Discrimination, harassment and retaliation can all cause significant harm to your career, reputation and overall stability. Once subjected to these egregious behaviors, you might be reassigned, demoted or even terminated from your position, throwing up roadblocks to career advancement and thrusting you into financial despair. While all of that can be incredibly stressful, you might have the opportunity to make things right again by pursuing a workplace discrimination or workplace retaliation claim against your employer.
While you’ll certainly need evidence to support your assertions in one of these cases, time and time again we see workplace discrimination victims make errors that are catastrophic to the viability of their case. You can’t let that happen to you, which is why we want to take some time to look at some of the biggest mistakes that are made in these cases, that way you know what to avoid as you prepare to step into the legal arena.
You have to be cognizant of your actions as you navigate your workplace discrimination case so that you don’t make a costly error that’s fatal to your claim. Here are some key mistakes that you’ll want to be sure to avoid:
- Getting even with your employer: When you’ve been wronged in the workplace, it’s tempting to try to get back at those who have caused you harm. You might feel compelled to do something like steal from your employer or damage their computer systems, but these are crimes that can carry serious ramifications. They can also upend your workplace discrimination case by painting you as a disgruntled employee who was rightfully acted against when the adverse employment action was taken.
- Posting about your situation on social media: Although social media can be a great place to vent your frustrations and connect with others who are going through a similar situation, posting on social media can also be dangerous. Your employer will probably try to find ways to scour your posts to find anything they can use against you. So, if you’ve gone off on your supervisor or your employer on social media, it’s likely to come out at court, making you look like someone who has simply taken legal action out of spite. You don’t want to give that perception, and you certainly don’t want to give your employer anything that can be used to attack your credibility.
- Minimizing the harm: A lot of workers who have been discriminated against downplay what’s been done to them. Some don’t even take legal action, thinking that the behavior to which they’ve been subjected is normal or is simply a reality of the workplace. Take the discrimination and harassment directed at you seriously. Don’t let your employer get away with treating you unfairly and failing to protect you. Otherwise, you’ll forego the compensation you deserve and enable your employer to treat others the same way they treated you.
Fight to hold your employer accountable for bad workplace behavior
It’s up to you to pursue a workplace discrimination claim and to present evidence about how you’ve been wronged. If you don’t take an aggressive tact, then you could miss key opportunities to build your case, impose liability and recover compensation that you need and deserve. That’s why now is the time to start building your case. Talk to witnesses, gather relevant records and work closely with your attorney to navigate the discovery process. Hopefully then you’ll be able to secure an outcome that’s fair and just.