Description
Book SynopsisDying on the Job is the first book on workplace violence to focus exclusively on workplace murder. While some perpetrators are certainly mentally impaired, many workplace murders are committed by people considered to be normal. Brownexplores the various motives and drives that spark workplace murder, and answers hundreds of questions that are usuallyasked only after a workplace murder rampage has already occurred. Are men or women more likely to commit workplace homicide? How can people more easily spot those likely to commit workplace murder? What are some of the warning signs? How often is suicide used as workplace revenge? The answers to these questions and more are based on more than 350 actual cases of workplace murder, and the answers are often surprising. Brown also addresses different areas of prevention, counseling, and rehabilitation, and analyzes different approaches to gun control for both management and employees to make their job a safer place to work.
Trade ReviewA unique exploration of the growing epidemic of murder at work. Ronald Brown has crafted a highly readable and fascinating look at this unfathomable and shocking phenomenon. Written with historical perspective, statistics, factual accounts of numerous events and detailed analysis the reader gains not only insight into the genesis of the problem, but a better understanding of the underlying fears that often drive these assailants. While debunking the myths about workplace homicide and exposing the futility of some preventative policies and procedures, in the end Brown provides important preventative rules and recommendations that can make a difference. Timely and useful, this book is a must read for CEOs and their staff, HR executives, middle managers, safety and security professionals and anyone concerned about this abhorrent problem sweeping the nation. -- Richard A. Pollock, CSP, President & CEO, CLMI Safety Training
Dying on the Job highlights an important problem all concerned with the state of American workers must confront. -- Samuel Estreicher, Dwight D. Opperman Professor of Law and director, Center for Labor and Employment Law, NYU Law
Sadly, too many workplace killings take place. Ronald Brown's book, the first ever about this subject, shows the terrible number, the variety of circumstances and causes, and ways society could address this problem. Managers, HR professionals, and anyone who works in an office need this information. -- Lance Liebman, professor and former dean, Columbia University School of Law
With this fascinating book on workplace murder, Ronald Brown has filled a gaping hole in the literature on workplace violence, and he has done so with lively and accessible prose and a prosecutor’s eye for detail. His ‘closing argument’ on the role of guns in the epidemic of workplace murders should provoke serious and much-needed debate on American gun culture and permissive gun laws. -- Cynthia Estlund, Catherine A. Rein Professor, NYU School of Law
This is an excellent book; the first serious book-length study on work-place homicide. It contains valuable empirical information and useful suggestions for prevention. -- Roger S. Clark, Board of Governors Professor, Rutgers Law School, Camden, New Jersey
Dying on the Job addresses the most critical work place problem in the US. Written in a style which is both accessible and graphic, it touches on all the relevant aspects of this worrisome matter. This is the best examination of violence, murder and mayhem at work that I have seen. Policy makers and all who are concerned about the workplace will do well to read this exhaustive discussion and to heed its recommendations. I recommend it highly. -- William B. Gould IV, Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus, Stanford Law School, Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (1994-98)
This book is an important discussion of a frighteningly prevalent phenomenon, that of workplace homicide. It is a book all employers should read, as it provides information which can help them take steps to reduce the likelihood that an employee will be the victim of workplace homicide. -- Carol Bohmer, visiting associate professor, Department of Government at Dartmouth College; teaching fellow, Department of War Studies at King's College, London
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Murder in the Workplace: Nature, Scope, and Origins 2. Why So Little is Known About the Problem 3. Definitely Not Your Average Girl Next Door 4. The Limits of the Human Resources Function 5. Some Were Crazy, Some Not So Crazy 6. The Influence of Gender & Race 7. The Problems and Politics of Being the “Boss” 8. Debunking the Myths / Confirming the Facts 9. Deciphering the “Language” of Workplace Suicide 10. The Warning Signs: the Tick, Tick, Tick of the Bomb 11. Ironies Trends, and Troublesome Facts 12. Employer Response, Responsibility and Resolve 13. Guidelines for Workplace Safety, Security, and Control 14. Conclusion Endnotes Appendix Selected Bibliography Index Acknowledgments About the Author
