Man Laid Off & Commits Suicide

charles brough said:
It is not normal to kill yourself only because you lose your job! People are killing themselve or going out and killing others because they are feeling an intense build-up of stress.

There is a reason for that stress build-up. We are evolved through millions of years as small-group primates. That is, we only feel secure in and feel compassion for a small number of people. Language-based ideologies made it possible for us to bond into much larger groups beginning about 40,000 years ago.

The move was not entirely successful, however. Always, human nature finally broke up these ideolgocal systems into smaller sect-led groups and the splintering of the ideology resulted in social problems and the breakdown, ultimately, of government. You may have noticed how the civilizations of history have risen and fallen in cycles.

The problem is that all our ideolgoies are now hopelessly divided, so much so it is increasingly difficult to get cooperation on needed world solutions. Even the so-called "united front against Kaddafi" was voted on in the UN Security Council in which all of Islam itself is without veto power. The vote was US-led Western. We really do not even have the Arab League behind us.

We need cooperation on nuclear disarmament, global carbon emissions, saving species, and birth control limitations on population growth.

About a decade ago, a scientist wrote a treatise on "The End of History" because it was thought that the end of the Soviet system heralded the final chapter of the long "stuggle of the human race for democracy" and that it was about to be achieved world wide! Well, it isn't, can't and won't. The idealism or over-idealism has faded to realism. The majority of people now accept that our civilization is in decline.

The upshot of all this is that the stress level is rising and will continue to rise until we slip into the next phase.

I am working on what that might be and envite others to join in . . .
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Ummmmm.......what? :confused:
 
Nosi said:
In America your job is your lifeline to health care (if your lucky) and when you loose that you loose your health care.
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Not true.

You may loose [sic] your free health care (insurance), but you can still pay for it on your own. You don't lose health care anymore than you lose your house or car.
 
Each time I lost a job, I looked at it as a great opportunity to work toward a better job, which I did. Each job along the way was going in the proper direction for me, and now I'm in the job that was meant to have all along :)
 
fuelair said:
Actually, I have to assume that homicide should have been on his mind. Of course, the problem is that so many people do not logically calculate who is responsible for the removal,firing and if they homicide they just kill randomly - totally stupid. If you are going to go, clearly id your targets based on their responsibility for the decision. Shooting the typist or receptionist is idiotic and makes you look like any other nutjob shooter. Get the guilty......
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Well yes, but the type of person who responds to losing a job with homicide is likely to be believe that he got laid off or fired because the typist or receptionist said bad things about him to get fired. While it's not unusual, and perhaps sometimes justified to be angry enough at losing a job to think about killing the people responsible, most people are rational enough to realize that actually doing so will not improve their situation.
 
Sometimes suicide is intended by the perpetrator to try to 'make someone responsible', like the ex-girlfriend/boyfriend, a parent, or in this case the ex employer.

But being laid off in a tough economy is not abuse.
 
Obviously the responsibility is his own, but it is unprofessional to engage in layoffs without a security escort to relieve them of keys/fobs/passes and lead the employees to the door.

The reasons are obvious: protect company property and staff, and prevent the employee from disrupting work or injuring himself.

Just saying "You're fired, Bob. See yourself out," is extremely amateurish *** if that's the way it happened ***

What's not clear is if they made these routine efforts but, say, he gave security the slip and made it to the roof anyway. That's tragic, but there's only so much due diligence for the employer.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
Not true.

You may loose [sic] your free health care (insurance), but you can still pay for it on your own. You don't lose health care anymore than you lose your house or car.
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And since with no income, you can lose your house and car as well, this is one of the more pointless points possible.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
Not true.

You may loose [sic] your free health care (insurance), but you can still pay for it on your own. You don't lose health care anymore than you lose your house or car.
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When I lost my job I lost my health insurance. I can't afford cobra insurance. In my case I can get Medicare in 13 months. I sure hope I don't get sick during my wait.

Getting fired or laid off is a shock. If I lived from pay check to paycheck .and got fired I might consider suicide myself.
 
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blutoski said:
Obviously the responsibility is his own, but it is unprofessional to engage in layoffs without a security escort to relieve them of keys/fobs/passes and lead the employees to the door.

The reasons are obvious: protect company property and staff, and prevent the employee from disrupting work or injuring himself.

Just saying "You're fired, Bob. See yourself out," is extremely amateurish *** if that's the way it happened ***

What's not clear is if they made these routine efforts but, say, he gave security the slip and made it to the roof anyway. That's tragic, but there's only so much due diligence for the employer.
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I've been let go from plenty of jobs, and never with a security escort. Your idea of what should be professional and routine seems wildly at odds with my experience of reality.
 
This Guy said:
But losing a job is not the end of the world. I've been outsourced twice, with over 10 years at one job and 5 at the other. Sucks a big one! But not the end of the world. Appears he knew it was coming (I found out at the 10 year job when I got to work and couldn't log on to the system to do my job, and then was told "there will be a meeting in the conference room in 30 minutes").
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A woman at my former job screwed up a minor order and thought she would get fired for it. She had a meltdown and attempted to run into traffic.

I don't think it was a deliberate suicide attempt. She was just having a panic attack, wasn't thinking clearly, wanted to get to the other side of the street and attempted to cross on a red light, with cars and trucks zooming by at 50 miles an hour.

Guess who got sent to run after her and pull her away. Yep, yours trully. My co-worker and I might have saved her life or saved her from being badly injured. All over such silliness. And she wasn't even fired. She's still there.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, calm down. Being unemployed is awful but it is better than being dead or handicapped for the rest of your life.

As you said, it isn't the end of the world.
 
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theprestige said:
I've been let go from plenty of jobs, and never with a security escort. Your idea of what should be professional and routine seems wildly at odds with my experience of reality.
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As the old adage goes, if you're going to lay off IT staff, make damn sure they can't log into the system before you fire them. They know how to screw your servers big time.

ETA: on the OP, I imagine (no evidence, my bad) that something like losing a job is a merely a tipping point for someone who is already in a serious amount of emotional pain. Usually, people who are a suicide risk are already in a mindset where they aren't thinking rationally, so maybe the poor man was unable to think straight when he lost his job and see the possibility of alternate futures, in the way that someone who was emotionally stable would be able to.

It's really sad. :(
 
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EeneyMinnieMoe said:
If you ever find yourself in this situation, calm down. Being unemployed is awful but it is better than being dead or handicapped for the rest of your life.
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Yeah, being dead for the rest of your life really sucks.

(Just thought I'd get that in before Scrut beat me to it)
 
23_Tauri said:
As the old adage goes, if you're going to lay off IT staff, make damn sure they can't log into the system before you fire them. They know how to screw your servers big time.

ETA: on the OP, I imagine (no evidence, my bad) that something like losing a job is a merely a tipping point for someone who is already in a serious amount of emotional pain. Usually, people who are a suicide risk are already in a mindset where they aren't thinking rationally, so maybe the poor man was unable to think straight when he lost his job and see the possibility of alternate futures, in the way that someone who was emotionally stable would be able to.

It's really sad. :(
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If I was I.T. staff I would make damn sure I knew every backdoor I could find and as many employee passwords as I could find. I believe you should always be prepared. And, amazingly, I was never a Boy Scout.:D
 
Though, one summer, I was the treasurer and camp store operator for a Girl Scout Camp in Tennessee (My wife was CIT director). :D
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
That's what savings are for.
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Because savings will cover chemo, say?

Besides, if your house/car is already paid for you can't lose it.
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Apologies, I misunderstood. In Europe we have these things called "running costs" which come in to play. Insurance and road tax for vehicles, for example. I'm sure you can Google these if you're unfamiliar with the concept.
 
23_Tauri said:
As the old adage goes, if you're going to lay off IT staff, make damn sure they can't log into the system before you fire them. They know how to screw your servers big time.
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Actually, I'm IT staff. My last layoff, they didn't even revoke my badge. I spent the last few days making sure the documentation was up to date on my current projects, that I'd rounded up all the odd bits of company gear I'd acquired over the years and needed to return to their rightful owner, and generally putting my affairs in order.

They didn't change any of the passwords for the business-critical systems I worked on. They didn't revoke my badge. My supervisor never bothered me, except to say thank you when I turned in my final status report. I never saw hide nor hair of the security staff. My last interaction with the firm was the day I voluntarily walked into the office of the departmental HR rep, dropped off my gear and ID, and walked out on my own.

I guess I don't know much about the old adage, but I do know this: there's layoffs, and there's layoffs.
 
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