Speaker 1: If you believe that your employer is planning to wrongfully terminate you, but they haven't quite done that yet, there are a few things that you can often do to build a stronger and better case against that employer once they do fire you. And in order to illustrate this, I would like to use a realistic and not uncommon example. Let's say you're a woman and you're two months pregnant, and you decided that this is the right time to inform your manager of your pregnancy and of your likely need to take pregnancy leave or maybe pregnancy related disability leave. And you notice that shortly after you informed your employer of your pregnancy, things have changed. Maybe it's something as subtle as your manager not being as friendly to you and not being as social with you, or maybe it's something more significant, such as you being excluded from important meetings or your important duties being taken away from you and being assigned to another employee. Maybe it's something more significant, like maybe you've been written up or placed on a performance improvement plan. Maybe you've been accused by the same manager of something egregious that you haven't done. So you know that your termination is coming, so what can you do to build a potentially stronger case? So here are a few specific things that you can and you should consider doing. First, continue doing the best job that you can. Do not be insubordinate and do not be rude to anyone in the office, including that manager, that possibly discriminates against you already. Why? If you do these things, you will give your employer an independent legal reason to terminate you. Let's say you say something really mean and rude to your boss. Let's say you send a nasty email, I hate all of you, I wish I never worked here in the first place. How are you going to prove later, if they terminate you after this, that the reason for your termination was your pregnancy and your request for leave and not your insubordination or your verbal violence? So again, make sure you do the best job that you can, as good as you did before or better. Secondly, document any important relevant event that would suggest that your employer is unhappy about your pregnancy or about your request for leave. It could be a text message, it could be an email, it could be another coworker who overheard your manager saying something obvious or not so obvious. Oh God, I can't believe she's going on leave. How are we going to handle all this work? Oh, why did she decide to become pregnant right now? This is such a terrible time for us. Any type of statement that shows animus toward you because of your pregnancy or because of your need for leave can later be used very effectively to prove that the reason for your termination or at least one significant reason, which is often sufficient to build a case, one significant reason is your pregnancy and your request for leave. Thirdly, if appropriate, talk to your coworkers. You don't have to force them to speak if they don't want to, but you can ask them, hey, have you heard anything about my leave or have you heard managers talk about me? Even one witness who heard something that suggests that your employer has it out for you because of your pregnancy or your request for leave can make a huge difference between having a strong case and having a weaker case. One such witness can make a difference. If you have more, even better. Now remember, we don't care what these witnesses think, what they assume or what they believe. You care about what they heard with their own ears and what they saw. We don't care about beliefs and plans and intentions. We care about actual direct information that people witnessed. What else can you do? You should definitely talk to an attorney. Even if you do follow all these tips, you should talk to the attorney as soon as you feel that your employer is trying to push you out because every situation is different. Your goals might be different. Your circumstances, your ability to pursue a case might be stronger or weaker. You might be in a specific financial bracket that might take a more aggressive path, more beneficial to you or less beneficial to you. The next thing that you can do is you can consider filing a complaint of discrimination internally or with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing or with EEOC. Sometimes it's a good idea. Sometimes it's not a good idea. It really depends on the timing of events, on what exactly it is that your employer is doing that you believe is discriminatory on the employer's financial condition and on how ripe your case is for litigation. If it's not clear what's going on, if you're not sure but you want to make it clear to the employer that you're ready to stand up for yourself, a complaint with DFEH or EEOC might be appropriate. If you are terminated, for example, and you're ready to proceed with your case and you have strong evidence and there is no reason to wait, you can just get a right to sue letter through your attorney and proceed with your case right away. These are just common examples, common situations. And the last thing that you should consider doing and this kind of relates to keeping track of what's going on in the office and keeping track of all the events that might be perceived as discriminatory is you starting a diary, you starting a log of important events. For example, if your manager says something to you that's potentially discriminatory, oh, I cannot believe you got pregnant, why now? Why couldn't you wait for next year? Really? You're going to take leave? Who's going to do your job? Let's just say these types of things happen. You have your diary, you write down when those statements were made, by whom, where, under what circumstances and how you responded. Now why is this important? Because every bit of such evidence can really help you strengthen your case later. And also when you testify about these events, if you really have these details that you wrote down contemporaneously at the same time as they were happening, it will give a lot of credibility to your position and to your claims. The other side, the employer and their lawyers will know that you're not just making up stories, you have a clear record, you have a clear and consistent recollection of events, and you have something that shows what exactly was going on at the time when it was going on. And of course, if somebody asks you, let's say if the employer's lawyer asks you, why were you keeping track of all of these events? You can honestly say, I had a feeling that I was going to be terminated. I had a feeling that my employer was discriminating against me. So I decided to keep track of these events in case this type of information is helpful in the future. Keep these tips in mind and it will help you in these types of situations. Thank you.