Peace at Work

A man kills his 5 young children and their mother before committing suicide.  While this frequently occurs in domestic violence cases, the tragedy that unfolded near LA last week stems from when Ervin Lupoe, the suspect, and his wife lost their jobs as medical technicians in a hospital.

 While this tragedy occurred in their home, a frequent precipitant of employee based workplace violence is a termination. With an estimated 2 million jobs lost in the last 4 last months, it is expected that there will be more cases erupting.  “While not every firing of an employee leads to a firing of a gun, there are some common characteristics that may provide clues for prevention”, stated Johnny Lee, Director of Peace at Work. 

While the risk may be apparent when an employee is fired for misconduct or job performance, many hard working and dependable people lose their jobs due to simple economics. They, like the increasing thousands across our nation, are simply being laid off.  But this lack of personal reason does not exempt the employer from revenge.  In November of 2006, in Jamaica, a female manager was gunned down as she walked into her workplace. While no suspect had been caught, numerous employees had just been laid off, generating much animosity and resentment. 

More recently, it was a reduction in force that lead to the murder of top level management including the CEO of semi-conductor company in California.  Engineer Jing Hua Wu, 47, was just laid off when he returned late on a November afternoon with a handgun.

On a deeper level, an employee may self-identify with their position and losing their job is a serious blow to their self-ego. Reggie Edwards had worked for his Whitehall, OH employer for about five years ago but it was central to his identity. “That was his life,” his sister later said. “He would eat, sleep and dream Safe Auto. I mean, that’s how dedicated he was to his company.”  It could very well be that losing that identity leads to desperate actions.  It was March of 2005 Edwards went back to his car after being fired, grabbed a gun and returned to the building.  He fired shots and then took his former a co-worker hostage who he released just before he killed himself.

In a Sarasota, Florida, 55-year-old Jacquelyn Ferguson knew that she was going to be fired. She had allegedly been abusing prescription medication and her job performance suffered.  But the victim, office manager 45-year-old Denise Keyworth, didn’t have the fateful meeting yet. Ferguson shot and killed Keyworth, despite the fact that the manager had the employee over for Christmas dinner last year.  Ferguson then went home to commit suicide.

While the day of the termination has risks, many ex-employees commit violence the next day, even during a Christmas party. Just last month, Benjamin Banky, CEO of a natural health food supplier in Canada, was killed during the company party. Eric Kirkpatrick, who had lost his job the day before, exacted his revenge amid the snacks, presents and decorations.

But there are effective prevention and intervention measures that can be utilized to help mitigate the risk.  A webinar offered on January 29th, 2009 will focus on the occurence and best practices. 

it does illustrate how desperation can lead a ‘normal’ person to commit an incredibly heinous act. While we do not have a full psychological profile of Pardo, he reportedly had a clean record, no history of violence and was active in his church.

But also known is the myriad of problems and losses that he faced. The massacre occurred less than a week before the divorce was finalized. He had apparently lost his electrical engineering job just months before which complicated his financial struggles.