Striking Another Employee is Not Negotiable in Business and at Work

I don’t have much time to watch t.v. these days (and we used to love to watch Dharma & Greg together before our son was born); however, I was not surprised to hear that actor Thomas Gibson was dismissed from his long-time job on the series Criminal Minds for kicking his co-executive producer over a creative dispute, which allegedly was not the first time Gibson struck a fellow employee:

The flap reportedly involved him kicking co-executive producer Virgil Williams, reported media site Deadline, which added there also had been an earlier on-set incident some years ago; Gibson had to undergo anger management counseling after hitting assistant director Ian Woolf. The decision to dismiss Gibson was made after a brief internal review.

The alleged above scenario drives the point home: an employee who strikes another employee should be immediately terminated, not referred to anger management counseling, as an employee who strikes another employee will in all likelihood repeat the behavior. The layers of morale-killers and liabilities in an employer’s attempt to retain an employee who acts out this way are numerous, including but not limited to creating a culture of fear and intimidation by allowing the violent employee to remain in the same workplace as the co-worker they have harmed, to condoning what can often amount to felony assault in the workplace – all layers which threaten workplace safety and employee retention.

How will you support employee safety and retention by taking a clear and non-negotiable stance when an employee strikes another employee, in business and at work?

Safety First Computer Key Showing Caution Protection Or Hazards