Everyone should go through this site, of the National Institute For The Prevention Of Workplace Violence. If you want to understand why it’s hazardous to speak about our participation in the shooting sports, our collecting or various other shooting related activities in the workplace, these set of Human Resources worms are a big part of it. Look at early warning signs. Also the section on gun violence.
Apologizes to Human Resources professionals who might be among my readers who are not corporate stooges, but I’ve met precious few HR folks who have a philosophy of HR that is truly beneficial to the employee, rather than focused entirely on preventing the company from being sued.
If I operated this blog under my real name, it would be a virtual guarantee I’d have a very difficult time finding employment. What about people who show up on background checks, an activity companies are doing increasingly for new hires, as having a concealed weapons license? It’s not just the politicians we have to stand up to, it’s the corporate weasels who promote this kind of stereotyping that must be stood up to as well.
Workplace violence” is certainly an issue to consider, though the emphasis and urgency of such consideration should be tempered by the fact that such violence is rare. I certainly do not fault employers for considering such issues, yet I am disappointed (concerned, actually) that the National Institute is using information from the Brady Campaign on which to base their recommendations.
Bad input = bad output.
Figures, a link to the VPC for their “gun violence” section.
I normaly agree with the vast majority of postings on this site but where we disagree, we do so in a big way. The way I read this is that gun owners/collectors/hunters should consider our hobby and our Constitutional rights as something dirty and wrong, never to be taken out of the closet where it belongs.
However, if you are singling out the HR dept. I can agree with you that it would be unwise to stand on top of your desk and scream I LOVE WEAPONRY at the top of your lungs for all to hear. But for the rank and file co-worker, letting them know that gun owners are just normal everyday people working beside them can be a very positive thing.
Having said that, I can recall one employee(a temp) who was asked by a co-worker what he did prior to employment here and he responded that he had just returned from the 1991 Gulf War where he was a demolitions guy. His job was to blow up found munitions and weapons manufacturing buildings. Little twit of a co-worker went to HR and said she was afraid of working with someone who knows how to blow things up. Guy was fired, escorted off-site the same day, no questions asked( but remember he was a temp and they can get fired for anything).
To borrow a phrase from the Brady Bunch, I think common sense should dictate who you associate with at work and what you choose to share with them about your life. The potential for positive and negative outcomes is real but how better to educate people on a subject they feel squeemish about.
Example…I work for a PhD chemist who is a life long hunter who has never fired a gun is his life. His native country didn’t allow gun ownership and when he moved here he started going hunting with a group of others here in the States. He tracks the animal, locates it, and then tells his friend to shoot it. I asked him why he doesn’t just shoot it himself and he responds by saying that he’s too old (early forties) to learn how to use a gun, that’s something you need to start at a young age.
I offered to take him to the range and teach him how to safely handle a gun and start him out on .22’s, .223’s, working up to the 30.06 bolt action. I told him that if he could handle the 30.06, he could hunt any game animal he chose. He smiled ear to ear and said, “REALLY!” I said sure, so now I have the oppurtunity to bring a newbie to the range.
My company seems to have mixed feelings about firearms. We are not allowed to have firearms on the campus, or in our cars, and we are not allowed to advertise to sell firearms on the internal bulletin board.
However, the company sponsors a number of hunting and shooting clubs, and has well trained and armed security on campus. Many of my coworkers are hunters, sportsmen, and avid outdoorsmen and have carry permits (bears and big cats do not see us as predators to fear).
One thing I do in real life is review resumes. One recent resume had “shooting sports” listed as a hobby.
I suggested he consider removing it, for reasons similar to what Sebastian said.
Then we had a good long talk about his gun collection.
Flaunting your gunny-ness is a good way for bad things to happen. Wait till you know the company you keep.
“10. Fascination with weapons. This is a classic behavioral warning sign that should be easily recognized by coworkers and managers.”
I work on the “Scare Whitey” principle here. I openly talk about range nights, about how my little girls like to help Daddy clean, about my new purchases, reloading, etc.
I also have made the joke that if I were really dangerous, the worst thing you’d want to do is fire me for being dangerous. I’ve been here almost 10 years, have had extremely heated arguments and have yet to shoot anyone.
It’s not us loud and boisterous types you have to worry about, anyway.
Rustmeister has it right. I am not advocating that we be silent. We have to be ambassadors for our sport and for our rights. Many of my coworkers know I shoot. I don’t hide it from them. But I wouldn’t in a million years presume to tell HR, or anyone associated with HR. I don’t tell senior management either, though I suspect a few of those guy wouldn’t have a problem. My immediate manager was captain of his rifle team in high school. No problem there.
But you definitely don’t want the HR goobers getting a hold of that information or you’ll never get your foot in the door anywhere. They’ll view you as a risk, and your resume will go straight to the trash.
What do you expect when you start thinking of humans as only a resource?
I didn’t start shooting until I was in my 40’s and inherited an old rifle from my grandpa when he passed away so the PhD Chemist has no excuses.
Anyhow yes, actually HR is an institution of Management. I used to work for someone who had their Business degree in HR and who recognized the fundamental and very real allegiance was to Management – and the inequity of the basic disconnect pretending to be “for” the employees. They quit their HR job and shifted careers into another area of management because they couldn’t deal with the basic falsity involved. Also, as an empoloyee don’t necessarily trust the Ombudsman either… Fortunately I now work (when I work) with/for a gun-guy who has taken his whole group of engineers out to the range for shooting occasions.
I bet if the founding & original funding for this center were to be revealed we would find ties to the VPC or the Brady folks or one of the big funders of those two. 100% anti gun.
No doubt Dustin. You want to dig into it? You’d get a lot of links for that one :)
As always, the logical disconnect is that the tool makes the person violent, instead of the violent person making use of one of the more effective tools to perpetuate his violence.
I am starting to feel a little short-changed… neither of my guns came with those fancy-schmancy mind-controlling crystals…