Survivor Stories Spotlight Workplace Barriers and Paths Forward
By Dorian Karp and Ana López van Balen
November 20, 2025
Survivors feel the impact of their abuse everywhere, including at work. This is something we’ve always known.
And now, after surveying more than 2,000 survivors, we know more about the extent of the impact of domestic violence and other abuse in the workplace, and how unprepared most employers are to respond, even when they want to.
Millions of women and men, working across every industry in the U.S., experience domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, or stalking each year. How does their abuse affect their ability to maintain employment? What types of accommodations do they need in order to seek safety and healing, and do their best at work? And how should employers respond?
This week, we – The National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and Futures Without Violence – released a new report to answer these questions and more on the experiences of survivors of abuse in the workplace. Most of our survey respondents held jobs even as they were experiencing domestic violence or other forms of abuse in their lives. And they had a lot to share about their experiences in the workplace.
What they shared sheds light on a difficult workplace reality many survivors face:
- 79% of victims said domestic violence made it harder for them to work.
- 53% stated they didn’t disclose their domestic violence to their employers due to fear of discrimination, job loss, or workplace retaliation.
- Many described negative workplace experiences after disclosing abuse, including harassment and job loss. This was even more pronounced among Black and Latina respondents.
“After a violent incident, I would have to take the day off of work to recover. And then once I got out of the relationship, I struggled strongly with PTSD for three more years, causing me to miss more work, have panic attacks in [the] office and struggle with interacting with coworkers,” said one survivor.
Her experience mirrors that of many other survivors in the workplace.
Domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of abuse can have many health impacts. It’s not surprising, then, that more than 6 in 10 survivors said they needed time off to care for their mental and emotional health, including time off for counseling. And while there are laws in many states that provide time off for health-related concerns or to handle impacts of abuse, more than two-thirds of survivors in our survey were not aware of the types of leave or job protections available to them.
The good news is that our survey also revealed employers are increasingly providing education and training on the impacts of abuse. When they do, survivors said in our survey they were more likely to disclose their abuse.
What else can an employer do to ensure that survivors of abuse in their workplaces are able to maintain their employment?
- Adopt survivor-centered policies: Ensure survivors have a safe and confidential way to disclose their abuse and communicate these policies in the employee manuals.
- Educate workers about employment protections: Know the federal, state, and local laws around paid leave, flexible accommodations, and reasonable adjustments, and advance policies that help survivors get the time off they need for court, medical appointments, or safety planning.
- Tailor benefits to survivor needs: Offer health care plans that include domestic violence services and trauma-informed counseling, and provide emergency funds for immediate safety needs.
- Partner with domestic violence agencies and other survivor-centered support organizations: This will help employers ensure they are responding to situations within their workplaces and that survivors can be supported.
More than 200,000 women have left the workforce in 2025, many citing the lack of family friendly policies, paid leave, and other challenges. In this environment, employers have an unprecedented opportunity to retain more workers by taking steps to create more supportive workplaces for survivors.
Supporting survivors in the workplace is a win-win: survivors need economic stability for their safety, and employers need to retain workers and create safety at the workplace.
By committing to support survivors, employers are committing to a better workplace, where everyone can show up as their full selves and contribute their talents to their fullest extent.
