You may think you know that person over in the next cubicle. You know what position his kid plays on his Little League team. You know he makes a mean guacamole for the company picnic. And you know he always remembers to send his wife flowers on her birthday.

Behind the crisp white dress shirt and painfully organized demeanor, may be a stalker. Or a rapist. Or a violent psychopath trying desperately to blend in - mingling with the mundane until it just becomes too much for them to take.

Sure there are the John Q. Publics who are hell-bent on sending their co-workers to meet their makers, but workplace violence doesn't just come in the form of your co-worker turning your break room into a shooting gallery.

A flash of anger over a blown deadline or losing out to a romantic rival could be just enough to tip the balance, erupting into an office brawl with your co-workers in the primo ringside seats. Or it could fly under the radar as sexual harassment, intimidation, threats and emotional abuse - basically all the real life skills you picked up during third-grade recess.

According to the Justice Department number whiz kids, an average of 1.7 million "violent victimizations" happened on the job every year from 1993 through 1999. Nearly 1,000 people a year are murdered at work, but most of these violent acts - 95 percent - were simple aggravated assaults.

Crunch the numbers and 12.5 workers out of every 1,000 will be the victim of a violent crime at work. Those outbursts cost American workplaces billions - yep, billions with a "b" - of dollars every year because of lost work time and wages, reduced productivity, workers' comp, and legal and security expenses.

You don't really want to be at work, but you're stuck there staring at a packed In-box because you have to pay the electricity bill; your kid needs braces, and food costs money - a lot of money. Look up from the quarterly reports and pay attention to what's going on around you.

Has your cubicle roomie suddenly become obsessed with that cute girl in records? Is his stress through the roof and his finances are in the red? Has his Diet Coke at lunch turned into three gin and tonics - easy on the tonic?

Don't use that info to start an office pool on who is the most likely of your co-worker to go postal. The U.S. Postal Service, by the way, hates that term - go figure. The mail carriers of America even issued a report in 2000 to publicize that their workers are in fact less likely to be homicide victims than other workers.

Good news for the Postal Service - bad news for everyone else. You don't want to end up number one on anyone's hit list, but don't just chalk up a few threats to a bad day on the job. If you are truly concerned don't keep your trap shut. Confide in a manager or human resources.

Remember at the end of the day you want to escape the rat race with a paycheck - not a black eye or something far worse.