In an uncertain political and legal landscape, employees from high-risk communities often face difficult decisions regarding their personal and professional safety. Whether it’s work-related travel, in-office policies, or general workplace security, knowing when to take action can be overwhelming.
That’s where “tripwires” come in—a proactive approach to decision-making that helps employees and managers navigate complex situations with clarity, before emotions run high or legislation directly impacts your workplace.
A tripwire is a predefined event or condition that signals the need for a change in plans or additional precautions. Each organization, team, and individual will have different tripwires, but starting these conversations early creates proactive responses instead of reactive decisions.
How to Use Tripwires in Workplace Safety Planning
1. Identify Key Risks
Start by identifying risks to yourself. The Group Identity Wheel can help you think through your many identities to see what policy changes or events might put you or your family at risk. If you’re unsure of what risks may be out there (and no one blames you for that – it’s been a dizzying three months), 5calls.org has a list of active topics affecting Americans. You should also consider threats specific to your industry that may not be making headlines (for example, few people are talking about the dismantling of USDA or public media). Another good resource is Independent Sector’s trackers for the nonprofit sector on tax and legislation changes, litigation, and executive orders.
If you are a conscientious manager, you may also want to identify risks to vulnerable members of your team. However, tread sensitively here. You don’t want to “out” anyone in terms of their sexuality, gender identity, immigration status, disability status, etc. If you feel you don’t have the relationship to talk directly to a staff member about whether they feel at risk or under threat (and if you have to ask, you probably don’t), then it’s best to bring your concerns to HR. Human Resources can then put together an overall plan most relevant to the risk factors for your employees without outing anyone.
The point is to keep in mind that people of different identities are experiencing this time of chaos and lawlessness differently. Some ways in which folks might be vulnerable include:
- Employees with diverse gender identities whose documentation may not match their expression
- Team members with conditional immigration statuses (DACA recipients, Green Card holders)
- Team members with naturalized citizenship afraid they may get detained at the border for exercising their First Amendment rights.
- People considering abortion or IVF facing restrictive state laws.
- Parents with kids who have disabilities losing access to quality public education.
- Caregivers losing support and life-saving services because of potential cuts to Medicaid and Medicare
- Employees being unable to travel between states because they have different legal protections.
- Safety of business travel for employees of certain identities (and the unintended impact of being denied business travel affecting their chance at promotion).
How can you catalog all the potential risks? It may be worth creating a survey to ask employees what risks they foresee and what they are most worried about. Of course, the effectiveness of your tripwire system depends on leadership demonstrating awareness of these concerns and creating an environment where team members feel supported in raising potential issues.
2. Set Clear Tripwires
Establish specific tripwires – predefined conditions that trigger predetermined responses:
You’ll want to define actionable triggers, such as:
- Passage of laws limiting protections for specific groups
- Documented increase in targeted violence in specific locations
- Changes to internal policies that reduce employee protections
- Official travel advisories for areas where employees work or travel
We’ll admit that this can be the hardest part of this exercise. There’s a lot of unknowns and a lot of possible outcomes, and separating your anxiety from actual events can be difficult. It may help to talk to a trusted friend or colleague about your concerns and have them help you separate out anxiety from trigger events. The table below provides some tripwires and suggested actions we were able to brainstorm for our clients, but it’s not an exhaustive list.
Sample Tripwires and Responses:
| Risk Area | Tripwire Event | Action Triggered |
| Work Travel | Travel advisory issued | Employees can opt out of travel |
| Policy Change | Removal of gender neutral facilities | HR engages leadership for policy discussion |
| Workplace Safety | Increase in local hate incidents | Option for hybrid/remote work |
| Health & Safety | Reported or declared pandemic or epidemic | Remote work for knowledge workers; issue protective gear for essential workers |
| Workplace Safety | Civil unrest, violent protests | Office evacuation or closure |
| Workplace Safety | Verified bomb threat | Office evacuation plan |
| Industry changes | Government funding revoked | Lean on philanthropy and fundraising; cut some services if absolutely necessary |
Additional Risk Areas to Consider:
- School closures that affect employees with caregiving responsibilities
- Healthcare access changes affecting employees with specific medical needs
- Immigration policy changes impacting international employees
- Natural disasters or environmental emergencies
- Security threats directed at your industry or location
Effective tripwires strike a balance between being sensitive enough to provide early warning while specific enough to avoid false alarms.
Be aware that there will also be unintended impacts of your safety plans. For example, if certain employees can’t travel for work because of their identity, how might that impact their career advancement? If employees opt out of travel, or companies are advising against travel for certain targeted groups, HR should come up with contingency plans to ensure the at-risk employees are not denied promotions or equal pay because of factors well outside their control.
In addition, you may need to engage in some training in order to enact a safety plan. For example, one government client has already provided staff with training on what to do if ICE visits the premises. The trigger is the visit, but the safety plan can only be enacted if staff are trained in advance.
3. Use Your Strengths to Develop an Action Plan
When developing an action plan–either for an individual or an organization–it’s wise to play to your strengths. This is also why there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to many of the trigger events listed above.
For example, a public figure we know who makes their living writing and speaking is anxious about the infringement of First Amendment protections that are occurring; after all, they make their living speaking on topics of social justice and against fascist policies. While the current state of affairs is concerning, they decided their trigger for action would be if the courts uphold the practice of detaining citizens and legal immigrants at the border because of their social media posts against the current administration. It’s already happening, but the trigger is if the courts allow it to continue (or if court rulings cease to have any enforceable impact).
Because this person already has dual citizenship and family in Spain, they plan to travel there and then make a plan for whether to stay there or start the process of legal immigration to another country. Their spouse, who is eligible for a pension in six months from a state job, will remain behind for those six months, at which point they will reassess their options.
What does a strengths-based safety plan look like at the organizational level?
We advise a lot of public media organizations, which are currently under the threat of losing federal funding. However, unlike some nonprofits which were fully funded by USAID, public media is generally in a better position because, overall, only a small percentage of funding comes from the federal government. Since the 1980s, public media has been relying more on individuals and philanthropic organizations for funding.
The trigger is already in place for public media: the threat of dismantling the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and pulling funding. A good safety plan would leverage their strength in having diversified funding streams to make up for the loss. This would allow them to make up any shortfalls in funding relatively quickly (though there will likely still be some fallout), ensuring their survival despite a hostile climate.
In addition, you’ll want to make sure you have support resources in place. That can include:
- Designated HR contacts for sensitive situations (e.g., traveling for abortion care, relocating trans employees, what to do if ICE comes to your office).
- Legal counsel familiar with relevant laws (i.e., tax laws if you’re a foundation, First Amendment rights if you’re public media, immigration law if you’re an individual who fears you might be targeted).
- Employee assistance programs with specialized support. Make sure this information is easily available to employees, and communicated often.
- Security resources. This could vary from workplace security guards to cybersecurity to prevent people from getting doxxed.
By proactively seeking to identify resources and partners now, you’ll save time if/when you need to enact your safety plan.
Tripwires in Action: A Workplace Scenario
A marketing team planned to attend a conference in a state that recently passed legislation restricting access for transgender individuals in public spaces. Months earlier, the company established a tripwire policy allowing employees to opt out of travel to locations with such laws without career penalties.
When the legislation passed, the manager referenced the policy and initiated a team conversation. One directly impacted team member and an ally chose to participate virtually, while others traveled as planned.
Benefits of this predefined approach included:
- Employees felt respected and supported
- Managers had clear accommodation guidelines
- The company maintained its conference presence while respecting individual choices
- Team discussions focused on solutions rather than debating concerns
- Team members avoided negotiating accommodations during a stressful time
Conclusion
In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, waiting until a crisis emerges to determine your response creates confusion and potentially compromises safety. Tripwires transform reactive approaches into readiness strategies.
The time to implement tripwires is now, before they’re urgently needed. When difficult situations arise, having these protocols means everyone—from consumer-facing employees to leadership—will know exactly what steps to take, allowing your organization to navigate challenges with confidence, consistency, and care. True, we have to imagine more risks than ever before, and that can be a scary exercise, but as Margaret McFarland, the longtime advisor to Fred Rogers, famously said, “Anything mentionable is manageable.”
This article was written with the help of claude.ai. As a small business, we thoughtfully engage artificial intelligence to improve our efficiency, while also using human experts to review created content and mitigate bias. Photo by daniel tang on Unsplash