I employ a small number of people in my lab, and personality conflicts come with the territory. I like to call it an Anne Frank situation, where people who aren’t related or necessarily choose each other end up spending huge parts of their days together in a single room. So, I’m used to dealing with most kinds of gripes and conflicts.
This one, however, has me a bit out of my depth. One of the techs says that when she is with one of the students, he has long conversations with himself. She says he takes both sides of these conversations and that he changes his voice for each side. He is not on a hands free, taking a phone call. She looked up indicators of mental health issues, and now she’s really scared that he could freak out, like maybe he’s a potential shooter. She came to me today to pretty much beg me to do something.
I have to address her concerns, but I’m kind of at a loss as to how. So, I looked up the student health service mental health division, and I reached out for information on who can give me guidance. Obviously I can’t just blow this off, but I also have to be cognizant of the student’s rights and privacy.
Anyway, I’m waiting to see what kind of response I get from the health service.