Retaliation Tricks Employers Play & How to Defend Against Them

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In general, the shorter the time between our protected activity, like a complaint, and our employer’s retaliatory actions, the more likely it is that courts will decide that our complaint is the REASON our employer retaliated.
Mole v. Univ. of Mass., 442 Mass. 582, 595 (2004).

The more time there is between, the less likely that becomes. (Id. at 595.). And we may have to EXPLAIN how we know thing one caused the other in some other way.

Employers know how important temporal proximity is in retaliation cases. They sometimes try to game the system by delaying retaliatory actions until a significant amount of time has passed, They use the waiting game to cover up the real timing of their decision to retaliate. Instead of trying to fire us right away, they may start to create records of conduct and performance problems they can use to justify firing us later. Today is mostly about this type of situation.

---- All opinions are my own. Not LEGAL advice. Just me sharing my perspective as an employee who went through the EEOC claims process & won. I am not an expert at all things EEOC. While I do my best to be factual in my observations, viewers should assume that all observations or statements are ALLEGEDLY. *Never trust your fate to a YouTube content creator. Do your own research, pilot your own vessel. *

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All employees should familiarize themselves with these tools...Conforto- "Inferring Pretext in Employment Discrimination Cases.". While employer 'articulates' State your argument, point directly to evidence in the record, with the citation that supports your evidence, be it direct or circumstantial, proof must still be that a jury would draw reasonable inferences that contradict or contest the reasons articulated by the employer. #Stillinittowinit

gracewisher
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My son was just let go after he reported his supervisor to HR. The day before, the HR agreed to all the claims he made about the supervisor. She set up a meeting yesterday between the 3 of them. The meeting was a half hour long and they were set on letting him go based on "this jov is not for you"

anginakakiuchi
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I was so lucky to be able to gather documentation before I left! Without it it would just be their word against mine! So excited to come across these videos!

starmott
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This information is great! I won my discrimination and retaliation through arbitration. Once I won, my employer put me on PTO for 5months due to some flooding being done in the office Also, they wanted to make sure my work station would be ready for my medical condition. I thought being on PTO for 5 months was weird. I got a call from HR to start work last week!!! So excited new management new start. I couldn't believe what I was facing once again. Management took away my specific duties that I was doing before the wrongful termination and assigned them to a younger employee. My first day was awful I was once again being discriminated and retaliated. My arbitration specifically said to be restored to my specific duties. I emailed HR and requested for management to comply with my award. No response. Even HR went as far as telling me arbitrator never said specifically to restore me to my original duties. So, I made a copy of my statement of facts and asked for compliance to the award. This agency didn't learn their lesson.

marialove
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Document, document, and keep conversations in writing, record conversations if your in a one party state ❤ employees rights!!

strtafamily
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Thank you for teaching us about “tempural proximity”. My boss retaliated 6 days after the protected activity. 🎉 What an idiot!

shaeb
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My former employer is retaliating by not paying me two paychecks I earned and didn't receive. The first one was from June. I have called her, and the union has called her. "I'll look into it" is the excuse I've heard from her at every opportunity. She even pulled that while I was still working there. And they invented infractions against me while I was still there, and then fired me based on trumped up complaints. There damned well better be a ruling in my favor at some point, because I put up with abuse from her and the supervisor for over a year. And the supervisor was only because she had the job for a year. The other one abused me as soon as she returned to our office from another one.
I initiated an EEO complaint against her a couple of years before, but the EEO person basically talked me out of it, because it wasn't based on any protected class. This time I went ahead with it, because bullying and harassment should also be considered worthy of protection.

anastasiae.
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Brilliant, thanks so much for this great video ! Yes, that lag for retaliation may be ever so subtle you hardly notice it if you're not aware. Can be half a year, or longer. Another variant is also slow-walking complaints that you file, until they have less impact or none at all, evidence has disappeared etc. That can be up to a year or longer ! And another variant also is when they pull up all sorts of stuff from way back when and present it as grounds for some sudden action. Pointing out the overlong delay of things which should normally be acted on promptly will help in showing that something is an orchestrated, retaliatory or malign strategic move, i.e. that something is amiss. Yes, and good to keep all relevant communication, rules of the organisation and other information in case you are fired or face other action.

multijanni
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When they are waiting to retaliate they aren't being helpful either! Solid gold information 👍

tabathaterry
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ThankYouLisaVeryMuch
for validating our experiences🗣
Every time I raised concerns or asked for reasonable adjustments I was treated worse afterwards😥

jolantahill
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My employer had delayed for 2 years. Good idea about documenting the lack of corrective action.

larisadirkzwager
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Hmmmm….now I know why I was put in a different position on PTO after filing a complaint against my abusive boss! By the way, he ended up being fired and I was eventually placed back in my original position.

juliedurden
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Excellent overviews... Every time you complain: 1) expect hurtful retaliation (stealthy or slammin') 2) if you are in a position warfare mode of preparing for more retaliation you need to find a new job even if you are a federal employee and have far more job protection and the likelihood of relative inaction on the part of the HR function or managers. In the private schecter you do not want a long-term battle. Find a new job while you have a job. Several different types of discrimination injure people who have to earn paychecks. Discrimination against the unemployed is something you can control if you know your job is problematic. Find your next job while you have a job and of course keep your job search and your loss of loyalty your biggest secrets

chipkirwan
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this was a real-life battle for me, no stone left unturned:
Oct 2003, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, unable to fly, per FAA, during treatment (I was a professional corporate pilot at the time).

Notified employer/CEO in person of my circumstance (fyi, this is a family owned business).

CEO told me to take disability, get better during treatment.  CEO told me they’d get a temporary ‘contractor’ during my absence.  CEO assured me I could return to my employment after treatment ended and FAA medical clearance was obtained.  Employer/CEO did not offer any work alternatives.

I notified employer/CEO approximately 1x per month of treatment updates, and expected treatment finish date with return-to-work plan.

In June 2004 I received FAA medical clearance to return to work.  I notified employer.

CEO invited me to meet in person, 1 day after my notification of intent to return to work.

During meeting, I was told that employer would be using ‘contractors’, and that I would no longer be employed, because the ‘full time employee’ position was eliminated.  I was offered 3 months of remaining on the payroll as ‘severance’.

Through some investigation of my own, I discovered that the ‘contractor’ (per IRS rules), was classified as an ‘employee’ who was being paid ‘under the table’ (illegal tax avoidance).

I asked for and received a signed, company letterheaded, letter of recommendation detailing my excellent performance on the job and the company’s elimination of the pilot position.

I contacted the IRS in person and discussed the employer’s tax avoidance scheme.

I discussed ‘contractor’ vs. ‘employee’ and tax implications with employer/CEO, and my concerns about discrimination with regards to my employment.  CEO dismissed my concerns and told me “You’re lucky you’re still on the payroll.  Most people would have been let go immediately” – This is verbatim from the CEO of the company at the time.

I filed a charge of discrimination under the laws of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

I also consulted with an employment law attorney.  The attorney advised of the At-Will employment law, and the challenge of overcoming the ‘burden of proof’ that rests with the employee in this circumstance.

Through the ‘grapevine’, I discovered that the ‘contractor’ was fired.  This occurred at about the same time the discrimination charges were delivered.  This was still during my 3 month ‘severance’ window of which I was ‘technically’ an employee.

I filed for, and received, unemployment benefits after the ‘severance’ ended.

I discovered that the employer truly did eliminate the pilot position, even though they now had a multi-million-dollar airplane that sat without a pilot for about a month.

I was notified of an opportunity, via certified mail, to interview for a pilot position with the employer (the same position I held prior).   EEOC advised me to interview (in sum, unemployment benefits law dictates that you cannot turn down employment).

I applied, interviewed, and was turned down for the job.  I was told that the company decided to hire a more qualified applicant. EEOC advised me that the company could likely offer me a different (non-pilot, possibly minimum wage) position, and I would HAVE to take it or lose unemployment benefits due to unemployment law.

I elected to voluntarily cease unemployment benefits for myself (yes, it is getting expensive at this point with no income, having to pay for COBRA insurance on top of that, medical deductibles, you name it….).  With a pre-existing condition prior to the ACA, there is NO other feasible alternative to COBRA. 

I was also interviewing with other companies at the time, trying to find employment during this entire process.

By voluntarily ceasing unemployment benefits after I had interviewed, the company HAD to avoid true discrimination (a retaliation charge, technically) by either: 1. Employing me or 2. Employing no one, for the pilot position.

The employer elected once again to employ no one and let their airplane sit.  I had to laugh about that a bit, just imagining the other (more qualified) pilot that had been offered the job but was never paid and had his job offer rescinded.  The absurdity… LOL…… BUT still legal.

After some time again, around January or February of 2005, I was invited to discuss the matter with my former employer’s attorney at the EEOC office.  I accepted the invitation.

I was offered the job.  Coincidentally, I was already employed at a new employer. Therefore, I declined the job offer.  Besides, who would want to work for an employer that hires and fires several times over per year.   They could now legally justify that as ‘normal, non-discriminatory behavior’ for the position since they did it to 2 other pilots also.   I could just see it now, taking that job back and getting fired again the next day….


*P.S. Here’s how the conversation went in the EEOC office with the Attorney:
Attorney and I talked a bit (I have the notes somewhere I’m sure) then it came to this:
“We would like to offer you the job in exchange for release of the charges”
My response:
“I would consider it. I would like to speak with him first (CEO)”
Attorney’s response:
“I’ll see if he’s available”
That was the end of the logical part.
After a week had passed, I had heard through the grapevine again that “some pilot interviewed but didn’t want the job”
The unspoken logic from above is:
1. CEO was “not available”.
2. I didn’t release the charges for another week because I didn’t want the job (and didn’t want it advertised to my new employer that I had accepted the old job again).
3. I did release the charges after I heard about “the pilot that didn’t want the job” (ME, of course), because they were worthless at this point anyway.

Notes:
Always get a letter of recommendation first. THAT was the essential catch to all of the rest.
I couldn't just "go away". That is 'immoral' in my book.

Final thoughts:
Scary experience for me at the time, but on the other hand…….

IRS audit of a 2000+ employee company + IRS penalties and back taxes + legal defense + letting a company airplane worth 5 million sit for 6 months + Listening to former co-workers, friends, etc. use descriptive language about (CEO) such as “Dirtbag”, “Worthless”, “A-hole”, “Jackass”, “What is wrong with (CEO) priceless.

jgmatp
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Yes I work at a childcare center for 10 years in the 8 year I started getting treated differently because I reported a male who lied and said that we were having sex. The women and a male at the job, and including the office staff was making my life hard, changing rules only for me, and having the other teachers tell them things about me that would influence the way that they treated me. The old workers would talk about me and spread lies to new workers, and the rumors would continue. This happened at a daycare which is a part of the Methodist church. They were bad towards me and eventually fired me when I complained about how I was treated. It was a clique and rhey used the "you have too many tardies" to fire me after I complained.

iloveoldschool
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Ha… this makes so much sense what happened to me. lol 😂 I worked for such dirty, slimy government officials. Retaliation Nation over there… glad I left when I did. They waited one month to start their retaliation, and then destroyed everything I had ever accomplished a month later…

And then suddenly they came at me with a year worth of claims against me that weren’t big problems back then and we’re already dealt with, but now they were bringing all these things back up to make me look bad and try to suddenly “document” me as a poorly performing employee. This is such textbook bull 💩. Lol 😂

I work for a new city and I am SO happy there. My only regret is not bringing a lawsuit to my former city, for their retaliation and defamation. I thought I was being the bigger person, but they really need to learn their lesson as they did this same thing to at least 6 other wonderful employees, before they did it to me.

countrybabe
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I started watching your videos a bout a year ago when I was discriminated and retaliated against by my former employer. You gave me the fuel I needed to start my case and now I will be at my in person deposition next Tuesday!! Any tips? And thank you !

CHICAGORILLATV
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I just became familiar with your channel, and I have been hooked every since.
Thank you for sharing not only your personal experiences but all of the helpful information you provide.
I am a federal employee as well and I have suffered all types of discrimination due to a work related injury.
Currently putting together evidence for a retaliation based on ADAAA.
If you ever have any live videos where you invite guest to speak I would like to take part.
Keep up the good work and God bless.

cclovecunningham
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I would suggest your viewers consume EEO MD 15 IV "Related Protected Bases" and continue searching around the site...it's new info provides much more clarity, probably because the so called anti-discrimination agencies i.e., the unemployment bureaus, are being flagged and called out these days for its own lack of impartiality.

gracewisher
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I’ve kept my head low for 23 years, I had an at-work minor recordable without lost time and they are now trying to hang me out to dry.
I took my STD to fix a hernia I got at work 8 years ago without documenting and now I’m a pariah!
I’m trying hard to learn to do these steps but it is so against my nature. I used to love working for them, now it’s a nightmare.

UFRooster