Gene Petrino

Without Alignment, Crisis Messaging Fails Before the Crisis Begins The cameras are already outside. Employees are texting one another. News outlets are asking for a statement. Social media users have begun constructing their own version of events before the investigation has had time to establish the facts. Inside the organization, however, a very different scene is unfolding.

Why Violence Risk in High-Turnover Environments Is a Leadership and HR Governance Problem Warehouses and distribution centers (DCs) are built for speed. The building, the schedule, the metrics, the culture—all of it is designed to push product and hit numbers. That is not a criticism: It is reality. But that reality creates a predictable blind spot.

Editor's note: Posts published on From the Workplace are written by outside contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of SHRM. Most workplace violence incidents start with small, observable indicators that employees often overlook, fail to report, or misinterpret. HR professionals serve as the organization’s early-warning system but often lack practical frameworks to identify subtle escalation patterns before they become crises.