Resources | Domestic Violence Affects the Workplace

What Does Domestic Violence Have to do With the Workplace?

What affects employees affects their employers. In the past, employers have viewed domestic violence as a personal issue rather than a workplace problem. Today, employers who do address domestic violence can provide real help to victims and reduce the associated risks involved with domestic violence.

Victims and abusers of domestic violence impact the workplace in many ways. In addition to the increased risk for workplace violence, domestic violence also results in decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, increased stress, increased health care costs, and increased turnover rates. The victim of domestic often has to flee his/her home in an effort to escape an abusive relationship. Escape from the home often includes abruptly leaving the workplace as well.

Two primary reasons that domestic violence comes to work:

• Domestic violence is about control. The victim's job represents independence and while the victim is at work, she/he is not under the abuser's immediate control.
• The victim is vulnerable at work. Because his/her work hours, parking arrangements, and geographical location are predictable, the abuser knows where and when he/she can find the employee.

Domestic Violence in the worplace statistics

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