Earlier this year, we heard of the Yale University student whose strangled body was found in the university lab where she conducted research, and that her co-worker was subsequently charged with murder.

Then recently, a workplace shooting took place in Florida where an engineer, who was dismissed for poor performance a couple of years ago, showed up at his former workplace on November 6 and shot and killed one person and wounded five others.

The day before this incident in Florida, an Army psychiatrist stationed at the Fort Hood army post in Texas went on a shooting rampage, leaving 13 people dead and 27 wounded. It was reported that he was against his upcoming deployment overseas, and authorities believed that this was based on his work and experience counseling Army personnel returning from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These three incidents are all unrelated, but they underscore the ongoing threat of workplace violence. Richard Denenberg, author of the book The Violence-Prone Workplace says each workplace should have an intervention system, as well as a system to report chronic conflict so that any conflicts can be handled appropriately.

Regarding statistics from the Bureau of Labor, such as workplace homicides accounting for 517 out of 5,071 workplace fatalities, and that the number of workplace homicides has fallen 52 percent from a high of 1,080 in 1994, Denenberg says these stats are hard to trust because of underreporting.

Have you had any incidents of violence at your place of employment? Please share your comments.