Mark Lies Quoted in The Patriot Ledger
“Triggered By Stress; Tough Times Leave Employers on Edge About Workplace Violence”

Mark Lies was quoted in The Patriot Ledger article, “Triggered By Stress; Tough Times Leave Employers on Edge About Workplace Violence,” published on January 30, 2010. The syndicated article appeared in over forty publications nationwide. The article discussed how economic woes have recently raised the threat levels of deadly workplace violence despite employers’ efforts to adopt early warning signs.

According to the article, recent high-profile incidents underscore the lingering threat of deadly workplace incidents, some of which are triggered by financial pressures. Mark noted, “As people get more stressed, they start thinking about their survival skills and don't take a look at how their behavior is affecting their co-workers.”  He explained, “It can mean verbal demeaning in meetings in front of others, e-mails that are hypercritical of someone else, or shunning people from meetings and not keeping them in the loop.” Mark added that he advises his clients to adopt anti-bullying policies.

The article noted that the targets of workplace bullying are sometimes the people most likely to lash out violently. Mark further explained, “Human beings put up with a lot of harassment or threats until they snap. Then they either react violently or quit and file an employment case against the company.” Mark pointed out that most large employers have a written workplace violence policy that explains how threats should be reported and handled. Typically a team of employees including security, human resources and mental health staff assess the potential threat. Employees can be ordered to attend counseling or be terminated. He concluded that poor screening and inadequate violence prevention programs are most common at smaller companies without extensive human resource departments.