You knew that you were an “at-will” employee, which meant that your employer could fire you for just about any reason — as long as it wasn’t based on a discriminatory reason or an act of retaliation.
So how do you tell when you’ve been wrongfully terminated from your position? Each case is unique, but here are some common scenarios:
1. Your ethnic status was suddenly a topic of conversation at work.
If you’re Latino, you don’t have to look very far these days to find someone who thinks that your ethnic group is somehow responsible for all of America’s woes.
If a new supervisor suddenly “got curious” about your immigration status, made dismissive comments about your background or “jokingly” suggested calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on you, they may have been revving up to firing you out of sheer prejudice.
2. You were suddenly treated like a dinosaur before you were fired.
You were always a good employee and you rolled with the flow as new technology entered the office. You thought you were keeping up just fine. However, your boss suddenly started making comments about how they needed to get “young blood” in the office and “fresh perspectives” or were looking for “digital natives.” Those can be code words that indicated that your boss wanted to get rid of older workers — like you.
3. Your performance reviews went from rock-solid to a poor, seemingly overnight.
A lot of employers will try to stuff an employee’s personnel folder full of bad reviews and write-ups to “justify” the firing. However, good employees seldom become “bad” employees overnight. If you’ve always been a stellar employee with positive reviews and your work hasn’t changed, those bad reviews may be nothing but a smokescreen to try to avoid litigation.
If you suspect that you’ve been wrongfully terminated, we can discuss your case and help you understand what it takes to fight back through legal avenues.