Anticouni & Ricotta | Leaders In Employment Litigation Serving Clients Throughout California.

Were you the victim of “constructive discharge?”

On Behalf of | May 10, 2022 | Wrongful Termination |

You weren’t fired from your job. However, you feel like you were pushed out. 

Your manager was uncommunicative to the point where it was nearly impossible to do your job. You weren’t told about important meetings. Colleagues were unpleasant and sometimes just plain awful to you. You started keeping a list of all the incidents. However, the Human Resources people told you it wasn’t illegal to be rude as long as they weren’t using discriminatory language or engaging in sexual or discriminatory harassment. 

You have no evidence that you were treated the way you were because of your gender, race or any other protected category. You weren’t the only one there in that category, and the other folks weren’t having the same problem. Maybe some of them were part of the problem.

You dreaded going to work every day, so you left for the sake of your own mental and physical health, but finding another job is going to take some time. Is there any way you can take legal action against your former employer?

How the California Supreme Court defined constructive discharge

You may be able to show that you were the victim of “constructive discharge” (also sometimes known as “constructive dismissal”). The California Supreme Court ruled in a case against Anheuser-Busch that constructive discharge “occurs when the employer’s conduct effectively forces an employee to resign.” 

If a plaintiff can show that they made the appropriate people in the organization aware of the conduct and nothing was done about it, that a “reasonable person” would find the conduct egregious, and that this conduct caused them to resign, they may have a case of constructive discharge.

If you’ve already quit because of the unbearable environment created by your managers and/or colleagues or even if you’re still in the middle of it and unable to get anyone to take action to help you, it’s wise to seek legal guidance. This can help you determine your best course of action.

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