Massachusetts Killing Spree Sparks Talk of 'Desk Rage'
Dec. 27, 2000 -- We can probably all think of someone we work with, or have worked with, who comes across as a ticking time bomb.
The secretary who mutters and curses all day long. The sales rep who punches the desk every time a deal falls through. The chain-smoking ex-dot-com tycoon whose stock plummets from $82 to $5 in an afternoon.
But what makes a ticked-off worker turn violent? When does work stress turn into "desk rage" and endanger co-workers? And are there any warning signs?
The answers are complicated, experts tell WebMD.
"There is a big difference between a disgruntled employee and a dangerous employee," says Anthony Baron, PhD, CEO of Baron Center Inc., a San Diego, Calif.-based organization of forensic psychologists and trainers specializing in workplace and school violence prevention.
There were 645 job-related murders in 1999, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, making workplace homicides the third-leading cause of on-the-job deaths in the U.S. The most recent incident occurred Tuesday when a heavily armed employee gunned down seven co-workers at an Internet consulting firm outside of Boston.
Michael McDermott, 42, reported for work Tuesday at Edgewater Technology's corporate headquarters armed with a loaded assault rifle, a shotgun, and a semiautomatic handgun, police say. At about 11 a.m. he allegedly walked through the office building and fatally shot his colleagues. After pleading not guilty Wednesday, McDermott was ordered held without bail.
The McDermott case is the latest in a string of shootings to take place in U.S. workplaces in recent years. In March, a former employee opened fire at a carwash in Irving, Texas, killing five people. This past December, five hotel employees were killed in Tampa, Fla. A shooting in Honolulu in November 1999 left seven dead.
For such an incident to occur, the individual must have a predisposition to aggressiveness, perceive his workplace as a hostile environment, and experience some sort of triggering event, explains Baron, the author of Violence in the Workplace and When Work Equals Life: The Next Stage of Workplace Violence.
Massachusetts Killing Spree Sparks Talk of 'Desk Rage'
Dec. 27, 2000 -- We can probably all think of someone we work with, or have worked with, who comes across as a ticking time bomb.
The secretary who mutters and curses all day long. The sales rep who punches the desk every time a deal falls through. The chain-smoking ex-dot-com tycoon whose stock plummets from $82 to $5 in an afternoon.
But what makes a ticked-off worker turn violent? When does work stress turn into "desk rage" and endanger co-workers? And are there any warning signs?
The answers are complicated, experts tell WebMD.
"There is a big difference between a disgruntled employee and a dangerous employee," says Anthony Baron, PhD, CEO of Baron Center Inc., a San Diego, Calif.-based organization of forensic psychologists and trainers specializing in workplace and school violence prevention.
There were 645 job-related murders in 1999, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, making workplace homicides the third-leading cause of on-the-job deaths in the U.S. The most recent incident occurred Tuesday when a heavily armed employee gunned down seven co-workers at an Internet consulting firm outside of Boston.
Michael McDermott, 42, reported for work Tuesday at Edgewater Technology's corporate headquarters armed with a loaded assault rifle, a shotgun, and a semiautomatic handgun, police say. At about 11 a.m. he allegedly walked through the office building and fatally shot his colleagues. After pleading not guilty Wednesday, McDermott was ordered held without bail.
The McDermott case is the latest in a string of shootings to take place in U.S. workplaces in recent years. In March, a former employee opened fire at a carwash in Irving, Texas, killing five people. This past December, five hotel employees were killed in Tampa, Fla. A shooting in Honolulu in November 1999 left seven dead.
For such an incident to occur, the individual must have a predisposition to aggressiveness, perceive his workplace as a hostile environment, and experience some sort of triggering event, explains Baron, the author of Violence in the Workplace and When Work Equals Life: The Next Stage of Workplace Violence.