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Ask HN: Why doesn't IT staff just dial 911?

• Broken_Hippo 10y ago
  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.