Being let go from a job (for any reason) is never a fun time. Even if you disliked the job and were thinking about quitting, it’s always more comfortable to do so on your own terms than feeling compelled into that process.
However, provided you’re given a relatively competent severance package, a chance to redeem unemployment, and either a healthy or impartial reason, it’s easier to move on.
That’s not always a privilege afforded to everyone. In some cases, you may feel that you’ve been wrongfully terminated from a job. Of course, it’s important to note that just because you feel this way, it doesn’t mean that’s true. That said, you deserve to defend yourself or demand justification should you be let go, you don’t have to sit back and accept this outcome without a response.
If you genuinely believe you’ve been let go for ambiguous or unhelpful reasons, contrary to your contract and employment law, you may be wondering where to go next. Never fear, for in this post we’ll discuss how to make sense of this outcome and take your next steps forward.
Understanding Your Employment Law, Contract & Rights
Make Clear Your Suspicions
We’re certain that you have good reason to assume you were wrongfully terminated. That said, it’s important to realize that this is a highly emotive period in your life. It’s very easy for negative impressions, odd comments, or strange treatment to confuse your perceptions, or to at least give you so much to be concerned about that thinking clearly is difficult.
So, it’s important to sit down and write out exactly why you think you were wrongfully terminated. Make the reasoning clear, and the logical through line of why this event, truthful to your experience, gave you this impression.
Otherwise, it’s very easy to have a range of vague grievances, annoyances, and disputes floating around in your mind. Anyone can be confused by this, so don’t think you’re immune. When you can clearly lay out all of your reasoning, it makes communicating with the right services or departments, prosecuting your case, and managing your defense so much easier.
Gathering Evidence & Communications
Once you believe that your dismissal has been processed for the wrong reasons, it’s good to gather evidence before you leave. This might mean saving work emails, personal messages, documents you were working on, and your working schedule so you can more easily prove your case.
Be careful not to take proprietary information or to nullify your work contract. Don’t share it with anyone outside of a legal entity or the government department you complain to. From there, your documented employment history, potential evidence of harassment or an unprocessed complaint made before your dismissal can be easily shown and proven.
Seek Legal Representation
Ultimately, your case is much more likely to succeed if you use the sharp advice of a civil litigation attorney. If they think you have a case, they’ll be happy to take it on and represent you. This can involve appealing to the governmental department related to work tribunals, and it can also help you communicate officially and correctly with your old workplace, or individuals representing it.
Depending on the company you worked for, that enterprise may or may not be able to utilize legal assistance, too. So, it’s always good to have someone of equal capability in your court. This is optional of course, as workplace tribunals are often designed so individual complaints can be properly processed and not price you out of justice, but effective help from experienced professionals is always valuable.
Consider Your Objectives
Depending on where you work, the terms of your dismissal and the circumstances surrounding this entire affair, you may have several objectives for raising a complaint. To start with, wanting to clear your name or prove that you were mistreated is often the first thing to shoot for. You deserve that most of all
Second, you may be entitled to compensation especially related to lost wages or privileges that you would have otherwise had. In some cases, you may even be reinstated into your job role or found a similar position at a different part of the company. That might not sound appealing depending on how you’ve been treated, but in some cases businesses (and the higher-ups running them) will provide unreserved apologies and even compensation packages as you return to work.
Not all of this may be available to you, but it’s always good to have a goal for initiating these proceedings. That gives you something to aim at.
With this advice, we hope you can feel a sense of purpose and potential even after you assume wrongful termination from your employment.
