There is one occasion when personality conflicts between staff members or between you and one of your employees may justify immediate termination. That is when the angry employee threatens either a peer, you, or another member of your organization. If a staff member has a predisposition to aggressiveness and perceives the workplace as a hostile environment, experiencing stress from a disagreement can trigger violent behavior.
What can you do? You can become sensitive to the level of employee stress in your work team, recognize danger signs, and address issues of stress and anxiety before they become dangerous to you and coworkers. Report potential problems to the human resources department and to your organization’s security department, if you have one.
If your organization has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), then you may want to refer the angry or troubled employee for counseling. If the threat comes from outside the organization, security measures must be taken to prevent access to the organization’s premises. If the company has a no-threat policy and threats are punishable by termination, then security needs to be advised that the guilty employee is no longer to be allowed within the company. If the antagonisms appear intractable, then you may also want to alert the police.