After whistleblowing, employees sometimes face retaliation in the workplace. Regardless of the whistleblowing outcome, employees are protected from consequences like the loss of employment according to a whistleblower layer at Eric Siegel Law. However, just because a worker is protected from retaliation, that doesn’t mean this retaliation doesn’t occur. We’ll look at five ways employees can suffer from retaliation within the working place after whistleblowing.
Unfair Performance Reviews
Many workplaces give their employees regular performance reviews. While how often companies give performance reviews can vary, generally, most companies give one every three to six months. During this time, your manager or supervisor highlights areas where you’re doing great and areas where you might be able to improve. However, receiving negative reviews without any constructive feedback or reasoning can be a deliberate way to punish you. Performance reviews go a long way in providing promotions and higher pay.
More Challenging Work, but Without a Pay Increase
Most employees don’t like having to do more work outside their regular routine. However, a pay raise, a bonus, or overtime can be incentive enough to tackle more. Unfortunately, if you’re being tasked with additional work but with none of the benefits that go along with it, you’re likely being punished. Sometimes workers do need to work more without a pay increase, but sometimes an employee can be singled out.
You Have Your Hours Cut
Instead of forcing you to do more work, you may suddenly find your hours cut without explanation. Workers paid hourly depend upon having as many hours as they can get. So suddenly, going from a full-time position to one that’s barely 30 hours a week can quickly put a dent in your finances. Besides cutting hours, you may also have your schedule dramatically changed. Maybe you’ve worked during the day for years, but now your job has you doing overnight shifts.
Meeting Exclusions
Many employees will attend regular meetings, training programs, or events. Most of these meetings help bolster an employee or team’s performance. They also help to build morale and keep everyone on the right track. Some meetings may even involve meeting directly with clients a company serves. Exclusion from these meetings can set an employee up for failure. Even a meeting that’s more so for employees to bond versus improving performance can still have a disastrous effect.
You’re Receiving Threats of Some Kind
A manager, CEO, or other team members probably won’t show up to directly threaten you to drop a case. However, it’s possible to start receiving anonymous text messages, emails, notes, and more. These require immediate and swift action. Your first step should be contacting Human Resources or a primary manager you can trust.
Distance From Your Team Members
Issues like a room going quiet as soon as you appear or people no longer sitting with you during lunch can also happen. Many employees may turn a blind eye to a company’s unlawful doings to focus on their job. They may rationalize that dealing with you may make them look “guilty” as well. While no law states that your co-workers have to like you, be sure to take notice if distance turns into harassment.
