It took
only minutes for 42-year-old Michael McDermott to become the gunman who stole
Christmas. According to eyewitnesses, McDermott arrived at the Wakefield office
of Edgewater Technology Tuesday armed with a semiautomatic assault rifle, a
12-gauge shotgun, and a pistol. By the time the police captured him in the
reception area, seven employees lay dead from gunfire.
What was
it that could have caused McDermott, charged with seven counts of murder, to “go
crazy,” as one witness described his behavior? What could have made him snap?
Or did he in fact snap?
The
widespread belief that gunmen, like McDermott, erupt suddenly into an
uncontrollable, murderous rage is deeply grounded in the popular vernacular
often used to characterize these events: expressions like “going berserk,” “going
ballistic,” or even “going postal” (a code word for workplace massacres coined
after a string of post office shootings in the mid-1980s and early 1990s). The
prevailing view is that mass killers are totally out of touch with reality
(that is, psychotic) and select their victims randomly.
To the
contrary, however, most mass murderers - and workplace avengers in particular -
do not just explode and start shooting spontaneously at anything that moves.
Typically, these murderers act with calm deliberation, often planning their
assault for days, if not weeks or months in advance. Their preparations involve assembling the arsenal of weaponry as
well as determining the most effective means of attack.
In
addition, workplace mass murderers tend to be quite selective in targeting
their victims. Rather than an act of sheer insanity, their homicide is an act
of controlled vengeance. Victims are chosen specifically because of the
perceived harm that they have caused the perpetrator, who may himself feel like
a victim of injustice.
Of
course, it may be difficult to consider many of the slain employees of the
Wakefield massacre to be in any way responsible for McDermott’s adversities, no
matter how paranoid his perceptions may have been. But if McDermott’s motive
was to strike back at Edgewater Technology, then executing anyone employed
there would have fulfilled his mission.
In many
instances, profoundly disgruntled workers imagine a wide-ranging network of
unfairness on the job implicating nearly everyone. In effect, they seek to kill
the company. Innocent workers, although uninvolved with the killer’s grievance,
may be targeted as proxies for the
corporate enterprise.
McDermott,
it has been reported, was upset that Edgewater Technology was about to garnish
his wages to pay back taxes he owed to the IRS. In his mind, conceivably, the
company had gone from ally to enemy, joining hands with the federal government
to ruin him financially. He apparently saw in mass murder his opportunity to
make a preemptive strike against the firm.
In the
weeks and months ahead, we will undoubtedly learn much more about the tortured
mind and angry personality of McDermott. We will determine if he indeed fits
the usual profile of the “employee from hell,” a profile that has become all
too familiar in recent times.
Typically,
the workplace avenger is a middle-aged white male who feels that his job and
financial well-being are in jeopardy. Facing yet another disappointment or
failure at work, he senses that his career is slipping away. He also believes
that he is not to blame for his employment troubles. Rather, it’s the supervisor who gives him poor assignments or
doesn’t appreciate his hard work; it’s his co-workers who get all the credit
when profits go up; it’s the human resources personnel who are out to get him.
In
support of his conspiratorial thinking, the workplace avenger prior to his
deadly rampage typically suffers a catastrophic event, which, in his mind,
represents the final straw.
For
McDermott, the triggering episode may have involved the scheduled reduction in
his take-home check for payment of back taxes as well as the news that his
automobile was about to be repossessed. His financial woes had apparently grown
too large for him to tolerate.
Reports
from neighbors describe McDermott as a “loner.” Most mass killers are indeed isolated, socially and psychologically.
Importantly, they lack the companionship of friends and family who might help
ease them through the hard times and place employment troubles in perspective. Holidays like Christmas can sometimes
intensify feelings of loneliness, especially for those individuals who lack
support systems the rest of the year.
Unfortunately,
the grieving families of the Edgewater Technology victims share a tragedy that
too many others have suffered. Nationally, about six people are murdered every
month at the hands of a co-worker or former co-worker. And for every incident
of workplace homicide, thousands of workers are assaulted or threatened by an
associate. We can only wonder, moreover, as the economy softens and an
increasing number of middle-aged workers face downsizing, whether other
beleaguered employees will choose to be the one to do the firing.
In
response to rising levels of workplace violence, a wide range of books and
pamphlets, seminars, and consultants have surfaced to help companies cope with
the fearful threat of violence on the job. Some specialists focus on security
concerns, others on promoting effective employee screening techniques or
channels of communication to alert management to troublesome workers.
The term
“profiling” has become a catchword for those who would search for telltale
clues for identifying potential murderers before they strike. If there is indeed a profile of typical
workplace avengers, can we spot them before they take matters and guns into
their own hands?
·
Regrettably,
such prediction strategies are doomed to fail. There are likely tens of
thousands of disgruntled Americans in workplaces large and small who are
frustrated, never smile, and live alone, yet very few will ever translate their
inner feelings of anger into outward expressions of violence.
Yet in
the aftermath of a mass killing, everyone becomes a psychologist when it comes
to identifying murderous behavior. With
the benefit of hindsight, neighbors and co-workers suddenly find all of the
warning signs that they ignored beforehand - when they might have used such
information possibly to prevent a massacre. As one of McDermott’s co-workers
suggested upon hearing about the shooting in Wakefield: “I knew right away it
was McDermott.” Of course, just like everybody else, the co-worker “knew” only after
the tragic fact had occurred.
Moreover,
should we be too proactive and aggressive in trying to spot the so-called “ticking
time bomb,” we can easily do much more harm than good. If this employee
perceives that he is being singled out in a negative way - even if it is to
coerce him into counseling - his resentment and feelings of persecution can
actually intensify.
·
Although
we may not be able to predict the next Michael McDermott, we can certainly
strive to enhance the workplace climate for everyone, especially should a
recession take its toll on the nation’s work force.
The
overriding goal should be to make civility and decency in the workplace as
critical as profit. Companies need to upgrade and humanize the way in which
they deal with all employees every day rather than just to focus narrowly on
how to respond to the one who has made threats or fits a profile. Long-term
planning with strong human resources programs will greatly improve the
workplace climate and employee morale. A study conducted for Northwestern
National Life Insurance concluded that companies with effective grievance,
harassment, and security procedures also reported lower rates of workplace
violence.
A
single-minded focus on financial profit and loss ignores the human dimension.
As Arnold Hiatt of the Stride Rite Foundation has said, “employees are a
company’s most valuable resource.” Besides, in view of the tremendous costs
associated with a violent episode (lost wages, lawsuits, increased insurance
premiums, employee attrition, public relations problems, etc.), investing in
employee well-being may be a wise business move from which everyone in a
company can profit.
James Alan
Fox is the Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice at Northeastern
University. He is coauthor, with Jack Levin, of “The Will to Kill: Making Sense
of Senseless Murder” (Allyn and Bacon, 2001).
SOURCE:
By James Alan Fox