A lockout is a situation where someone is deliberately prevented from accessing something they normally have access to, whether that’s a workplace, a rented home, or a digital account. The term shows up in three very different contexts: labor disputes, landlord-tenant law, and cybersecurity. Each carries its own rules, consequences, and protections.
Labor Lockouts
In a labor dispute, a lockout is when an employer shuts workers out of the workplace to pressure them during contract negotiations. It’s the employer’s counterpart to a strike. In a strike, employees show up but refuse to work. In a lockout, the employer simply stops offering work to employees.
Lockouts are legal under the National Labor Relations Act, but only under specific conditions. The National Labor Relations Board and federal courts evaluate whether the lockout is a legitimate bargaining tactic or whether it’s motivated by hostility toward the union itself. An employer can use a lockout to apply economic pressure in support of a genuine bargaining position. But if the real purpose is to punish workers for organizing or to undermine the union, the lockout crosses the line into an unfair labor practice.
During a lockout, workers don’t receive their regular pay, though they may be eligible for certain benefits depending on their contract and the laws in their state. Lockouts can last days, weeks, or even months. They typically end when both sides reach a new collective bargaining agreement or when the employer decides to reopen the workplace.
Tenant Lockouts
A tenant lockout happens when a landlord prevents a renter from entering their own home, usually by changing the locks, blocking the door, or shutting off utilities. In nearly every state, this is illegal. Landlords who want a tenant to leave are required to go through the formal eviction process in court. They cannot take matters into their own hands.
Illegal lockout tactics include changing or adding locks without providing the tenant a key, using boot locks or similar devices on doors, removing outside doors, windows, or walls (except for legitimate maintenance), shutting off water, electricity, gas, heat, or other utilities, and removing a tenant’s personal belongings from the unit. Even if a tenant is behind on rent, a landlord cannot use any of these tactics as a shortcut around formal eviction.
Tenants who experience an illegal lockout have strong legal remedies. Penalties for landlords vary by state, but they commonly include liability for actual damages plus additional statutory damages (often equivalent to several months’ rent), court costs, and attorney’s fees. Courts also treat illegal lockouts as causing irreparable harm, which means a tenant can seek an emergency court order forcing the landlord to restore access immediately. Repeated violations can result in separate damage awards for each incident.
Account Lockouts in Cybersecurity
An account lockout is a security feature that temporarily disables a user account after too many failed login attempts. It’s designed to stop attackers from guessing passwords through brute force, where automated tools rapidly try thousands of possible passwords until one works.
Most organizations configure three settings to control how account lockouts work:
- Lockout threshold: The number of failed login attempts that triggers the lockout. Common settings range from three to ten attempts.
- Lockout duration: How long the account stays locked before it automatically unlocks. This might be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or until an administrator manually resets it.
- Counter reset time: How long the system waits before clearing previous failed attempts from its count. If you mistype your password once and then wait long enough, that failed attempt won’t count toward the threshold.
If you’ve been locked out of a personal account (email, banking, social media), it usually means you’ve entered the wrong password multiple times. Most services let you unlock your account by verifying your identity through a recovery email, phone number, or security questions. If those options aren’t available, you’ll typically need to contact the service’s support team directly.
For workplace accounts managed through systems like Windows Active Directory, your IT department controls the lockout settings and can unlock your account manually. Frequent lockouts on a work account can sometimes signal that someone else is attempting to access it, so it’s worth mentioning to your IT team if it happens repeatedly without explanation.
Which Type of Lockout Applies to You
If you’re a worker whose employer has closed the workplace during a contract dispute, you’re dealing with a labor lockout. Your union representatives can explain your rights and what benefits you may be entitled to during the stoppage.
If your landlord has changed the locks, shut off your utilities, or otherwise blocked you from your home, you’re likely experiencing an illegal tenant lockout. Contact your local tenant rights organization or housing authority, and consider seeking an emergency court order to regain access.
If you can’t log into an online account or your work computer, you’re dealing with an account lockout. Try your service’s password recovery option first, or reach out to your company’s IT support if it’s a work account.