When you think about an employer being retaliatory, you might imagine a situation where you report a problem and then end up being terminated just a few days later. While this is a kind of workplace retaliation, it is not the only type of retaliation that exists.
Workplace retaliation includes several different acts. These acts could include anything that harms the employee and that is linked directly to their complaints or reports to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, human resources or others.
8 kinds of workplace retaliation
There are several main kinds of workplace retaliation. The major eight types include:
- Verbal or physical abuse
- Transferring the employee to a position that is less desirable
- Threatening to report the employee to the authorities, like immigration, or actually doing so, in response to a complaint that was made
- Increased scrutiny
- Making the person’s work more difficult in response to a complaint
- Reprimanding the employee and giving them an evaluation that is lower than it should have been
- Spreading false rumors about the employee, or treating one of their family members negatively
It isn’t always easy to tell when retaliation is taking place, but if you have made a complaint and notice that you are not being treated the same as before you did so, then you should be wary.
There may be additional kinds of retaliation beyond these eight. If you believe that you’ve been retaliated against, it is you right to look into your legal options. It is unfair for an employer to treat you differently just because you made a report, and it’s against the law.