Reporting discrimination, sexual harassment and other illegal workplace behavior to managers or Human Resources personnel can be extremely difficult.
Too many people put up with these things, try to deal with the perpetrators on their own or leave their jobs rather than reporting the behavior. This is especially true when the perpetrator is someone to whom they report – or further up in the company.
One fear of many employees – and, unfortunately, a reasonable one – is that even if the discrimination or harassment stops, they’ll face retaliation for speaking out. That retaliation can potentially be worse than the original wrongdoing and can threaten a person’s job or even their career.
Sometimes, employers engage in retaliation simply because someone wants to exercise their legal rights. For example, maybe they simply asked for medical or family leave, filed a workers’ compensation claim or insisted on lactation breaks as a new mother.
Signs of retaliation
Retaliation can also be difficult to prove. It’s rare that a boss says, “I’m going to demote you because you reported my sexual advances to HR.” There are three primary types of retaliation an employee may experience:
- Hostile work environment: It’s hard to do your job if your boss suddenly stops speaking to you, leaves you out of meetings or lets others “ghost” you on everything from business-related to birthday party emails.
- Increased and unjustified disciplinary actions: Maybe your boss starts writing you up every time you come in one minute after 8 a.m. (even though you put in far more than 40 hours a week). Maybe they give you assignments but won’t answer your questions or discuss your concerns, so you feel like you’re being set up for failure. This can lead to negative performance reviews and ultimately termination.
- Other negative actions: It’s not unusual for managers to retaliate by putting employees on a different shift, even though it means they have to arrange for childcare or, if they have the authority, transferring them to a different job or department with lower pay and less responsibility.
What does Michigan law say about retaliation?
Retaliation is, in itself, illegal under state and federal law. Michigan law states in part, “An employee who believes they have been discharged, disciplined, or otherwise experienced a detrimental change in their employment status due to filing a complaint, participating in an investigation, or having raised concerns with their payment of wages and fringe benefits…” can file a complaint with the state within “90 days after the believed retaliatory act.”
You can and should report retaliation within your workplace. If you don’t have an HR department, however, there may be no one to report it to who isn’t part of the problem. Whatever the situation, if you can’t resolve the matter with your employer, it’s smart to get the right legal guidance as early as possible. This can help you determine the best way forward for you.
