The 3 steps to take if you feel you were wrongfully terminated
Nobody likes to get fired both because it is potentially embarrassing but also because it will put you in a financially bad situation. There are times when you could be fired for invalid reasons and may be able to fight it. You could either be compensated financially or be able to go back to your job. The point is that there are times when you can fight being fired.
There are times when an employer is not doing the right thing and maybe even discriminatory and fired you for reasons such as your religion or race among other things. Retaliation for something that you did that was legal but made your boss unhappy is also illegal. If you feel like there was no reason for you to be fired then you need to take steps to fix the situation. In this article, we will go over what to do when this happens to you.
1 – Don’t sign anything
Your employer is not going to do anything for your benefit if you have been fired either for valid or invalid reasons. This means that if you feel that you have been wrongfully terminated, you don’t sign anything from your employer before you talk to a lawyer. They may make it sound as though the documents will benefit you somehow but the odds are that they won’t.
For instance, an employee separation agreement is usually only going to benefit the company because you are signing away your rights to sue them or take legal action against them. Make sure to bring the agreement to a lawyer before you sign anything like that.
Even a severance package that will give you a lump sum of money is something that you will want to have looked over so you are sure that you are getting everything that you deserve. You could also put any wrongful termination claim at risk by signing a paper like that.
2 – Document everything
Generally, a termination doesn’t come out of the blue even if it is done wrongfully. In fact, it is usually the case that a company will try to get an employee to quit so they take actions that make it difficult for them to work.
If this is happening to you then make sure to document every instance of something negative at work so you can show that you were targeted. Try to show the other side where you have documentation of your accomplishments such as times that you saved the company money or good performance reviews. This will give some clues that you were wrongfully terminated for reasons that are hard to justify.
3 – Get a lawyer
You should go to your state’s labor agency and talk to them but you won’t get far in the process if you don’t also talk to a lawyer. There are employment lawyers who specialize in this sort of case and will handle everything for you.
