Staff cuts and efforts to reinvent and reengineer operations without adding resources erode morale and eat away at employees' confidence. No one will ever know whether Cooper's pending reassignment, staff cuts at his agency or a plan to move the command out of Crystal City played a role in his actions. But stress from downsizing and restructuring is a potential source of violence among workers, according to many experts. There's a greater sense of urgency. You cannot reengineer unless you re-humanize.
Leadership has to recognize what the limits are.
Lisa Teems, who heads the Health and Human Services Department's workplace violence task force, says her organization has changed in recent years. It's not only downsizing, it's shifted responsibilities. People are asked to do more with less. Morale is bad and that contributes to irritability. Recognizing that stress can escalate into other problems, some agencies have begun accounting for it in their anti-violence plans.