Retaliation
If you were punished for speaking up
Fired, demoted, moved to a desk with no work, or told your hours are gone. What happened to you after you raised it may be its own claim, whatever becomes of the original report.
Protection comes from several laws, each with its own agency, its own forms and its own deadline. Some of those deadlines are measured in weeks. If this is happening now, please do not wait to write.
What it can look like
Termination, suspension or a forced resignation
Demotion, lost pay or cut hours
Reassignment, isolation and threats
A poor reference or a blacklist
This week
Write it down, on your own device
A short, dated record is the most useful thing you can bring me. Keep it off anything your employer owns.
Dates
When you raised the concern, when things changed, and when each thing happened after.
Words
Who said what, to whom, in what setting. Plain notes, written the same day if you can.
Your record
Reviews, raises and praise before, and any warning or write-up after, as far as you already hold them.
Your own copies
Only what you already received in the ordinary course of your job, and nothing you went looking for.
The clock may already be running.
Tell me what happened and when, in a few lines. I will tell you which deadlines apply.
Contingency fee where the law allows: no fee unless there is a recovery. Case costs are explained in writing before you sign.