
Ask HN: Why doesn't IT staff just dial 911? - known
I&#x27;ve seen many IT employees getting abused&#x2F;exploited&#x2F;sexually harassed in their work place. They&#x27;ll
1. Silently suffer
2. Quit the job<p>But never dial 911.
======
Broken_Hippo
Under most circumstances, none of these are emergencies.

Sexual harrassment is difficult to prove criminally. Heck, even regular
harrassment takes some work to prove and usually winds up with a restraining
order. This isn't really appropriate for work.

Abused and exploited: This would have to be outside of the normal workplace
norms and actually criminal. Most times, the abuse and exploitation is in the
form of words (abuse, again hard to prove) and forcing folks to work long
hours, despite difficulties (normal with some fields, so isn't considered
legal exploitation).

It winds up there is little that the cops can do.

Occasionally folks can quit and get unemployment because a workplace isn't
safe or is beyond what folks expect. For example, I knew a lady that started
getting treated badly because her son broke into the school - loss of
workplace responsibility and other such things. She got unemployment, but she
was lucky. You can sometimes get the same for sexual harassment.

Occasionally, workplaces will have avenues for reporting such abuses, but one
never really knows if they'll face backlash at work for reporting such a
thing.

