retaliation

Intermediate 👥 Human Resources

Definition

The legally prohibited but distressingly common practice of punishing employees who dare to complain about workplace issues, report violations, or otherwise make waves. What starts as someone raising a legitimate concern about safety or discrimination mysteriously transforms into performance reviews that suddenly go south, convenient budget cuts to their department, or being assigned to the office next to the server room. HR departments have entire training modules on how not to do this, which tells you everything about how often it happens.

Example Usage

She reported the accounting irregularities on Monday; by Friday she was reassigned to 'special projects' in the basement—classic retaliation.

Source: Employment law terminology

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