MANSFIELD — Business owners whose workplaces have experienced an active shooter situation all have one thing in common, they didn’t think it would ever happen to them.
That was the message Timothy Dimoff conveyed Friday while addressing members of the Regional Manufacturing Coalition. Dimoff is an internationally-recognized security and HR management consultant.
As the founder and president of SACS Consulting & Investigative Services, Inc. continued to speak, the already quiet room seemed to become even quieter as audience members stopped shuffling their feet, sat down their coffees and appeared to really tune into what Dimoff was saying.
“Let me take you to Michigan two and a half years ago, with an auto parts supplier, 17 employees, 8,000 square feet,” Dimoff said. “A terminated employee told (the owner), ‘You know you don’t run a very good ship … You’re an idiot. I’ll be back. I got lots of guns.’”
Three days later, the employee came back and killed three of the 17 employees.
“This guy, (the business owner) he told me, ‘Tim, I am not concerned nor upset that he killed three of my employees. What I’m really concerned about is he killed three dads, three brothers, two grandfathers. Three good people. People. Three family men.’ He goes, ‘I let it go because it was not supposed to happen to my building.’
“Every person we’ve talked to that’s been a victim of a shooting. That’s the one thing they all said to us, ‘I never thought it would happen here,’ ” said Dimoff, whose business operates out of Akron.
In his 90-minute presentation, Dimoff covered current trends, ways to recognize early signs of potential outbursts and current and emerging solutions meant to curb workplace violence.
He encouraged employers to focus on “small fires,” or issues that if left alone will grow into larger ones that could lead to employee lashing out.
“We all are busy, we all wear hats. We’re all moving fast. The problem is this, we’re so busy and slammed that we managed by big fires, but we need to go back to managing by small fires,” Dimoff said. “Small fires are when you start to hear these clues about something going on — two people not getting along, someone getting harassed, someone that’s upset.
“When that fire is small, employers need to start addressing those issues with those people. Or what’s going to happen? Eventually it’s gonna get bigger, bigger and bigger.”
It takes less time and resources to put out small fires, Dimoff said. He urged employers to address problems as soon as they spot them instead of allowing time for employees to “work things out on their own.”
To Dimoff, that’s not “babysitting.” It’s being proactive.
“It’s simpler. It’s easier. It doesn’t take much time and the damage is minimal,” he said.
According to his presentation, 43,800 people are harassed, 16,400 experience threats of violence and 723 are attacked each workday in the United States. His findings show a trend.
“You don’t address harassment. Guess what you do? You encourage the worker to do what? Keep doing it or move up. And you don’t do anything about the threat — a little medium fire. Guess what happens? More threats, more harassment, or they move up and they physically get aggressive,” Dimoff said.
It’s predictable, but too often Dimoff sees problems go unaddressed. He hears from employers after a terminated employee makes a threat or after three fist fights have already broken out at a facility.
“You don’t become an attacker at a business, you don’t become an active shooter overnight,” he said. “It builds. And it builds individually, and it builds where they get to the point where they’re so upset and mad, and then they see the repetition of active shooters in workplaces.”
But Dimoff believes employers can do a few things. First, he recommends dedicating more time to “small fires,” but if bigger ones erupt, he encourages employers to be prepared.
Anonymous phone lines, he explained, can increase the number of issues reported and allow problems to be addressed more quickly. And de-escalation strategies and an emphasis on understanding and helping employees address their own personal problems and concerns can also decrease violence.
“Start thinking about policies, procedures, physical security. Start thinking about how you can improve your culture in your physical environment and how you can train your people to spot issues early. Respond to it. And collectively make your culture positive I know it’s a focus of speed for business, and I know, we’re wearing a lot of hats, but somehow we got find the room,” he said.
