Why employers should treat domestic violence as a workplace issue

In a small West Virginia county a few years ago, Wanda (pseudonym) asked her employer for some time off to deal with a situation at home. Her employer turned her down. Not long after, Wanda’s situation at home, the abusive partner she’d been trying to escape from, showed up at her workplace and threatened her at gunpoint. Police had to be called, and Wanda’s office shut down for the rest of the day. Samuel “Raymie” White, Wanda’s lawyer and the Legal Services Director for the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, told Fast Company this story to illustrate a point: Offering workplace protections to survivors of intimate partner violence isn’t only crucial for the safety of those survivors, but it’s also critical to keeping other employees out of harm’s way—and to keep businesses running smoothly. Situations like his clients’ “end up disrupting business for hours,” White says. “[Employers] have to call the police, the police have to show up, they have to deal with this threat…It’s really to [employers’] advantage to work with victims.” In other words, while domestic violence might not seem like a workplace issue, it absolutely can be, and almost always is for working survivors. The problem is, most survivors, and many employers, don’t know what rights survivors of domestic violence have in the workplace, creating more risk for everyone—survivors and their coworkers. According to a 2025 survey by social justice nonprofit Futures Without Violence, 53% of domestic violence survivors did not disclose their abuse to their employers for “fear of discrimination, job loss, or retaliation.” This was partially because 71% reported that they didn’t know if their city, county, state or territory had employment laws “that protect employees facing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and/or stalking.” These protections could mean the difference between life and death for intimate partner violence survivors, says Ana Van Balen, Vice President for Wor