Most organizations, especially those that manage higher risks, have a “requirement” for the workforce to stop work and get help when they are “unsure.” When you talk to managers, they believe this empowerment is what is needed to get people to stop.

Assessing personality types or styles goes back thousands of years. Rob Fisher, a human factors expert, says in ancient Asia, “fire,” “wind,” “water,” “earth” and other terms were used to capture the different personalities of different people.

In a recent study in France, one third of the respondents who said they’d considered suicide within the past year cited working and employment conditions as the reason. Fear of losing one’s job was the top stressor, followed by verbal threats, humiliation and intimidation at work. Some 3.8 percent of workers between the ages of 18 and 75 said they’d had suicidal thoughts within the 12 months preceding the study.

During my college summer breaks, I worked at a few different high-risk construction sites. On one job, I had a boss who liked to holler and was not very well liked. He was known as Hog Jaws and I’ve mentioned him previously.