bleachercreacher
Footballguy
I wanted to post this here to see if anyone could give me advice on a situation we have been having at work. I work night shift in the lab of a South Carolina hospital. The issue is with our lead tech on night shift, we'll call him X. When I say lead tech, he has no real authority. His extra duties are to call someone when someone calls out, take any complaints to our supervisors if someone feels uncomfortable, settle a staff dispute, and to deal with angry nurses. Employee X has been involved in a lot of verbal disputes with coworkers in the past.
In August, our hours were cut to 70 a pay period and employee X took this really hard. This led to repeated outburst and tantrums. In October him, and employee Y, a female, got into an argument. Employee Y is second generation Italian, and a very straight forward about her thoughts, just like your stereotypical Italian female. He was offended about something she said, and he got in her face. He stepped a little too close, and she asked him to back up. Instead of backing up he leaned closer to her as he was yelling. X is about 6'0", 350 lbs and Y is about 5'2" 110. At this point, I had seen enough end went over and broke it up. There were 6 of us in the room at the time and X and I were the only males. He backed away from her, but proceeded to repeatedly threaten her with her job for getting in his face. 3 of us saw the whole thing, and heard most of the argument. All of our stories backed employee Y. He's delusional and thinks that the rest of us are out to get him. Both employees got a written warning.
From October to now, employee X has been involved in at least 3 arguments, always with a female employee. I had issues with him one night in December. He refused to treat me like he does the female coworkers, but when he gets angry it is very scary. So last Thursday night employee X and employee Y get into another argument. Again, I break it up, but I did not hear what was said. I told employee Y that I was switching her workstations. As we were switching employee X called public safety and very loudly tells them that employee Y hit him. Employee Y grabs her purse and slams the drawer that it was in, and heads to the other side of the room to work a different bench. When public safety arrives, employee X says that employee Y threw a stapler at him. There is a stapler lying behind our Chemistry automation line, too far away from the wall for it to have bounced off the wall like he suggested. For employee Y to have thrown the stapler, and from where it was laying, it would've had to have bounced off of a 60" LCD turnaround time monitor that we have. This was a metal stapler, and there was no damage to the monitor. A police report is filed, and both employees receive a 2 day suspension. Tomorrow night we continue working with employee X and Y together.
Human resources has been contacted, and we were told that both disciplinary decisions were actually suggested by HR. We were all asked to write a report on what happened, and I wrote that I have major concerns about violence from employee X. He has now threatened violence by getting in employee Y's face, and now lied about violence to try to get employee Y in trouble. Employee X is unstable, and definitely does not deal with anger in a healthy manor. He's very delusional when it comes to things. In general he acts like a 3 year old with the least bit of adversity. He's had conversations about going to the gun range, and honestly him bringing a gun to work is a concern of mine. I talked with 5 of my coworkers (3 on our shift and 2 lead techs on first shift) and everyone thinks employee X is unstable. I'm not taking up for employee Y either. They've had words at least 4 times now, and twice it's ended in a very unhealthy manor. I would have no problem with them both getting fired on the spot. So, what's our play here? I'm not sure if the best bet is to claim hostile work environment because everyone is scared of employee X is capable of, or try to file a workplace violence report. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
In August, our hours were cut to 70 a pay period and employee X took this really hard. This led to repeated outburst and tantrums. In October him, and employee Y, a female, got into an argument. Employee Y is second generation Italian, and a very straight forward about her thoughts, just like your stereotypical Italian female. He was offended about something she said, and he got in her face. He stepped a little too close, and she asked him to back up. Instead of backing up he leaned closer to her as he was yelling. X is about 6'0", 350 lbs and Y is about 5'2" 110. At this point, I had seen enough end went over and broke it up. There were 6 of us in the room at the time and X and I were the only males. He backed away from her, but proceeded to repeatedly threaten her with her job for getting in his face. 3 of us saw the whole thing, and heard most of the argument. All of our stories backed employee Y. He's delusional and thinks that the rest of us are out to get him. Both employees got a written warning.
From October to now, employee X has been involved in at least 3 arguments, always with a female employee. I had issues with him one night in December. He refused to treat me like he does the female coworkers, but when he gets angry it is very scary. So last Thursday night employee X and employee Y get into another argument. Again, I break it up, but I did not hear what was said. I told employee Y that I was switching her workstations. As we were switching employee X called public safety and very loudly tells them that employee Y hit him. Employee Y grabs her purse and slams the drawer that it was in, and heads to the other side of the room to work a different bench. When public safety arrives, employee X says that employee Y threw a stapler at him. There is a stapler lying behind our Chemistry automation line, too far away from the wall for it to have bounced off the wall like he suggested. For employee Y to have thrown the stapler, and from where it was laying, it would've had to have bounced off of a 60" LCD turnaround time monitor that we have. This was a metal stapler, and there was no damage to the monitor. A police report is filed, and both employees receive a 2 day suspension. Tomorrow night we continue working with employee X and Y together.
Human resources has been contacted, and we were told that both disciplinary decisions were actually suggested by HR. We were all asked to write a report on what happened, and I wrote that I have major concerns about violence from employee X. He has now threatened violence by getting in employee Y's face, and now lied about violence to try to get employee Y in trouble. Employee X is unstable, and definitely does not deal with anger in a healthy manor. He's very delusional when it comes to things. In general he acts like a 3 year old with the least bit of adversity. He's had conversations about going to the gun range, and honestly him bringing a gun to work is a concern of mine. I talked with 5 of my coworkers (3 on our shift and 2 lead techs on first shift) and everyone thinks employee X is unstable. I'm not taking up for employee Y either. They've had words at least 4 times now, and twice it's ended in a very unhealthy manor. I would have no problem with them both getting fired on the spot. So, what's our play here? I'm not sure if the best bet is to claim hostile work environment because everyone is scared of employee X is capable of, or try to file a workplace violence report. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
