"Safety First" - Does that Mean Abrupt End of RTO?

 The illusion of safety at work has collapsed, of course. 

With his weapon visible Shane Tamura managed to penetrate all the security measures, ranging from human to electronic, in Midtown Manhattan. Obviously, employers can't guarantee that those working at their physical locations will be insulated from violence.

This is at a time when many of the businesses operating in Midtown have gutted much of remote work. Blackstone, which is housed where the massacre happened, had been among the first to mandate RTO. It has required five days a week. Among those murdered has been one of Blackstone's executives: Wesley LePatner. 

Not that human beings are entirely safe being at home.

Still resonating in the collective memory bank of residents of single-family houses is the triple murder during the 2007 home invasion of the Petit household in Cheshire, Connecticut. At the time Dr. Petit was at-home, not in his office. He was knocked around but not killed as had been his wife and daughters. So senseless was that home invasion that it has been compared to the fatal home invasion of the Clutter family residence in Kansas in 1959, made famous by Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood." 

Although I screen carefully clients making appointments for intuitive coaching/tarot readings in my home, I still open myself to the play-out of aberrant behavior. No, 100% safety doesn't exist. But when I was providing tarot readings in a spiritual center in the southwest, there was a panic button I could press.

Leaders - and not only in Manhattan - will be going back to the drawing board on RTO. Likely in the loop in their review will be consultations with their law firms ranging from Kirkland & Ellis to Paul Weiss to Jones Day.  Some of those will be about the potential liability. Suppose mandated RTO continues and there's another violent incident. Meanwhile, what could be the liability issues which emerged last evening?

Obviously, that location - Midtown Manhattan - has become a target. Actually, it had been one since United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson had been gunned down on December 4, 2024. Anyone with a lust for fame and a resentment can try to stage another spectacular act of violence. 

Stanford Graduate Business School professor Jeffrey Pfeffer published in 2018 the expose "Dying for a Paycheck." That might have taken on new meanings for boards, investors, executives, ethics experts, lawyers, property owners, employees and the families of employees.

In coaching I observe this: More and more who have to earn a living have given up the assumption that there is any safe haven. In any form. For any human activity. 

Thrown off your game, maybe the first time since you started working? You made all the right moves and then the world moved in another direction.

Intuitive Coaching. Special expertise with transitions, reskilling and aging. Psychic/tarot readings, upon request. Complimentary consultation with Jane Genova (Text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com). Yes, test out the chemistry. There’s no risk.