Credibility is everything at work. The person who “wins” at work is rarely the person who is actually correct. Think of all the incompetent, unreasonable bosses you’ve had in your life. If being right was the key to victory, then none of those clowns would be anywhere near a corner office.
It’s credibility that bought their spot.
Credibility is expensive currency. It takes time and patience to build, but seconds to destroy. A person can be credible but still be wrong. A person can be right but not credible.
Your task is to protect your credibility at all costs.
How is this done? Fortunately, it’s not complicated. Credibility is built with proof. Can you prove what you are saying is correct? Can you show that your boss or a shady coworker is lying? If you can answer “yes” to either question, then you are practically bulletproof.
The key is to have a paper trail!
But how does a “paper trail” protect you? When can you use it to bend the workplace to your will? And how do you build a bulletproof paper trail, one that would make a worker’s rights lawyer proud?
Let’s start with a tale of two settlements. One client had hardly any paper trail at all, another had stacks of evidence. Take a look at how that shook out…
A Tale of Two Settlements: Carlos v. The Grumpy Goat[1]
Carlos was a family man. He had a good job at an industrial supply company, good benefits, and a new baby on the way. After a lifetime of hard work, everything was finally coming together.
There was just one problem.
His boss, a grumpy old goat named Guillermo, was a huge jerk. Anyone who’s worked a blue-collar job has known a Guillermo at some point. Guillermo had a curious habit of underreacting to genuine catastrophes. If, theoretically, a worker cut their hand off, he’d probably shrug and say, “I guess we’re shorthanded today.” But if a very minor issue came up, he’d explode in a fit of uncontrollable rage. If an employee was five minutes late to work, he’d throw his clipboard and scream “We’re fucked!”
He was twice-divorced, estranged from his kids, and he had a nasty habit of taking his personal frustrations out on his workers. I say this not to kick poor Guillermo while he’s down. Rather, it is to prepare you for his extremely unreasonable reaction to an objectively reasonable request.
Carlos’s wife was about to give birth any day. Carlos wanted to be present to support her and help raise his new baby. During a lunch break, Carlos went to Guillermo’s office and asked for paternity leave.
“We don’t do that here,” Guillermo grumbled.
“I need to be with my wife while my son is born,” Carlos protested.
Guillermo huffed. He tossed his clipboard over his shoulder. “You want time off? You don’t want to work? Fine. Go home. Don’t come back.”
“What are you talking about?” Carlos said.
Guillermo pointed at the door. “I said get the fuck out of my office. You’re fired, lazy ass!”
Carlos wasn’t a legal expert, but he knew this was wrong. He called human resources to report Guillermo’s outburst. They said that since Guillermo had suspended him, Carlos would have to stay home until further notice. However, they did promise to investigate.
Three days later, he was fired. Officially, the paperwork said he was terminated for “poor performance,” but Carlos knew the real reason was retaliation for requesting paternity leave.[2] That was wrongful termination even in an at will state because it violated the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, or “FMLA.”
But Carlos had a problem.
He requested leave verbally. There was no proof he asked for protected leave. He called HR, but they never documented his complaint, and he didn’t have a paper trail proving he reported Guillermo for retaliation.
In short, Guillermo had been illegally fired, but without a paper trail, it was his word against the company’s. The termination notice claimed he had poor performance, but there weren’t any serious write-ups in Carlos’s record before then. It was suspicious, but that’s not enough to win a case.
Ultimately, I was able to work with Carlos to get him a fair severance—not a lot, but fair under the circumstances. However, if he’d had a paper trail, we could have gotten significantly more.
What happened to Carlos was unfair and illegal. But without evidence, how could he prove it? A single text or email could have changed everything. But he was outnumbered, and the company had the upper hand. I am not blaming Carlos for what happened. He’s not a lawyer and he had no idea how important the paper trail would become.
But what would have happened if Carlos had a proper paper trail? Let’s look at a similar case I had with similar facts but a very different outcome.
A Tale of Two Settlements: Alex v. Ruby the Noobie
Alex was another family man I represented with a similar problem. His partner was pregnant with their third child. They had two sons; this was going to be their first girl. Alex was thrilled—he told me he was excited to be a positive male role model for his daughter.
But like Carlos, Alex had a problem.
His company did not take labor rights seriously. The boss was an old school businessman who regularly complained about California’s “socialist” labor laws. This was ironic, since the law he was about to violate had nothing to do with California. It was a federal law passed all the way back in 1993—the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Like Carlos, Alex had learned that this law could give him up to 12 weeks of protected leave to be with his new baby. The leave is unpaid, but it is job-protected, meaning he could take the time to be with his family then return to work without losing his job.
At least… that’s how it was supposed to work. Here’s what happened instead.
