Domestic violence is rarely associated with the workplace, as it is usually seen as an issue confined to the home and intimate relationships. However, the mental, physical, and emotional harm experienced by victim-survivors can significantly affect their ability to work.
Research shows that violence in private life often carries into professional settings, disrupting concentration, attendance, safety, and work performance.
Defining domestic violence and understanding its impact are essential for recognizing risks, supporting wellbeing, and responding appropriately in professional settings.
What Is Domestic Violence?
Domestic violence is a pattern of behaviors used by one person to gain or maintain power and control over another in an intimate, family, or domestic relationship. Over time, these repeated actions create fear, dependency, and loss of autonomy.
According to UN Women, domestic violence reflects unequal power relations at personal, relational, community, and societal levels. It is closely linked to broader systems of social and economic control.
Domestic violence can occur between current or former partners, spouses, family members, or individuals who live or have lived together. It affects people of all genders, ages, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
From a workplace perspective, this distinction is critical. Victims often experience long-term psychological, emotional, and physical harm, which can impact concentration, memory, emotional regulation, and stamina.
People experiencing domestic violence often face negative impacts at work as a direct result of abuse in their private lives.
Perpetrators may actively interfere with a person’s ability to work. Studies document patterns where abusive partners deliberately sabotage employment to maintain control.
Forms of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence takes many forms, and individuals may experience multiple types simultaneously. Abuse does not require physical injury to be serious or harmful.
1. Physical Violence and Abuse
Physical violence includes any act that harms a person’s body or damages their property. While often the most visible, it is rarely the only form of abuse present.
Examples include hitting, slapping, punching, kicking, pushing, choking, throwing objects, or using weapons. It may also involve damaging and destroying property, or using force to intimidate or restrain individuals.
Beyond immediate injury, physical violence often causes ongoing fear, hypervigilance, and safety concerns that disrupt sleep, concentration, and work performance.
2. Sexual Assault and Sexual Violence
Sexual violence includes any unwanted sexual act or behavior where consent is absent, coerced, or withdrawn. It is not limited to physical assault and often overlaps with psychological and emotional harm.
It may involve unwanted touching, forced kissing, sexual insults or degrading jokes, threats related to sexual acts, or coercion regarding contraception and reproduction. In some cases, perpetrators force victims to witness sexual acts or participate in sexual activity involving minors.
Sexual violence undermines bodily autonomy and can profoundly affect mental health, trust, self-worth, and a person’s sense of safety, including at work.
3. Psychological and Emotional Abuse
Psychological and emotional abuse targets a person’s sense of self, reality, and independence. These behaviors are often subtle, persistent, and difficult to identify, yet central to maintaining control.
Common tactics include gaslighting, which can lead a person to question their perceptions or memories; constant belittling or humiliation, both private and public; and repeated criticism that erodes confidence. Emotional blackmail, such as threats of self-harm or suicide, is also used to manipulate behavior.
Over time, this abuse can severely impact decision-making, confidence, emotional regulation, and the ability to advocate for oneself or seek support at work.
4. Economic and Financial Abuse
Economic abuse is a key method perpetrators use to maintain control and dependency. It involves restricting or controlling access to financial resources and economic independence.
This may include restricting access to funds, misappropriating finances without consent, withholding earnings, or placing debt in the victim’s name. Employment interference is also common, such as preventing attendance at work, destroying work clothing or tools, sabotaging transport, or physically restraining someone from leaving the house.
In some cases, threats related to immigration status or deportation reinforce economic dependence and fear. Financial abuse directly affects a person’s ability to maintain employment, housing, and long-term stability.
5. Controlling and Stalking Behaviours
Domestic violence often involves ongoing controlling behaviors intended to isolate and monitor a person’s movements and relationships.
This can include restricting access to family, friends, or social supports; monitoring phone use; reading messages without consent; and limiting communication. Stalking may involve following the person, repeatedly appearing at places they frequent, or showing up at their workplace to intimidate or disrupt.
These behaviors create constant surveillance and fear, making it difficult for individuals to feel safe, focus on tasks, or maintain consistent work routines.
6. Technology-Facilitated and Image-Based Abuse
Technology is a powerful tool for extending abuse beyond physical proximity. Technology-facilitated abuse includes sending threatening or degrading messages, making harassing calls, and using digital platforms to monitor or control someone.
Image-based abuse involves sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent. Perpetrators may also create fake social media profiles to damage reputations, isolate victims, or interfere with employment.
Because this abuse can occur continuously and without detection, it often intensifies anxiety, shame, and fear, even when the individual is physically away from the perpetrator.
7. Spiritual and Cultural Abuse
Spiritual and cultural abuse uses a person’s beliefs, traditions, or cultural identity to control or harm. This form of abuse is often overlooked but can be deeply damaging.
Examples include using religious teachings to justify violence or submission, denigrating cultural identity, denying access to religious practices or ceremonies, or restricting contact with cultural or family networks. Perpetrators may also exploit community pressure or cultural expectations to silence victims or discourage seeking help.
This abuse can intensify isolation and create additional barriers to support, especially for individuals from marginalized or migrant communities.
8. Child Abuse and Exposure to Domestic Violence
Domestic violence also includes harm directed toward children, such as physical, sexual, emotional, or verbal abuse, as well as neglect. Children do not need to be directly assaulted to be affected.
Exposure to violence between adults in the home is itself harmful. Witnessing abuse can have long-term effects on a child’s emotional development, sense of safety, and future relationships. It also places emotional strain on the non-abusive parent, often affecting their ability to work and manage daily responsibilities.
The Impact of Domestic Violence
Adult victim-survivors of domestic violence experience a wide range of serious and often compounding harms. These impacts are not limited to physical injury but affect nearly every aspect of daily life.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), domestic violence remains a leading contributor to injury, illness, disability, and death.
In 2022–23, on average, one woman was killed every 11 days and one man every 91 days by an intimate partner in Australia. These figures reflect the most severe outcome of violence, but they sit alongside a much broader spectrum of harm.
Common impacts on adult victim-survivors include:
- Ongoing health and wellbeing issues such as insomnia, chronic pain, physical exhaustion, gastrointestinal problems, and early pregnancy loss
- Emotional and psychological trauma, including depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), self-harm, and increased risk of suicide
- Social isolation resulting from controlling behaviours, fear, shame, physical injury, emotional exhaustion, or substance use as a coping mechanism
- Alcohol misuse or use of other drugs as a way to manage ongoing distress or trauma
- Financial stress related to separation, relocation, legal proceedings, healthcare costs, and recovery from injury
- Housing instability and homelessness, particularly following separation from a violent partner
AIHW data shows that more than one in two women (55%) who permanently left a violent partner moved out of their home while the perpetrator remained. This displacement can create long-term instability, compounding trauma and disrupting access to employment, healthcare, and social support.
These impacts often interact rather than occur in isolation. For example, psychological trauma may affect physical health, while financial stress and housing insecurity can worsen emotional distress and limit recovery options.
How Domestic Violence Affects Work
Domestic violence often affects work in indirect but significant ways. Even when abuse occurs outside the workplace, its consequences can shape a person’s professional functioning.
Common impacts include:
- Reduced concentration and cognitive load
Ongoing fear, stress, and sleep disruption can impair focus, information processing, and the ability to complete complex tasks. - Emotional regulation challenges
Individuals may experience heightened anxiety, irritability, emotional shutdown, or difficulty managing pressure, especially in high-demand environments. - Fatigue and attendance issues
Sleep disruption, physical injuries, or emotional exhaustion can contribute to lateness, absenteeism, or reduced energy at work. - Decision-making and confidence
Psychological abuse and coercive control often undermine self-trust, making decision-making feel overwhelming or risky. - Safety concerns
Some individuals may fear being contacted, monitored, or confronted at work by the person using violence, which can increase distress and hypervigilance. - Impact on communication and teamwork
Trauma responses may affect communication style, trust, and engagement with colleagues or supervisors.
These impacts do not reflect a lack of commitment or professionalism. They reflect the strain of managing trauma while trying to maintain daily responsibilities.
Why Domestic Violence Often Goes Unseen at Work
Domestic violence often goes unreported in professional settings. Many individuals do not disclose their experiences due to fear, shame, or concerns about judgment or differential treatment at work.
Barriers to disclosure include concerns about job security, privacy, stigma, and uncertainty about how employers or colleagues will respond. Some may not recognize their experiences as domestic violence, especially when the abuse is psychological or controlling instead of physical.
Despite its significant impact on attendance, performance, and safety, domestic violence often remains hidden in workplace settings. This invisibility is shaped by a combination of personal fears, organisational blind spots, and structural barriers that make disclosure difficult and recognition unlikely.
Silence, Shame, and Fear of Consequences
More than half of victim-survivors choose not to tell managers or colleagues about the violence they experience. Shame and a desire to protect privacy are the most common reasons, with many employees wanting to keep personal trauma separate from their professional identity.
Fear of negative consequences also plays a major role. Individuals may worry that visible impacts, such as absences, reduced focus, or emotional distress, will be interpreted as poor performance. This can lead to judgment, career limitations, or job loss instead of support.
Management and Organisational Blind Spots
Domestic violence is often underestimated at leadership levels. Research reveals a clear gap between employee awareness and senior leaders’ perceptions, with senior leaders typically believing far fewer employees are affected than is actually the case.
This underestimation limits organisational action. When domestic violence is not recognised as a workplace issue, policies, training, and response frameworks are often absent. Managers may avoid asking questions, mistakenly believing silence respects privacy. This allows harm to continue unnoticed.
Misinterpretation of Work Performance Issues
The workplace impacts of domestic violence are often misread as disengagement or unreliability. Abusive behaviours, such as sabotaging transport, childcare, or sleep, can cause lateness, absenteeism, or reduced concentration. These signs are rarely linked to violence.
Without specific awareness or training, managers and colleagues may respond with performance management rather than support, further obscuring the underlying cause.
Structural and Gendered Barriers in Organisations
Many workplaces are structured around an ideal worker model that separates work from home life. Personal safety, caregiving responsibilities, and emotional distress are often viewed as outside organisational responsibility.
In these environments, requests for flexibility or leave may be viewed negatively, making disclosure feel risky. Where clear domestic violence policies are lacking, supervisors have little guidance, reinforcing secrecy and discouraging early intervention.
The Importance of Trauma-Informed Workplace Responses
Domestic violence is not a workplace conflict and should not be treated as an issue for mediation between two parties. It involves power imbalance and safety risks that need careful, trauma-informed responses.
A trauma-informed approach recognises the impact of fear, control, and stress on behaviour and performance. It prioritises emotional and physical safety, respects confidentiality, and avoids judgement or pressure to disclose information.
Workplaces that understand domestic violence as a wellbeing and safety issue are better positioned to respond appropriately, provide support, and reduce harm.
When Professional Support May Be Helpful
When domestic violence affects emotional wellbeing, concentration, work performance, or the ability to manage daily responsibilities, professional support can be beneficial. Counselling provides a structured, confidential space to explore emotional responses, build coping strategies, and strengthen resilience.
Support can help individuals distinguish between temporary stress reactions and longer-term trauma that may need ongoing care. Early support may reduce the effects of trauma and help individuals regain stability and control.
Domestic violence shows how personal safety, mental health, and work life are interconnected. Recognising patterns early, responding with care, and accessing support can make a meaningful difference to wellbeing and recovery.
D’Accord OAS provides counselling and wellbeing support for individuals experiencing emotional strain, trauma, or stress related to critical life events. Services are delivered through trauma-informed, person-centred practice designed to support safety, stability, and psychological wellbeing.
To learn more about available support options, visit the D’Accord OAS website or contact the team to discuss appropriate services.