Workplace Safety

The title reads, "Nine people killed in Connecticut workplace shooting (www.necn.com 8/3/10 1:16 PM). Reportedly, an employee who was asked to resign from a beer distribution center chose to communicate to the world how he felt about losing control. My first thought was this is the Golden Nugget for all of those who think alcohol is at the root cause of violence. This incident has nothing to do with alcohol and more about how the workplace community is ignorant to the impact felt when a person is threatened with loss of control.

As I have written in the past, we all seek control, in fact the human condition and its two needs of competence and independence predispose our thirsts for control. It matters little if it is a word of insult or threat of losing a job, viscerally the human body is going to respond the same way. The mitigator so to speak is our perspective of "who" we think we are and "how" the world should/must treat us (e.g., control). When faced with threats to our perspectives of control, it is not the threat itself, rather it is the expectation to the threat that facilitates action. All action is goal directed. Look to the consequences of the action to understand the goal. When threats are personalized and catastrophized, in effect, desperation breads fanciful fictional perspectives of self-rightiousness as I am sure will be discovered in this incident. Keep in mind, alcohol and drug abuse, addiction, domestic violence, anger, and workplace violence are all outcomes to personalized fanciful fictional thoughts in relation to the world lived.