How to document workplace retaliation

Retaliation is now the most common charge filed with the EEOC, ahead of any single form of discrimination. It happens when an employer punishes someone for doing something the law protects: reporting harassment, raising a safety concern, requesting an accommodation or taking protected leave.

Retaliation cases are won or lost on timing and evidence. If you think it is happening to you, what you write down in the coming weeks matters enormously.

What counts as protected activity

You do not need to have filed a lawsuit. Protected activity includes complaining to HR or a manager about discrimination or harassment, supporting a colleague's complaint, refusing to take part in conduct you reasonably believe is illegal, requesting a disability or religious accommodation, and reporting wage violations. The complaint does not have to be proven right; it has to be made in good faith.

Building a reliable record

• Put your original complaint in writing, and keep a copy somewhere other than your work account.
• Keep a dated log of what changed afterwards: assignments, schedules, meetings you were left out of, comments made.
• Save performance reviews and positive feedback from before the complaint.
• Note the names of anyone who witnessed key conversations.
• Write notes the same day. Contemporaneous records carry far more weight than recollections months later.

The strongest retaliation cases are rarely about one dramatic moment. They are about a clear before and after.

Keep doing your job well while this is going on. It is tempting to disengage, but a steady record of good work after your complaint makes it much harder for an employer to argue that a demotion, a poor review or a termination had nothing to do with what you reported. Follow written instructions, meet deadlines and keep communication professional.

Be careful about what you take. Forwarding confidential company documents to a personal email can create problems of its own. Keep your own notes, your own reviews and your own messages, and ask a lawyer before copying anything else.

Mind the deadlines

In Massachusetts, you generally have 300 days to file a charge with the MCAD or the EEOC. Some claims, including certain whistleblower protections, have much shorter windows. If something has changed since you spoke up, talk to an employment lawyer sooner rather than later, while the record is fresh and your options are open.