Despite a harrowing incident at a Stamford office this month, new federal data show that workplace violence continued to decline in Connecticut in 2008.
On Friday afternoon, Oct. 2, a man walked into an XL Capital office at 70 Seaview Ave. in Stamford, and assaulted a manager there, including a possible attempt to strangle her with a cord and aiming a handgun at her.
One XL employee described how he and 20 colleagues barricaded themselves in a conference room, and holed up there until the building was secured. He said the group remained calm, and was able to access email from the room to keep abreast of the situation.
After querying employees, police arrested Joel D”™Ort, an information technology worker who formerly worked for XL and lived in Stamford. Police believe D”™Ort hid the handgun above a ceiling tile and walked out of the building, returning to his former residence in Stamford.
Bail was set at $800,000, and D”™Ort is due back in court later this month.
Bermuda-based XL is a trophy employer in Connecticut, with fewer than 500 employees between two offices at Seaview Ave. and 33 Ludlow Ave. The company holds naming rights to the XL Center arena in Hartford.
In the second quarter, XL profits were down nearly two thirds from a year earlier to $80 million, as net premiums written dropped 16 percent to $1.5 billion.
For a state still frazzled by the brazen murder of a Yale University worker that drew international attention, the XL incident thankfully only made local headlines while serving as a reminder of the limitations of making work sites safe from violence.
Â
Late last month, Yale asked for employee input on ways it can reduce the chances of workplace violence occurring.
In Connecticut in 2008, six workers died as a result of workplace violence according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), in four cases the result of suicides at job sites.
Â
In 2007, nine people died as a result of violence on the job in Connecticut, three of them suicides.
Incidents continue to grab headlines: in August, a Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. employee drove onto the company”™s Stratford headquarters plant with a shotgun.
In a 2007 report sponsored by the International Facility Managers Association, researchers said more than 5,000 incidents of workplace violence occur daily in the United States, with only one in five being reported. More than half of workplace homicides occurred in retail trade and service industries, the IMFA study reported, and homicide is the leading cause of death in those industries, as well as in finance, insurance and real estate.
Employers can be held liable for incidents under the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act and other laws, including for negligent hiring or retention of a worker with a known problem.
While no plan is ironclad and the unpredictability factor can not be controlled ”“ D”™Ort lost his job at XL three months ago ”“ managers can take a few simple steps to prepare for the eventuality, according to IMFA. Those steps can including identifying patterns of risk, security levels, and potential prevention strategies. Employees should be trained to recognize indicators that could lead to violence, and should know whom to report concerns to. Organizations should also plan how to respond to various scenarios, including identifying outside agencies like local police or other agencies to handle specific situations.
