Lebau & Neuworth | Employment Law Blog
Retaliation claims are among the most commonly filed workplace claims in the country, yet they are also widely misunderstood. According to the EEOC, retaliation allegations have remained the most frequently asserted category in employment charges for years. In fiscal year 2024, retaliation was included in nearly half of all charges filed with the agency.
Many employees assume that if something negative happens shortly after they raise concerns at work, they automatically have a retaliation claim. Sometimes that is true. In many situations, however, the issue is more complicated because the law only protects certain types of workplace complaints and activities.
Employees often contact an attorney after being fired, demoted, disciplined, or pushed out shortly after speaking up at work. Timing can absolutely matter in retaliation cases, especially when adverse action closely follows a complaint. But close timing by itself does not necessarily establish a legal claim.
Most retaliation claims require employees to prove three basic elements:
The first issue is often where claims become difficult. Many employees can clearly point to discipline, termination, reduced hours, or other negative treatment. What becomes disputed is whether the employee was participating in activity the law actually protects.
Protected activity generally means asserting rights connected to unlawful workplace conduct. Federal and state employment laws protect employees who raise concerns involving discrimination, harassment, accommodations, wage violations, or other legally protected issues.
That can include situations involving:
Courts and agencies typically focus on whether the employee was opposing conduct prohibited by law or exercising a legally protected right. General workplace frustration, standing alone, is usually not enough.
One of the most frustrating realities for employees is that workplace behavior can be unfair, hostile, or unprofessional without necessarily violating employment laws.
Employees frequently describe managers playing favorites, toxic work environments, rude supervisors, inconsistent discipline, or office politics that create stressful working conditions. Those situations can be very real and personally damaging. But unless the conduct is connected to discrimination, retaliation, or another protected legal issue, the law may not recognize it as unlawful.
For example, statements like these often do not qualify as protected activity on their own:
By contrast, complaints tied to protected characteristics or legal rights are treated very differently. Saying, “I believe I’m being treated differently because of my pregnancy,” raises a substantially different legal issue than simply complaining about unfair treatment in general.
In retaliation cases, courts often examine the exact nature of the complaint being made. Employers may not dispute that an employee complained about something at work. Instead, the disagreement may center on whether the employee actually raised concerns about unlawful conduct.
That is one reason documentation can become extremely important. Emails, HR complaints, written reports, text messages, and internal communications may later help establish what concerns were raised and how the employer responded.
Employees also sometimes rely entirely on informal verbal complaints without creating any written record. While verbal complaints can still be protected in some circumstances, vague conversations can become much harder to prove later if there is disagreement about what was actually said.
Employees who believe they are being retaliated against should take steps to preserve information early, particularly if disciplinary action or termination may follow.
Depending on the circumstances, that may include:
Employment cases are often highly fact-specific, and details that initially seem minor can become important later during litigation or agency investigations.
Lebau & Neuworth represents employees in matters involving retaliation, wrongful termination, workplace discrimination, harassment, and wage disputes. Based in Baltimore, our attorneys represent workers throughout Maryland and the DC metro area and focus exclusively on employee-side employment law matters.
If you believe your employer retaliated against you after asserting your workplace rights, speaking with an attorney early can help you better understand your legal options, preserve evidence, and avoid missing important filing deadlines.
