Ask a Manager: Active Shooter Drills

[cereta]

A reader writes:

In two weeks, my workplace is hosting an all-day active shooter training, conducted by law enforcement. We haven’t been told what it will entail, but it’s seven hours long and we’ve been instructed to wear comfortable clothing. I’ve asked for a more specific agenda but I’m not sure I will get one. We have not been told the training is mandatory, but when I asked my boss and expressed some preliminary discomfort, he said we all need to participate.

I cannot begin to explain how much I am dreading this training. Even reading the emails about it made me so anxious that my hands started to shake. I am in my twenties, and I grew up in the modern era of mass shootings. I’ve been participating in active shooter drills since high school, know about run-hide-fight, and have friends who have lost siblings to gun violence. I already think about mass shootings every single day, including every time I’m in a crowded public place, and while I would be happy to read about the hiding protocol or do a self-defense practice, the idea of experiencing a full-scale active simulation makes me feel physically ill. If there is valuable information being conveyed, I want to know it, but the toll on my mental health if I do this training is going to be immense, and I cannot imagine what content they will be teaching that I haven’t already heard and internalized many times before.

For additional context, I am the only woman in my very small department at a larger organization, which overwhelmingly skews much older. My boss, who is also the only person to whom I report (no grand-boss applicable), is much older, which I mention because I think he’s just coming at this training from a totally different perspective. When I voiced my concerns, he made a few jokes about how he would simply redirect the shooter to a younger person, then asked if I was saying I “wouldn’t be able to take it.” Absolutely nothing about this is funny to me, and this made me feel even more alienated. He’s a nice person but has very deeply entrenched ideas about mental health, anxiety, young people, and “triggers,” and I don’t want to have to disclose my own mental health diagnoses to him, make him think I’m simply not tough enough to handle it, or come across like a millennial snowflake, etc. He does not understand the psychic toll that shootings have taken on many people in my generation and does not understand that anxiety means something more than just “sort of worried about something.”

There isn’t a traditional HR department here, and this is an office where we’re really subject to the dictates of our boss. The closest thing we have is the second-most senior employee, who has an easier time taking up issues with him because of their long-standing relationship. Sometimes I go through that employee if I really want to raise an issue, but I can’t always count on their support.

~~~~

You should absolutely be able to opt out of the training.

There’s not much evidence that active shooter drills even work, and in some cases they can cause more harm than they prevent. Regardless of that, though, opting out should be a reasonable accommodation for anyone with cause to believe the training will have mental health ramifications for them.

As for how to do it, realistically you’ve got four options:

1. You can go the formal accommodations route. If your employer doesn’t want you to opt out of the subject matter entirely, they can provide alternatives to a shooter simulation — like reading training materials or creating an individual safety plan. (You say you don’t have traditional HR, but in a large organization there’s probably someone you’d go to if you needed to request medical or religious accommodations, report harassment or discrimination, or turn in paperwork for FMLA. Use the same contact for this.)

2. You can approach the second-in-command, if you believe that person will be more receptive than your boss. This is a reasonable thing to take to someone in that sort of role, and if they’re decent at their job, they should handle it for you — or at least advise you on the best way to proceed. Make sure to tell them that your boss has been dismissing your concerns and you don’t trust him to handle mental health issues with any seriousness.

3. If you feel you need to address it with your boss directly, you could do that while being vague. For example: “Due to some past history that I don’t want to go into at work, I am going to opt of out Tuesday’s training.” If he again says something ridiculous like asking if you “wouldn’t be able to take it,” you could say, “Yes, so I won’t be attending.” If he tells you it’s mandatory and you need to attend, you can say, “Then I need to request a formal, legal accommodation to opt out. Who should I talk to for that?”

If he mocks you or implies you’re a delicate snowflake, consider saying: “You and I are coming to this with a very different frame of reference. I grew up in the era of mass shootings. I’ve been participating in active shooter drills since high school, know about run-hide-fight, and know people who have died from gun violence. I am happy to review written materials, but I will not be participating in a simulation.”

Other language you could have on-hand to use if necessary: “This isn’t about mild discomfort. It will not be possible for me to participate.”

I know you said you don’t want to look like the only person not “tough” enough to participate, particularly as the only woman on your team. But if you feel all roads lead to a conversation with your boss, this is the best way to handle it.

4. You could call in sick that day. Really, you could. It’s a little trickier because you’ve already told him you’d rather not attend, but if this is the easiest of the options for you, you can do it.

I’m sorry you’re dealing with this.

Assuming I can’t get additional details about the itinerary — or assuming I do, and it includes a simulation or other modules that I know will be extremely triggering to my mental health — what do I do? Can I skip this seven-hour training? Is there a way to get the instructional content without going to the most triggering parts, which I cannot imagine will outweigh the psychic cost this is going to take on me? What I really want is to skip it entirely — but if I can, how do I explain this request/decision to my boss without disclosing my mental health struggles, explaining (in vain) the anxiety I feel about this training, or looking like the only person not tough enough to participate (as the only woman in my department)?

Comments

[purlewe]

I know many companies now have to be "in compliance" with insurance now. But I feel like once you learn how to do one of these drills, it might be easier on some people never to have to participate and have either an online quiz or a file to read and then answer some questions to minimize the fact that there is a SUPER amount of trauma involved with this. (holy run on sentences batman, but I stand by it.)

[minoanmiss]

Whatever else, hee boss is not a nice person

ETA: UGH. When I read this particular entry I was filled with massive amounts of sad thoughts but the thoughts all left me, leaving the sad.

[serafina20]

Sounds like the boss worked with some of my teacher colleagues who, when I expressed my own major discomfort over the same type of drill told me, "It sounds like fun to me." (The "fun" part being shot at by Nerf guns).

Found out about four years later (when we had a second drill where they set up a room with crisis therapists for those who needed it, probably inspired by me and at least one other employee who noped out of the original drill) that people were injured at the first one.

So, yeah, this boss sucks and these drills must be voluntary and done sensitively.

[jadelennox]

I agree the the vast mass of commenters at AAM who say LW should just call in sick, which is what I did the few times I was required to participate in these.

Also I believe AAM was not strong enough on one point; I am fairly sure that there is almost zero evidence they help, and vast evidence that they hurt (when done with any more complexity than a fire drill training, in the sense of "let us walk you to your exit doors, and show you the meeting points and panic buttons"). It's not as strong as the evidence against school resource officers (which is overwhelming), but it's pretty strong.

If he again says something ridiculous like asking if you “wouldn’t be able to take it,” you could say, “Yes, so I won’t be attending.” If he tells you it’s mandatory and you need to attend, you can say, “Then I need to request a formal, legal accommodation to opt out. Who should I talk to for that?”

I admit I'd like this to happen, because it may help boss change his behavior, but it took me years to perfect the firm, cool, non-judgy voice required to do this, and I doubt LW has that skill.

[feast_of_regrets]

I find our annual "Run, Fight, Hide" training upsetting enough and it's just a video we have to watch. (Also, I work for a fairly large healthcare organization, so I find it hard to believe that insurance is requiring anything more than that.) I can't imagine having to participate in an actual drill, especially one that seems like it is being packaged as some kind of surprise. Definitely a +1 for calling in sick, but if she gets grief, LW should request her legal avenues immediately. That at least might put the company on notice that they've crossed a line.

I was in college when the Columbine shooting happened. It horrifies me to no end that we as a society have chosen to just embrace the trauma rather than literally any other response. (My family are vocal guns rights folks, so I know the politics involved, but I'm still horrified.)