Imagine the following scenario that “kills” many potential retaliation cases:
You approach your manager and complain about not being paid overtime (this type of complaint is a protected activity under California labor code). Your manager disagrees with you that you are entitled to that extra pay. You then submit a complaint to your HR office about the same issue. Your employer is not happy about your complaint, and the management tries to figure out how to set you up for termination. They could potentially accuse you of some type of mistake or insufficient performance, while the real reason for your termination would actually be retaliatory and unlawful.
However, before you are being terminated for the above unlawful reason, you decide to send an e-mail to your superiors containing any language that might be construed as rude, such as “you are lying to me about the overtime pay rules” “you guys are a bunch of crooks, denying me my overtime pay” or… “you are incompetent, and you shouldn’t even be deciding who should be paid overtime” or any other type of similar language. You believe that this type of e-mail is justified in light of your frustration with not being paid correctly.
Eventually you are being terminated, and the reason cited for your termination is insubordination because of the language used in your last e-mails. Those same e-mails will make your task of proving your retaliation case much harder, because now you have to prove not only that you were terminated for complaining about not being paid overtime, but also that your harsh e-mails after sending which you were terminated, were not the real reason for your termination.
Our recommendation is therefore not to send harsh emails to management that can be perceived as rude, unless you are ready to quit and move on, and you are not interested in pursuing any legal claims, because this type of language is not going to make any potential retaliation case stronger, but in most cases will make it weaker or even not worthy of pursuing at all.