In general, the shorter the time between our protected activity, like a complaint, and our employer’s retaliatory actions, the more likely it is that courts will decide that our complaint is the REASON our employer retaliated.
Mole v. Univ. of Mass., 442 Mass. 582, 595 (2004).

The more time there is between, the less likely that becomes. (Id. at 595.). And we may have to EXPLAIN how we know thing one caused the other in some other way.

Employers know how important temporal proximity is in retaliation cases. They sometimes try to game the system by delaying retaliatory actions until a significant amount of time has passed, They use the waiting game to cover up the real timing of their decision to retaliate. Instead of trying to fire us right away, they may start to create records of conduct and performance problems they can use to justify firing us later. Today is mostly about this type of situation.

---- All opinions are my own. Not LEGAL advice. Just me sharing my perspective as an employee who went through the EEOC claims process & won. I am not an expert at all things EEOC. While I do my best to be factual in my observations, viewers should assume that all observations or statements are ALLEGEDLY. *Never trust your fate to a YouTube content creator. Do your own research, pilot your own vessel. *

--- Background photo on thumb courtesy of searchable NASA Image Library: https://images.nasa.gov/