Violence in your workplace: Would you know what to do?

By Steve Giegerich, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

An interview last week with Canadian security expert Ross Arrowsmith about the ABB Inc. shootings that left four dead on Jan. 7, including the gunman, left me with a couple of recurring thoughts.

First, there is the Website that drew me to Arrowsmith, the co-founder of workplaceviolencenews.com, in the first place.

I have a feeling I’m not the only one who was disheartened to learn workplace carnage has become so ubiquitous that an entire site is now devoted to data and research on the subject. (Case in point: ABB had yet to bury all its dead before it happened again — on Jan. 12 a disgruntled employee gunned down five co-workers, killing three, at an Atlanta truck rental facility.)

Then there was Arrowsmith’s observation about minimizing the damage should someone turn up at the workplace armed and ready to create mayhem.

Companies large and small, Arrowsmith notes, have long prepared for the possibility of one possible disaster by requiring employee participation in fire drills . Why, he asks, don’t businesses take similar precautions to protect workers should rampage unfold during working hours?

The question is rhetorical. Obviously, no wants to imagine it can happen in their office, factory or shop. Which is precisely, we can assume, what the employees at ABB believed two weeks ago.

I called Arrowsmith back on Monday asked him to put on the hat he wears when conducting safety drills at companies honest enough to acknowledge that violence could, in fact, occur in their place of business.

Surviving a workplace shooting, he said, requires each employee to come up with a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A is always “get as far away from the source of the problem as possible” because….

Plan B — hiding — is not much of an option at all. Arrowsmith says workers that take cover under desks or in offices that lack a viable means of escape place themselves at the mercy of the shooter.

The secret to survival, he said, is to always be aware of your surroundings. Whether at your desk, chatting with a colleague down the hall, grabbing a snack in the cafeteria or drying your hands in the washroom, he advises employees always make a quick mental note of the nearest exit.

Remember, Arrowsmith emphasizes, the number one priority in the event the unthinkable erupts where you go about your business each day is “get out of there.”