Uncomfortable Employees (from an employer)

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I am the employer of asmall business and Itry hard to treat my employees well and make work a good experience for them. I was enjoying dinner with an employee and he told me that his old employer made him feel uncomfortable, and hetreated him badly. I asked him specifically what did he do. He told me that his former employeropen-carried a firearm at work, and he felt that it was intimidating (especially since his former employer enjoyedyelling and critisizinghis employees).

I never thought of this, but now I don't think I willever beopen carrying at work. Have any of you ever thought (as an employer) that open carry could be too intimidating?

I'm curious how others would handle this situation. For me I think at work concealed is the solution. Although Ithink 99%of my employees already know I carry (they just don't know when). I guess out of sight is out of mind.

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It sounds like you are lucky - you have an employee who feels comfortable being honest with you about his work-related feelings. Why not ask this employee - perhaps in a neutral place like at lunch - what he thinks? I'd ask whether the employee was uncomfortable because he used to have a boss who treated him badly and liked to yell and throw tantrumswhile open carrying (an awful combination for anyone!) or if it was the open-carrying in and of itself, even if the boss had been a great guy.I'd be honest with my employee and tell him that I sometimes open-carry, and I respect my employees feelings a great deal, so I need to know so I can take that into consideration. Most employees would feel valued to have their boss be so considerate of their feelings and curious aboutthe employees previous experience with variousmanagement styles. That could lead to an even better employee who sticks around.

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Like probably most of the people who frequent this forum, I am quite comfortable around people who carry openly; most in the general population are not. I would be concerned if any person I knew to be armed was given to ranting, yelling, or any other behavior that called his self-control into question. If it were my employee, I would serve notice that armed people must be calm. If it were my employer, I would vote with my feet.

For the small business, I think the major factor in practicing/allowing open-carry by the owner or employees would be whether they had contact with clients from the general public. If I owned a business in which I or the employees met with potential clients, I would not want to chance repelling hoplophobes---concealed carry only.

If it were a business with no personal contact with clients (like via internet or phone orders only), I think open carry would be fine.

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I agree that the problem is with the person and not the gun. The 'yelling and [criticizing]' is the most likely problem.

Many of the sheeple are lead to believe that it is the guns fault, and it is always easier to blame a gun because that makes it a little less personal. 'The gun makes my uncomfortable, not the person.'

This is shown in the news a lot. Take the recent stabbing up in Gaithersburg. People are always fatally shot with a gun, but you don't read or hear the news saying the victim was fatally stabbed with a knife. It just reads fatally stabbed, or a fatal stabbing. Knives don't lead to the crime like guns do - according to many media outlets (not all, just many).