From the looks of my voicemail log, I'll bet I'm not the only PhySec person working with higher-ed to have a busy day today. And yet, I wanted to at least put something out there (here) on the topic of how higher-ed and medical fields need to take a good look at how they break the bad news to staff members.
But things move on to the next level when you are talking about terminating a non-tenured staff member's employment as they are thinking they should be getting tenure status. Aaaand to jump things up one more notch - we are in the type of economy that's not favorable to non-tenured staff members who've been recently fired.
I'm not saying anyone is justified in an "Amy Bishop" type of response, but I am saying that the problem has been stewing for some time now - and we should be working to mitigate that kind of risk. I've been approached in both the higher-ed and medical environments by professionals concerned about this specific kind of problem. More often than not, I end up saying something along the lines of:
In addition to solid background investigations that are actually reviewed and considered before hiring staff members, it's also a good idea to develop "red flags" that signal possible violent behavior in just about any aspect of the job. For instance, supervisors trained to look for the company's established "red flags" can often spot potential issues and develop a plan with HR to address them. The same kind of process can apply to HR's step-by-step process for terminating employment. But you shouldn't just focus on the specific employee. There are conditions that should also be "red flags" themselves either alone, or in conjunction with other named conditions.
After identifying your "red flags", coordination should be made with your security or police department about how to handle situations that arise after the threats are identified. Working all this out in advance helps everyone, especially the poor security / police department that's got to handle tons of last minute "um... we are going to fire this guy today... and he may freak out" phone calls. The security / police departments should try to be sensitive to the unique needs and concerns of the organizations needing help. Most of the time, they would rather have a non-uniformed officer nearby as not to escalate the situation or scare other staff members. But working together, organizations and security agencies can select "bad news rooms" (as I like to call them), ensure room set up is safe and even iron out duress words/actions. In office settings that deal in volatile meetings regularly it's a good idea to keep a room set up for the activity. In rooms like that, technology such as panic alarms and cameras can be used to further help the organization work with the security agencies.
