Providium Human Resource Group

Rochester Business Journal
June, 2007

Effective policies, plans help deal with troubled workers

After the deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University last month, Rochester psychologist Jay Supnick called aclient.

He advised the client, a local universi-ty that Supnick declines to identify, to form a "threat assessment" team to keep tabs on people who seem to have mental or emotional problems.

If someone had watched the Virginia Tech assailant over the long term, the horrific campus bloodbath might have been prevented, Supnick explains. Professors and others had noticed the student's behavior and bizarre writing—but no one tracked a long-term progression that could have signaled what was to come.

"You can't predict behavior over a long period of time, but you can do frequent observations," says Supnick, a clinical psychologist who works with police departments and employers on workplace issues.

Most mental health experts are trained only to determine whether someone presents an imminent danger to himself or others, he adds.

"They'll say, it's not an imminent danger, there's nothing we can do," he says.

Virginia Tech serves as a potent reminder of the importance of strong human resources policies—and careful, effective management, experts say. Problems with disturbed employees are not common, experts say, but companies should be prepared to deal with issues from both a mental health and legal perspective.

"I think it all starts with having a policy in place, having a work force that is aware of the policy and.is trained as to what to do in the event of an incident," says Patrick DiLaura, president and partner at Providium Human Resource Group LLC. "It's one thing to have a program that's on the shelf collecting dust; it's quite another to have a program that's lived and operational every day."

Staff members should be trained on how to react if an employee becomes violent, DiLaura says. A company also needs to perform a security check of its premises to ensure that a work space is safe.

Most important, staff needs to know that management has no tolerance for violent or abusive behavior and that supervisors will act on that policy consistently, DiLaura says. That means a thorough investigation when a complaint is brought.

DiLaura defined abuse as behavior that makes co-workers uneasy.

"It can be someone who constantly tells off-color jokes that involve violence," he says. "Someone who jokingly threatens somebody. They're masking their true intent.

"With the training and the policy, you can make employees aware of those things—things they might have dismissed as, 'Gee, that person's an oddball.'"

DiLaura warns against being "too rash."

"Certainly you want to have a very clear statement about what management's position is," he says. "You also want to be reasonable, weigh the facts."

In an internal investigation, employers can gather facts about an incident and take further steps, such as referring a worker to the company employee assistance program, documenting the incident and keeping a close eye on an individual who is troubled, he says.

"Make sure you monitor the situation," DiLaura says. "You don't necessarily want to jump from A to Z, terminate the employee on the spot, where it could become problematic from a legal perspective."

Although problems with disturbed employees are not common, he says they may be more prevalent in certain industries— those in which employees feel constant pressure to deliver, especially under frequent deadlines.

Organizations tend to be guarded with information about incidents involving emotionally disturbed employees, DiLaura adds.

"While they do occur, I don't think it's anything that would be hitting the media, for obvious reasons," he says. "I'm sure there are incidents that occur on a fairly regular basis. In most cases they're minor—abusive language, physical contact." A Xerox Corp. spokesman declined to comment for this article, saying the company had concerns about confidentiality of employees and that human resources -officials did not want to discuss speculative scenarios. Paychex Inc. officials also I declined to participate. Rochester's largest employer, University of Rochester, said officials alerted students and employees soon after the Virginia tech shooting about ways to report concerns about students or workers to UR security or mental health offices. Joanne Dermady, director of the employee-assistance program at the university says the school is fortunate to have internal resources-such as a security staff, legal department—even an emergency department-at its Strong Memorial Hospital-to handle such problems.

Problems with disturbed employees are not common, but they may be more prevalent in certain industries-f or example, in organizations where employees are under frequent deadlines.

"Each situation is treated individually," Dermady says.

If an employee is performing his job satisfactory, it can be hard for a manager to raise concerns about emotional stability, she says. In most cases a supervisor is not afraid, but rather is concerned because an employee’'s appearance has changed and the individual is showing signs of behavior changes, such as isolation. Employee assistance program officials at UR often suggest that a manager approach the employee, "nicely and gently, saying, I've noticed this XYZ and it's different than before,'" Dermady says. "Talk about the things you're seeing that concern you. It might be isolating, it might be yelling and screaming at significant others on the phone."

If Dermady had to define an area of the 17,000- employee university where employees may be more prone to emotional upset, she says it would most likely be Strong Memorial Hospital, where staff are under more pressure and tighter regulations.

"People's perceptions of what is stressful and how they manage that are so different," Dermady notes. "Housekeeping can be a stressful department. People doing research, sometimes it's their life work. "We really work with people's perception." Sometimes employees describe intolerable work situations that make them ill or keep them up at night, Dermady says. EAP works with them to find different ways of approaching the problem or perceiving it. In some cases the best result is an employee deciding to leave the job. Supnick recommends that in addition to such: mental health services, organizations develop clear threat assessment plans. An investigation into a report of a troubled employee should involve an interview of all of the individuals involved, Supnick says. The company should gather information on all of the behaviors causing concerns.

A threat at of violence could result in a decision to fire the employee, and a separation agreement can help to defuse the situation, Supnick says. Even in a job termination, a company should coordinate with local police to ensure safety after the individual is gone, he says.

For less immediate concerns, Supnick suggest; a threat assessment team should be developed, with at least one individual responsible for monitoring an employee’s behavior on a long-term basis. “Changes in behavior, secretiveness, withdrawal—it's usually not one thing, it’s a constellation," Supnick says. "Someone starts not showing up for work and

It starts adding up.”

He says people always are ambivalent about violent acts.

"They struggle with that part of them that wants to do it, is angry or looking for fame, and the part of them that doesn't want to do that," Supnick says. "They often leak out information so other people will help them and stop them.

He adds: "People leave a series of potentially discoverable clues that let you know what their intentions are. Violence is usually the last piece in a long chain of degenerating behavior."

More often than not, however, employers overreact to a troubled employee, says Nelson Thomas, employment lawyer at Dolin, Thomas & Solomon LLP. "Often there is an assumption that any mental health issues lead to violent behavior," he says. "Most mental health issues are not violent concerns or threats to the workplace."

An overreaction by an employer could result in claims of violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Thomas says. Employers have a duty to reasonably accommodate an employee who suffers from a non-threatening mental condition.

"The most important thing is to get in touch with a good mental health expert," Thomas says. "You need someone who knows not only mental health issues but also their impact in the workplace." Corporations are at different stages of skill in handling such matters, says Paul Keneally, employment attorney at Un-derberg & Kessler LLP. Some progressive companies have had anti-harassment, anti-violence or anti-discrimination policies in place for decades, while most adopted them in response to statutes passed in the early 1990s, he says.

The American Health Insurance Accountability Act of 1996 has somewhat complicated employers' handling of concerns about employees' mental health, Keneally says, because of legal issues around privacy of medical records and how they can be used in employment decisions. "It shouldn't prevent appropriate action," he says, adding that disciplinary action up to and including termination for ob- jectionable conduct is fine.

But without an obvious threat or violent behavior, Keneally says an employee who makes a claim of a disability due to mental health problems is entitled to reasonable accommodations under ADA

In the extreme situation, even the ADA is not going to require reasonable accommodation for violent behavior," he says. Paul Keneally, employment attorney at Underberg & Kessler, says some progressive companies have had anti-harassment, anti-violence or anti-discrimination policies in place for decades. jpieterse @ rbj.net 1585-546-8303