Q: I was told by my employer that if our store was ever robbed that I should comply with the robber's demands, and I'm willing to do this concerning money, but my question is, if I were an attractive woman and the robber demanded me to give him more than just my money, should I be forced to comply with this too? God help me.

A: I think God has already helped you, because if you are asking the question, you are considering your options.

I have seen a statistic that claims a significant portion of rapes are of the "opportunity" category, meaning a burglar, a robber, a truck driver picking up a hitchhiker, all find themselves in a situation where they have the privacy and the opportunity to rape.

And being a female employee, alone, in a convenience store gives a bad guy ample opportunity to rape and pillage. Even male employees are not safe. Recently robbers in a southwestern convenience store walked the male clerk outside to the back of the store and put a bullet in his head, killing him for no reason. Video surveillance tapes showed that the clerk offered no resistance and complied with the robbers.

I know the policy to which you refer -- several convenience store employees have been fired after refusing to comply with a store robbery. This is a huge change from 15-20 years ago when robbery-plagued convenience and liquor stores hired "troubleshooters" or "loss prevention officers". I knew one of these troubleshooters. He was assigned to trouble spots with a large convenience store chain. He is one of the toughest guys I know. A former biker, his job was to send a message to the bad guys in the area that this particular store was off limits. His weapon of choice was a sawed-off, double-barreled coach gun. With the new policy of total compliance, however, I feel the stores have encouraged more lawlessness. Now people walk out of stores with 30-packs of beer (it’s called a "beer run") with impunity.

Personally, I feel we each have a moral obligation to the rest of society to resist criminals in every way. Tactically, you might not be able to do that in your individual situation. However, I would comply with company policy regarding non-resistance to the loss of company property, but I would never, ever let myself be taken outside the store or herded into the back room.

Better to be unemployed and alive than be employed and dead.