This rather violent breakdown is not an isolated case. According to recent stats from the EU, three to four percent of the continent's workforce has either witnessed or experienced a violent attack at work. Here, a stress-at-work specialist and somebody with first-hand crisis experience comment on the video.
UPDATE (11.06 - 3.20pm) : We weren't sure where this video came from (which is what we mentioned at the start of the post). Someone commented on the post that it had been talked about by the Russian press and somebody else told us that it was fake. So we asked one of our Observers for Russia, Ostap Karmodi, to check. He found out that it's a promotion for Russian director Timur Bekmambetov's latest movie, "Wanted". So it is in fact a video with a commercial goal rather than a real video. Thanks to people who commented on the post and to our Observer Ostap.
Video dated 23 May 08 and posted on Break http://www.break.com/. The authenticity of the video hasn't been verified. There are plenty of similar documents on YouTube.
Karine used to work for a communication agency in France. She created a blog about the harassment she suffered at work. But her employer accused of slander and had the blog closed down.
This video
highlights the difficulty of working in an open-plan office. For me, it was the
agency boss who put a strain on working relations in the office. Her attitude
towards the staff became more and more wretched every day. Everyone had to have
their moment of humiliation. She would give out degrading tasks to people in
front of the rest of the office and accuse us of incompetence. She called me at
one minute past ten once to screech down the phone that I should have been
there earlier, even though I was supposed to arrive at ten. Between colleagues
we'd talk about violent thoughts we were having that were putting us down. The
daily fear affected my private life and I started finding it hard to sleep and
would come home exasperated. There was no system in place within the small
company to fight for our rights as employees. She threatened to sack me in
front of everyone, and I cracked. I said everything I thought of her; of my
crappy wage; her diabolical way of working. I had to do something, and since I
left a year ago, so have four others.
This video's difficult to analyse because we don't know what the job of the employees is or the authenticity of the scene. It should be noted that during my studies I rarely came across physical aggression against other colleagues. They usually take it out on the office furniture (throwing a headset or punching their computer for example).
Comments
Open plan - God's plan?
Submitted by Davey Jones (not verified) on Tue, 10/06/2008 - 16:13.The worst thing about an open plan office is that you can't hide! When I have a crappy day at the office (it happens) I can't escape. There is no private space in the building - except the bathroom. And that would be pretty sad. Why do we work in offices? Is this why God made us? to work in a cubicle and hide in the bathroom and hurl faxes?
davey
Unregistered user
agreed
Submitted by tomboa on Thu, 04/09/2008 - 12:46.Work in the office specially on open plan offices is a challenge on its own.
tomboa