Emotional Terrors in the Workplace: Protecting Your Business Bottom Line - Emotional Continuity Management in the Workplace

• Hundreds of tiny earthquakes reported at Mt. St. Helens (KCBD, com, Lubbock Texas; ABCNews.com. 9/28/04.

• Swarms of quakes in Mount St. Helens crater (Seattlepi.com, 9/28/04)

• "The senior flight attendants hadn't had a substantial raise since the 1970's, and it was very important to get a good contract for them and others. We did come to a tentative agreement in June of 2001. It was overwhelmingly ratified on September 12, 2001. On September 10, I flew down to Dallas for a meeting with American Airlines to discuss the implementation schedule for the contract we were on the phone when the second plane struck . All I know is that for two whole years I was obsessed with the contract and suddenly it seemed so unimportant. It was twenty-four hours before the ballot count, and nothing seemed to matter anymore." Laura Glading, Union Representative, Association of Professional Flight Attendants (Fink, 2002)

• "The mayor of Union Point, Georgia apparently committed suicide Thursday morning, hours before a grand jury was to hear fraud charges against him that could have sent him to prison for life." (Associated Press, May 14, 2004)

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS CHAPTER

• On September 26, 2004 the northwest of the United States began to read current and disturbing news about Mt. St. Helens rumbling, 20 years after she had blown.

• Elevation of Mount St. Helens before it erupted [20 years ago]: 9,677 feet; after: 8,363 feet; volume of resulting landslide, the largest in history: 3.3 billion cubic yards.

• Velocity of the volcanic blast: 200 to 335 mph; blast-zone area: 230 square miles; timber blown down: 4 billion board feet, enough to build 300,000 two-bedroom houses . Volume of ash carried eastward by wind: more than 540 million tons; area over which it fell: 22,000 square miles; time needed for ash to circle the Earth: 15 days.

• Number of historically active volcanoes (those once active that could become active again) in the United States: 53; where they are found: Alaska (43), Hawaii (5), Washington (2), California (2), Oregon (1).

• Number of historically active volcanoes in the world: 539; share found on the Pacific Ocean plat''s turbulent rim, dubbed the "Ring of Fire:" 66 percent; countries with more volcanoes than the United States: Indonesia (76) and Japan (63).

• Deadliest eruption ever: Tambora (Indonesia, in 1815); deaths: 92,000, including 82,000 from starvation in the aftermath. (Mt. St. Helens website)

Disasters are catastrophes and calamities. They are tragedies that render a victim or victims either temporarily or permanently unable to manage regular activities. Disasters leave people in their wake feeling unsettled and powerless. A disaster can come and go in a few seconds in a tornado , or chronically sap life away from its victims in a decade -long drought. A disaster can be felt through the loss of a family breadwinner or a beloved child. A work disaster can be the result of a natural disaster. It can also result from the consequences of a job loss, ruined reputation, business bankruptcy, community alienation, public scandal, death of co-worker, violent incident, criminal incident, or terrorism attack. Disasters can be a destructive force of nature or the consequences of individual tyrannical agendas directed from one human being to another human being or specific group . Disasters can be random or predicted by professional forecasters. The one thing that is predictable is that disasters happen daily, and rarely when you are expecting them.