Within two years, a second shooting has occurred within a manufacturing plant, this time at a Jeep assembly facility.

In another bizarre and tragic, Falling Down-like example of truth being stranger than fiction, “An auto worker wired a shotgun to his body and burst into a Jeep assembly plant, killing a supervisor and wounding two other employees before killing himself.” While workplace shootings are rare, there have been other incidents in recent years. In December 2001, a shooting spree in the offices of a software development firm near Boston left seven dead. Said to be racially motivated, a shooting rampage at a Lockheed Martin plant in 2003 left six dead and eight wounded. Since snowballs clearly do, on rare occasion, survive in hell, curious managers should read an interesting article published by IEEE back in 2001, “Occupational Hazard: Defusing stress on the job can stem employee aggression, according to an expert on workplace violence.” If that Manson-eyed co-worker asks, “Are you going to eat that?”, smile and give him the remaining half of your sandwich. It’s healthier for you, and safer for everyone. Do you think such incidents are flukes that are simply a rare result of mental illess, or will increase along with the stresses of life and the workplace?