The wave of mass layoffs in the pandemic, as well as recent public statements on social issues, has led to a rise in physical threats against companies, their leaders and employees, reported the Wall Street Journal. A recent poll by the the Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence.of 300 executives at U.S. companies with at least 5,000 employees has found 69 percent reporting a dramatic increase in physical threat activity against their companies compared with last year. These threats come in the form of both direct communications as well as comments made on social media, and they come from both disgruntled former employees as well as those who have no connection at all save anger.  These threats raise a concern not only for employee safety, but also for legal liability, given the duty of care that employers have generally.
 
Complicating this development is the fact that many people are working from their homes, which generally lack protections such as  key card access and doormen that a more traditional office setting might have. With this in mind, companies have had to rethink their emergency procedures,  as accounting for staff spread out through an area. But short of paying for home security systems, it is unknown what can be done for remote workers save warning them of specific threats.