No reasonably prudent person ever expects that the Thanksgiving turkey is going to explode and kill everyone. It is the ability to completely ignore improbable risk of harm that lets people sleep at night. It is the same reason why people who cannot ignore improbable risk stare at the ceiling fan and wonder how many more seemingly harmless sleepy rotations of the blade will happen before it becomes slowly detached and kills everyone.
That is the role of lawyers to remind people to worry and don't be happy.
This is a common scenario among estate lawyers, especially if they are paid by the hour, to remind clients that giving everything to a spouse or a child just isn’t that simple. What if everyone dies at once? Did you think of that? Have you never watched “Die Hard?” Uncertain things happen in uncertain times. Estate planning with all of its contingency clauses and codicils could take all night. Turkey Armageddon requires careful drafting. One should also take care to plan for earthquake and tornado, as well as meteor strike, UFO encounter, zombie attack, and big lizard.
The same can be said when it comes to preparing for PTSD at the workplace. Most businesses don’t think about death or near death experiences as part of the quivers and arrows of employment to make it to the weekend. Most people don’t think about the person in the next cubicle as the next Howard Beale. Some companies rehearse active shooter scenarios. Other businesses never check to see if the fire extinguishers have expired.
Stuff happens. Things fall from the sky. Turkeys explode. The first rule of risk management prevails: make a plan. This puts a procedure in place to avoid the need for too much spontaneous thinking in times of crisis when Murphy’s law prevails.
“Hey Bob, there’s a turkey that’s exploded in the main café again and took out half the history department.”
“The ’plan’ says to bring a mop.”
This reflects a fundamental difference in people. Some folks always wear clean underwear just in case they get into an accident. They embrace the Eagle Scouts' motto to be prepared. Other people buy trailer homes in tornado alley even though they get hammered year after year like a cosmic game of whack-a-mole.
PTSD is off of the radar for most businesses. It is right of up there with meteor attack and giant lizard. Most business have poor contingency plans for disaster. This usually amounts to trying to remember to change the battery on the lobby smoke detector before it starts making an annoying, beeping sound. The movie “Jurassic Park” is a good example of this. Someone clearly didn’t think it through what would happen if something went wrong. It seems like a ripe lawsuit for all of the shareholders who lost their shirt on the Jurassic Park IPO. PTSD is right up there as unlikely as velociraptors on the rampage. ...
from NAILING JELLO: UNDERSTANDING THE PTSD CLAIM
Chapter 6: Preparing for the Zombie Invasion
Martin Klug, author
Martin Klug, author
Ebook available on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Nailing-Jello-Understanding-PTSD-Claim-ebook/dp/B01LOY9Q46
https://www.amazon.com/Nailing-Jello-Understanding-PTSD-Claim-ebook/dp/B01LOY9Q46
