Retaliation
Retaliation meaning in the workplace comes in various forms, ranging from false accusations, exclusion and unfair termination. Retaliation does not only hinder the workplace environment and projects but also pushes them into facing legal action.
What is retaliation?
So, what is retaliation? Workplace retaliation comes into play when the employer takes negative action against the employee who files the complaint for facing verbal abuse or harassment at the workplace.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) clearly mentions that complaining at the workplace for wrongful activities falls within the 'protected activity.' This means no employer or higher authorities can restrict it or respond inappropriately.
How To Define Protected Activity?
Federal law takes a stand for the employees to prevent them from discrimination and harassment. If any such thing happens, the concerned employees are open to reporting the matter to the employers and external agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission without being retaliated against. Protected activities include:
- EEO charges, complaints, investigations, or lawsuits
- Notifying a manager or supervisor of discrimination or harassment
- Refusing orders that could result in discrimination
- Obtaining religious or disability accommodations
- Answering questions or testifying in an investigation of discrimination or harassment
- Protecting others from sexual harassment or rebuking it
Examples of Workplace Retaliation
A better understanding of retaliation requires an understanding of specific scenarios. The following are some retaliation examples:
- Demotion: Upon reporting sexual harassment to HR, employees are demoted to a lower-paying role with fewer responsibilities.
- Exclusion: Employees who file wage complaints intentionally avoid important company events, meetings, and opportunities for advancement.
- workload: After an employee supports a colleague's claim, presumably to force the employee to fail, a manager assigns many assignments with unrealistic deadlines.
- Termination: When an employee organizes a union and is sacked on the spot without being provided with a reason for termination.
Negative actions and unfair treatment are not necessarily considered retaliation.
What are the Possible Signs of Retaliation at Workplace?
Laws state that employers cannot interfere with employees' abiding by workplace rights. Despite that, there are instances when employers retaliate against employees who disagree with them. Demotions or firings are examples of direct retaliation. Some are more deceptive. Here are some possible signs to know:
Not Getting Attention
If you suddenly get ignored by an employer, supervisor, or colleague after you complain, watch out. A subtle sign of retaliation might be isolation or silent treatment.
Negative performance review
A negative performance review is the most possible sign of retaliation, but before reaching any conclusion, check your previous week's productivity and performance. If everything is in place, negative reviews are an active sign of Retaliation.
Physical or verbal abuse
Retaliation is highly probable when an employer physically or verbally abuses an employee after filing a complaint.
Ways to prevent workplace retaliation
Taking appropriate preventative measures will prevent retaliation in workplace from occurring. Here are some ways to prevent workplace retaliation:
Establish retaliation company policies.
Clearly define retaliation in a company policy and ensure employees and business leaders know it. This includes harassment and anti-discrimination policies. Employees must be comfortable reaching out to HR and company leaders regarding any concerns, whether they are about being harassed, discriminated against, or retaliated against.
Make sure to train everyone on rules.
If employees don't understand these rules after reading these guidelines and policies, give them a training session. Make sure employees understand the retaliation definition. Give another one to teach human resources personnel how to handle retaliation complaints. Conduct a final training session aimed at protecting managers from retaliation at work.
If you conducted these training sessions, submit an official document confirming the training took place. Ensure each staff member signs and dates the training document to prove they understood the information. You may find these documents useful in the future.
Work with human resources to hold disciplinary meetings.
A supervisor should report every disciplinary meeting to human resources before speaking with the employee if discipline is being imposed for a legitimate reason. Ensure the manager documents the reason for holding the meeting and obtains the approval of the human resources department before disciplinary action is taken. As a result, taking action is appropriate if it turns out to be work-related retaliation.
Keep a record of every meeting and warning.
Supervisors should document disciplinary or warning meetings to prove they sent warnings. Managers should also collect emails, files, and projects to demonstrate poor performance and inappropriate behavior. Keep as much documentation as possible showing your leader's and supervisors' actions to prevent workplace retaliation.
Implement company policies that are lenient toward every employee. This encourages equality, which fosters open communication, fairness, and transparency. When you have equality and transparency, everything will get normal, eventually encouraging every employee's rights and eliminating discrimination or retaliation.
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