers tend to be white middle-aged men, loners with a history of frustration or disappointment on the job, a diminished ability to cope with frustration and a tendency to blame others for their problems. A gun is the weapon of choice to maximize killing.
"The thing that is leading people to commit these crimes is a sense of hopelessness. They don't feel there are any alternatives," said Joseph Kinney of the Chicago-based National Safe Workplace Institute.
He attributed the escalating rate of violence on the job to vulnerability - few workers or managers have lifetime jobs in these days of pink slips, and stressed-out people with easy access to guns are more willing to resort to violence.
"I think it's going to get much worse," Kinney said.
Psychologists believe companies can provide safety valves such as offering employee-assistance programs, training mangers to resolve conflicts, providing severance packages to soften the blow of layoffs and being more sensitive.
There are established processes in hiring workers but not in letting them go, experts say.
"Unfortunately, many organizations have sort of lost their heart. Workers feel dehumanized and devalued. The bottom-line figure crunchers miss the point that they are dealing with real-life human beings who have breaking points," said James Zender, a clinical psychologist in Birmingham, Mich.
"When people snap, they feel there's only one option open to them, and that is to destroy the source of frustration. Typically, they destroy themselves, too. They feel they are not going to survive, so they might as well take some people with them," Zender said.
Zender wrote a paper for the American Psychological Association on the Nov. 14, 1991, shooting at the U.S. Post Office in Royal Oak, Mich. Thomas McIlvane, 31, a postal worker fired for timecard fraud who had vowed revenge on his superiors, killed four supervisors and wounded five employees before killing himself with his semiautomatic rifle.
"Violence is a way in which one deals with emotions," said Roger Wittrup, a Michigan psychologist who studied the Royal Oak postal shooting. "People feel desperate. They don't feel anybody cares. There are people who feel betrayed or let down by their employers."
Keywords:
FATALITY