Violence In The Workplace
That was the name of a training session which our Government Agency mandates as necessary for all employees, including contractors, and which my immediate coworkers and I finally got around to receiving on Friday. It was interesting, actually; some of the topics were thought-provoking although I'm skeptical about the educational value, although maybe that's my personal jadedness; I felt that I didn't need to "learn" the things in the session, but perhaps some of my coworkers did. Or didn't. One issue I found interesting, although somewhat tangential, was the question of what to do if you believe that a coworker is being abused at home. One of us argued that since that's not a work-related matter, it would be overstepping the boundaries of what is and isn't your business to alert your supervisor. (My initial thought was alerting the police rather than a supervisor, but for a variety of reasons that's not actually a practical idea, which I should have figured out before opening my mouth. So I learned something after all!) There were two interesting counter-examples, though, provided by long-time employees - people who worked at the Government Agency for the previous contractor and in at least one case directly for the Agency itself back in the day.
(1) A woman whose boyfriend came to the workplace, called her into the parking lot, and began beating her there.
(2) A woman whose supervisor documented every occasion when she came to work with bruises, even to the point of taking photographs (I wasn't clear on whether the woman was cooperating with the documentation in this regard or if the photos were taken surreptitiously), so that when finally the woman reported her husband to the police, her supervisor was able to provide evidence that the abuse had been going on for months.
I just thought that was interesting stuff. In my old job, among other responsibilities I read discovery documents in labor cases.* I read about one story where a woman's boyfriend came to the workplace and started a fight with a male employee whom the boyfriend suspected his girlfriend was cheating with, but I never read about a man actually coming to his s/o's job to assault her in the parking lot. I really don't know what to make of it, beyond the obvious.
* A plaintiff suing for wrongful termination needs to demonstrate the he was treated differently than those coworkers with analogous situations. For example, if a man was officially fired for coming to work drunk, but he claims he was fired because of his age, his attorney would like to be able to demonstrate that other employees who came to work drunk were disciplined but not fired. Therefore, in a wrongful termination suit, the personnel files of everyone who had the same rank (at least) as the plaintiff are generally part of the discovery, and need to be Bates labeled (by me). I also tended to read these files because they were the most overtly entertaining part of my job. I was often officially assigned to do specific readthroughs of discovery documents - flag every email with the word "sponsor," highlight every deposition passage relating to the morning commute - but was only once overtly tasked to look for something in personnel files.
Unfortunately, the training session - which had been scheduled a few weeks in advance - had some timeliness, because a few days before, the #2 supervisor at our satellite office was attacked in the ladies' room during work hours. I have heard both that she was attacked by a disgruntled client and by somebody acting on behalf of a recent firee - and also heard some details that are intended to discredit her account, which I have not directly heard. This is the sort of thing I intentionally abstain from: I don't know the details and am not interested in speculating, and am happy for the police to do their job. What isn't in doubt is that she was kept overnight in the hospital, though I don't believe her injuries are serious in the scheme of things.
I also found out today that a friend of mine's brother-in-law was murdered a few months ago, and although I never met him (I did once meet her sister) I was pretty well speechless for a while. I don't really have much to say about it, I guess. The police are still investigating but they believe it was related to his work as a district attorney.
And to close with something much lighter in tone, because it's not all violence and sadness at Medrawt HQ, I have definitive proof of the aging process doing its inevitable work upon me. My beard, when I grow it, has always sheltered the stray red hair - so did my father's before it went salt and pepper, and so did my grandfather's mustache before I was born - but recently I've noted that it contains one or two hairs of a decidedly new color. My youth is slipping away, one dull Saturday night after the next, and I've got the grey hairs to prove it.
(1) A woman whose boyfriend came to the workplace, called her into the parking lot, and began beating her there.
(2) A woman whose supervisor documented every occasion when she came to work with bruises, even to the point of taking photographs (I wasn't clear on whether the woman was cooperating with the documentation in this regard or if the photos were taken surreptitiously), so that when finally the woman reported her husband to the police, her supervisor was able to provide evidence that the abuse had been going on for months.
I just thought that was interesting stuff. In my old job, among other responsibilities I read discovery documents in labor cases.* I read about one story where a woman's boyfriend came to the workplace and started a fight with a male employee whom the boyfriend suspected his girlfriend was cheating with, but I never read about a man actually coming to his s/o's job to assault her in the parking lot. I really don't know what to make of it, beyond the obvious.
* A plaintiff suing for wrongful termination needs to demonstrate the he was treated differently than those coworkers with analogous situations. For example, if a man was officially fired for coming to work drunk, but he claims he was fired because of his age, his attorney would like to be able to demonstrate that other employees who came to work drunk were disciplined but not fired. Therefore, in a wrongful termination suit, the personnel files of everyone who had the same rank (at least) as the plaintiff are generally part of the discovery, and need to be Bates labeled (by me). I also tended to read these files because they were the most overtly entertaining part of my job. I was often officially assigned to do specific readthroughs of discovery documents - flag every email with the word "sponsor," highlight every deposition passage relating to the morning commute - but was only once overtly tasked to look for something in personnel files.
Unfortunately, the training session - which had been scheduled a few weeks in advance - had some timeliness, because a few days before, the #2 supervisor at our satellite office was attacked in the ladies' room during work hours. I have heard both that she was attacked by a disgruntled client and by somebody acting on behalf of a recent firee - and also heard some details that are intended to discredit her account, which I have not directly heard. This is the sort of thing I intentionally abstain from: I don't know the details and am not interested in speculating, and am happy for the police to do their job. What isn't in doubt is that she was kept overnight in the hospital, though I don't believe her injuries are serious in the scheme of things.
I also found out today that a friend of mine's brother-in-law was murdered a few months ago, and although I never met him (I did once meet her sister) I was pretty well speechless for a while. I don't really have much to say about it, I guess. The police are still investigating but they believe it was related to his work as a district attorney.
And to close with something much lighter in tone, because it's not all violence and sadness at Medrawt HQ, I have definitive proof of the aging process doing its inevitable work upon me. My beard, when I grow it, has always sheltered the stray red hair - so did my father's before it went salt and pepper, and so did my grandfather's mustache before I was born - but recently I've noted that it contains one or two hairs of a decidedly new color. My youth is slipping away, one dull Saturday night after the next, and I've got the grey hairs to prove it.
posted by medrawt at
22:24
