Fired for Speaking Up: Don’t Let Retaliation Destroy Your Career

• Oct 13, 2025
• Blog
• Michael Burgis & Associates, P.C

Speaking up about harassment or discrimination at work should never cost you your job—but for many employees, it does. If you were fired, demoted, or treated unfairly after making a complaint, you may be the victim of unlawful retaliation.

I’m Shant Kotchounian, managing attorney at MB&A. After two decades in employment law—first defending companies, now protecting employees—I’ve seen how retaliation cases unfold and how the law protects whistleblowers. In this blog, I’ll explain how retaliation works, how timing matters, and what you can do if it happens to you.

Transcript:

Fired after complaining about your boss. Is that retaliation? You speak up about harassment or discrimination, and the next thing you know, you don’t have a job. You’re terminated. That is classic retaliation.

Hi, my name is Shant Kotchounian. For over two decades, I’ve done one thing, one area of law: employment law. I used to represent the companies, but now I’ve taken everything I’ve learned and brought it over to the employee side of the fence to stand up for you, the employees, in real, true, hardened legal battles, including trial.

Retaliation is Illegal

Look, it is illegal to retaliate against an employee who complains about harassment, discrimination, and other legal violations. Retaliation can be obvious—firing, termination—or it could be more subtle: demotion, exclusion, being ignored.

Timing of the Retaliation

Proximity in time matters. Think about it. How soon after a complaint do things all of a sudden change? It can also look like suddenly getting written up, moved to a worse position, worse hours, or being excluded from meetings.

The Law Protects Whistleblowers

The courts like to look at patterns, so the more detailed your story is, the stronger your claim will be. The bottom line is this: the law protects whistleblowers, and if you got punished for speaking up, that is a legal issue.

Contact MB&A to Discuss Retaliation By Your Employer

I understand the law is not black and white, and no two situations are the same. But if something about what has happened to you feels wrong, doesn’t feel right, all you have to do is pick up the phone and give us a call. We are happy to talk about the situation with you. Thank you.