An essential element of making a retaliation claim is showing that the reason you were terminated was that you engaged in a “protected activity”. Only some activities are considered “protected”. This includes complaining about unlawful discrimination (including filing charges with EEOC or DFEH), unlawful harassment, labor code violations (i.e. not being paid overtime, minimum wages, not being provided with meal breaks, etc.) certain safety violations, patient safety, criminal violations at workplace and a limited number of other complaints and activities.
Most other complaints are not considered protected activities, and being terminated for making those complaints will not give rise to a workplace retaliation case. For instance, even if you manage to prove that the reason you were terminated is because you complained about (1) being treated unfairly at work; (2) being micromanaged; (3) receiving unfair performance review, or write-ups or warnings; (4) not being promoted as you believe you deserve; (5) being falsely accused of some type of violation, or misconduct; (6) an employer’s unethical or untruthful actions (except those that violate specific laws, such as stealing, tax evasion, insider trading, overbilling etc.. )this cannot support a retaliation or wrongful termination claim, because those types of complaints are not considered protected activities.