California is technically an at-will employment state. That essentially means that workers can quit with no notice, and employers can fire employees for no reason or any legal reason. That being said, wrongful termination is still a concern for many workers.
Employers cannot discriminate against workers when deciding who to terminate. They also should not retaliate against workers for engaging in activities protected by state or federal law. Retaliation may follow complaints of harassment, requests for unpaid leave or even attempts to unionize.
Human resources professionals and managers understand that they should not summarily terminate workers without justification. They may try to hide a wrongful termination by engaging in progressive discipline.
How progressive discipline works
The concept of workplace progressive discipline is simple. Employers create a paper trail by documenting attempts to improve worker performance. After a poor performance review or rule violations, the company may talk to or write up an employee. Depending on the company’s policies, two or three write-ups or written reprimands might be adequate justification for terminating an employee.
The company then has a record of internal attempts to address the matter that seemed to justify the decision to fire an employee. While some progressive discipline is the result of poor work performance or violations of company policies, businesses can abuse disciplinary policies as a way of hiding illegal conduct.
What are signs of inappropriate discipline?
There are several warning signs for workers who may be at risk of a wrongful termination. They may notice hostility from supervisors or people in human resources before the discipline even begins. If a company disciplines a worker for issues that managers have previously ignored or that they don’t discipline other workers for, that can be reason for concern.
When the write-ups or complaints about job performance immediately follow engaging in protected activities, that can be an indicator that the company wants to force the worker out and intends to justify that decision. Employees may need to keep their own records to help prove that a company has used disciplinary practices to hide illegal employment conduct.
Being able to recognize wrongful termination can help workers hold their employers accountable. People shouldn’t have to worry about losing their jobs because of protected characteristics or the need to engage in protected workplace activities.