Someone had to speak up. Turns out, that someone was me

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29. oh, no, you're missing how reprisal works

the most common type of workplace harrassment lawsuit is actual based on reprisals after a complaint like this.

in the immediate aftermath of a complaint like this, you're correct in that, unless the boss is a complete idiot, he's not going to fire someone who makes a complaint for a while.

but there are many cases where such a boss later sidelines the complainant, passes them over for promotion, transfers them, or otherwise punishes them in smaller ways. workplace performance is often a combination of many factors, including subjective ones, so it's often possible to claim some other reason for the adverse treatment.

bosses hell-bent on firing a complainer but who aren't stupid legally will try to build a paper trail that justifies firing. he may assign a lot of tasks, perhaps with challenging deadlines, etc., to set the complainant up for failure.


so someone who complains really does have to worry, and should build a paper trail of their own, being sure to keep any praise but also keeping any explicit requirements, evidence of attendance and timely completion of tasks, etc.

and keep it at home or on personal devices, not company devices that could be taken away in an instant.



phrasing it in terms of risk to the business is key.
no matter how racist, sexist, bigoted bosses might be, even if they think they're right and would likely win a lawsuit, they don't want to waste their time getting deposed, they don't want to pay lawyers, and they don't want to run even a small risk of some stupid judge and/or jury "getting it wrong".

if they're otherwise sensible businesspeople, they'll thank you for bringing the risk to their attention.