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We've recently fired an employee for poor performance.

He was hired as a senior, but couldn't do the bare minimum tasks. We had to let him go a month in.

...Which resulted in various types of loud insults, directed towards everyone on the team, and included quite a few, very specific threats of "coming in and gunning everyone down", so we would learn to respect him.

This the very first time we had to do with anything similar to this. Mass shootings aren't common here on my country (Brazil), but this particular ex-employee is relatively unstable emotionally and is know to have access to weapons, as he was a former police officer, so we know he may very well actually carry out his threats.

So far, we've put everyone that could do their work from home at mandatory home-office and did a police report, but this isn't putting our employees at ease. They're worried that when this mandated home-office period ends, this ex-employee can come about and do something horrible to everyone.

How can we go back to a semblance of normalcy? Is there something we can do to put our employees at ease?

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    You went to the police, with evidence of someone threatening murder and all you got was a police report out of it? Go back again and get action.
    – Aida Paul
    Commented Jan 22 at 11:48
  • Have you gone to the police already, and if not, why not?
    – Alex Robinson
    Commented Jan 22 at 11:49
  • @AidaPaul that's the limit we can do here on Brazil. Threats of any sort are rarely taken seriously if it didn't come to physical violence.
    – T. Sar
    Commented Jan 22 at 11:49
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    @AlexRobinson We did. We got a police report filled, but the officers couldn't do or wouldn't do much more besided it. Legal is checking if they can get some restraining order, but this will take some time.
    – T. Sar
    Commented Jan 22 at 11:50
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    @T.Sar I can understand that police may fob you off easily, been there, lived in country with police that had this type of attitudde, that's when you gotta push harder. You won't solve this with just words of reassuarence or restrainign order. Someone threatening to murder people will not care about violating one.
    – Aida Paul
    Commented Jan 22 at 11:50

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You really need to talk to a local lawyer and see what your legal options are.

In most countries you could get a "restraining order" to keep the person away from the office. In many legislations a threat to kill (if credible) is already a serious crime by itself. There might be many other legal actions you can take to scare off the individual, constrain their movement and reassure your employees.

Unfortunately you can't rely on the police to take action by themselves. You need professional help from someone who knows the laws and legal norms in your specific area.

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  • What do you imagine a Restraining Order is going to do?
    – Brondahl
    Commented Jan 22 at 16:17
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    Someone who's actually willing to shoot up an office isn't going to be put off by being told that there's a RO!
    – Brondahl
    Commented Jan 22 at 16:18
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    @Brondahl A RO plus a guard empowered to enforce the RO means that the guard can react more aggressively than otherwise. In addition, people often build themselves up to something like a shooting spree: an initial scout or threat can be responded to if there is a RO.
    – Yakk
    Commented Jan 22 at 21:01
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    @Brondahl: An RO can't stop a determined shooter, but these are very rare. Much more likely is that the guy wants attention, disrupt operation and harass people. An RO can really help with that and it's also a good trigger for the police to show up if they are just sighted with the vicinity of the office. It certainly will prevent the guy from loitering around the office and scaring people which is much more likely than an actual shooting.
    – Hilmar
    Commented Jan 23 at 0:40
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    An RO means you can call the police and the police will actually do something. Trespassing with an RO and without are very different events, but this is Brazil, so you'll need someone local for applicable solutions.
    – Nelson
    Commented Jan 23 at 1:06
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How can we go back to a semblance of normalcy? Is there something we can do to put our employees at ease?

There is a lot at play here, but effectively this breaks down to either of two scenarios:

  1. The threat is serious.

If that's the case then you need to get police to act on it. by whatever means necessary (sit in at the station, call whom you need to call, make a stink with the press, I don't know Brazil) until normalcy can return because, well the people's lives are at risk. Hiring lawyers/investigators may be a way to expedite it, but you have to rely on what works in Brazil, ask around.

You could also do other measures like hire armed guards for the office, but that has it's own bag of worms and is likely to not be long-term sustainable in the long term due to expense. Moving to offices in location with increased security is also an option, but really, the core solution is to resolve the very real threat, and for that you need the police.

  1. The threat is not serious.

In which case the decision to react so strongly so far screwed the pooch, as it has given validity to the threat, something that will be very hard to now undo. Even if you just come up front and say "we overreacted, under review we don't think there's any real risk, it's just talking" the judgement call to make it is already shot by the previous assessment and reaction.

It's rough and I don't think there's a simple solution for that case, besides just letting time fly, keeping the office open (and work from there to lead by example) and, with time, hope people will understand that the risk is gone and they can return to the office.

It's a whole other matter if they want to use it as WFH excuse, but if that happens it's time for another question.

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    One should always take murder threats seriously. If you're wrong, people were needlessly upset. If you're right, you've possibly prevented someone's death or maiming.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Jan 22 at 15:01
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    @ColleenV so if anyone send anonymous email to an office, they should all abandon it for undetermined period of time? It's different situation but demonstrates the point that threat must be credible, as otherwise the whole world would grind to a halt.
    – Aida Paul
    Commented Jan 22 at 15:39
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    Every murder threat should be taken seriously and investigated. An anonymous email doesn't merit the same response as a threat from a disgruntled employee, but one should start from the assumption that it's a credible threat until it's shown to be otherwise. "There were 392 workplace homicides in 2020. There were also 37,060 nonfatal injuries in the workplace resulting from an intentional injury" Disgruntled employees are a credible threat.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Jan 22 at 15:59
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    I didn't say any specific threat was credible or not. I said one should assume a murder threat is credible until it's proven not to be because the cost of being wrong is too high to be careless.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Jan 22 at 16:57
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    @AidaPaul If someone sends a murder threat to a location or person, the police should find and arrest the person involved and they should be disarmed for life and incarcerated for a period of time. If it turns out to be a joke, a few months in jail and a lifetime ban. If it is more than a joke (any signs of preparation, capacity, or intention), punish it like attempted murder. Death threats are bad.
    – Yakk
    Commented Jan 22 at 21:07
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Is there something we can do to put our employees at ease?

Have you asked your employees what would make them feel safe at work? They would know better than we would what measures would help them get back to normal. It would be best to talk about things that could be useful in the future, not just for this particular situation.

Some suggestions to discuss:

  1. Having a detailed, written plan for what should be done during different emergencies, including situations like bomb threats, shooters, fires, etc. In the US emergency action plans are required for some workplaces. OSHA has some advice for what they should contain but what will be useful for your company will probably be different.

  2. Securing your workplace. Are there doors that should be locked from the outside to prevent people from getting into the office unnoticed? Would having alarms or cameras on some entrances make sense? Is there a secure place to shelter inside the building? Is there a safe spot to go outside the building?

  3. Having an official source of information about issues affecting the workplace. Situations are more stressful when we don't know what is happening. Is there a way for employees to get answers to their questions about situations affecting their workplace? Do employees know how to report a problem so that others in the workplace can be warned about it?

I don't know enough about Brazil to give you specific advice about the murder threats. In my experience, taking positive steps to make the workplace safer and to communicate information quickly and clearly makes people feel more confident that they can handle emergency situations. I hope this situation gets resolved without anyone getting hurt.

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There's very little you can practically do in these cases of extreme grievance, other than avoiding putting fuel on the fire.

This is really partly why companies have a system of sick leave, to avoid sacking the "unstable".

A restraining order does not practically alter the situation (it's more suitable when someone is repeatedly visiting to worry or harass the staff, rather than someone who is threatening to perhaps turn up once by surprise and execute the staff).

Police action itself may trigger the undesired response, either by adding aggravation or by unbalancing the person's life further (i.e. further undermining the controls on their behaviour, rather than adding additional controls).

You might find that the police response is informed by their experience in this regard - that people often mouth off, and if things are left alone for a certain period of time and nothing has occured, and there is no further provocation, then nothing further is likely to happen.

Whereas if he is seriously capable of proceeding to a murder in these circumstances - and that is the unclear part - then even jailing him for the threat is as likely to tip the balance and produce someone who will come out and murder those who (in his eyes) put him there and ruined his life.

Moreover, those who are capable of such conduct are themselves capable of acting strategically, and if you make it impossible for them to issue threats that would alert people that a dangerous situation is developing (by severely criminalising the threat alone) and which might allow the targets to desist from anything that might further provoke, then the attacker can respond by remaining silent until actually striking without giving warning. People getting killed is usually considered a far worse outcome than people getting frightened.

So again, the police may be reluctant to act on mere threats, because of the potential to further induce behaviours they are trying to avoid.

And it doesn't matter how much extra security you put around the building - people have to come out some time.

Finally, if he is a former police officer and especially if you're in a less developed country, you might find that there is a certain amount of lenience from ex-colleagues - especially if (for better or worse) they are familiar with his character or circumstances.

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Don't accept nor settle on compromise "solutions". This is too serious to have some forum on the Internet help you come with a complete solution, you definitely need to contact the professionals. First and foremost, contact a lawyer specialized in criminal law, and hire the lawyer to help you file a police report that is actually going to have them take action. Collect all the evidence you could about the threats and any previous incidents where the employee had displayed unstable and concerning behavior; the police might be reluctant to act without evidence, as technically anybody could make an unfounded claim. Note that I am not approving of the police's reluctance -- I'm not saying how it should be, but saying how it unfortunately is.

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