Write-up or disciplinary response

Add the situation pack — about $19.99

Write-Up Situation Pack

How disciplinary and performance processes usually run, what each outcome means for you, and how to prepare.

• Each point against you and your answer to it
• Evidence and witnesses to gather
• How to prepare for the meeting
• What a performance plan or further action usually involves

Which state do you work in?

We ask this in the builder before using any state-specific information. Where we don't hold reviewed content for your state, we say so rather than guessing.

General information sources we draw on

• Most US employment is "at will", which generally means either side can end the employment at any time for any lawful reason. That does not remove the separate protections against being punished for raising a protected concern. At-will rules are set by each state, so the detail differs by state.

  U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

• EEOC guidance explains that retaliation for raising a discrimination concern is treated as a separate issue from the concern itself, and that protection can apply even where the original complaint is not upheld, provided it was raised in good faith. Keeping a dated record of what you raised and what happened afterwards is generally useful.

  U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

• The NLRB explains that Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees — in union and non-union workplaces — who act together to improve pay, hours or working conditions, including raising a complaint as a group. The NLRB also notes that a purely individual complaint is generally not "concerted" activity.

  National Labor Relations Board