STATE OF WISCONSIN
LABOR AND INDUSTRY REVIEW COMMISSION
P O BOX 8126, MADISON, WI 53708-8126 (608/266-9850)

TIMOTHY T ROBERG, Employee

THE KINETIC COMPANY INC, Employer

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 05608368MW


An administrative law judge (ALJ) for the Division of Unemployment Insurance of the Department of Workforce Development issued a decision in this matter. A timely petition for review was filed.

The commission has considered the petition and the positions of the parties, and it has reviewed the evidence submitted to the ALJ. Based on its review, the commission agrees with the decision of the ALJ, and it adopts the findings and conclusion in that decision as its own.

DECISION

The decision of the administrative law judge is affirmed. Accordingly, the employee is eligible for benefits beginning in week 44 of 2005, if otherwise qualified.

Dated and mailed May 12, 2006
roberti . usd : 115 : 4   MC 669   MC 670

/s/ James T. Flynn, Chairman

/s/ David B. Falstad, Commissioner

Robert Glaser, Commissioner

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The commission agrees with the administrative law judge that the words and actions of the employee at issue here were not sufficient to reasonably support a conclusion that he had committed misconduct by threatening the workplace.

First of all, the only eyewitness, Janus, testified that he could not tell whether the employee was serious when he stated that he "was going to go postal." Moreover, even though "going postal" can convey in the proper context that someone intends to commit an act of violence, it has also entered the common vernacular as a term for simply being upset or unhappy about a particular circumstance. The commission concludes that this was the employee's intended meaning here, that this meaning should have been reasonably apparent to the employer under the circumstances, and that the employer overreacted by discharging the employee. There was no showing that the employee had a history of violence, that he was known to own or use weapons, or that the employer had some other indication that the employee was prone to commit an act of workplace violence.

cc:
Attorney Jennifer Schober Goodwin
Timothy T. Roberg



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