Leave of Absence Often Best Solution

Guarsmark Security’s Weldon Kennedy, a former FBI deputy director, says that if an employee threatens violence and that grhrat is found to be credible, it’s often best toremove the person from the office through a paid leave of absence for counseling, medical treatment, or perhaps even commitment for observation.

Kennedy says firing the employees could trigger immediate violence.

After the person has been put on leave, notify police and seek a restraining order to keep the threating employee off the premises.

Once an aggressor has been put on leave, be sure to cancel his access codes to the premises. Also, diable all network accounts and passwords to prevent him form hacking into the network. Have the computer department install a patch that alerts security if h tires to log on.

Workplace Violence Briefings 11/99