When Work Becomes The Trauma

A career can end without a single bad call. Sometimes it’s the station politics, the paper trail, and the quiet retaliation that do the damage and it can hit your mental health just as hard as anything on the street. I sit down with Bridget Truxillo, an attorney, former deputy sheriff, and former SWAT team member, to talk about what happens when the workplace becomes the stressor you can’t escape. Her story runs from patrol to undercover narcotics to SWAT, and then straight into the kind of employment problems most first responders hope they’ll never face.

We get specific about what it’s like being the only woman in a specialty unit, how “equal standards” can turn into unequal scrutiny, and how a culture of write-ups and rumors can push someone out of a job they once saw as a lifelong calling. Bridget shares why she built Lady Law Shield, and why she treats career protection as part of a larger first responder wellness plan. We also talk about trust and confidentiality, and why privileged communication matters when you’re afraid that speaking up will come back to you.

Then we dig into the practical side: unions versus employment lawyers, what unions usually handle well, and where they typically cannot help with discrimination, harassment, or retaliation claims. Bridget breaks down why reporting in writing matters, how strict EEOC and state deadlines can be, and why waiting too long can permanently limit your options. If you’re in law enforcement, fire, EMS, corrections, or dispatch and work is starting to feel consuming, this conversation gives you a clear next step and a way to breathe again.

Find Bridget at LadyLawShield.com, and if this helps, subscribe, share the episode with a teammate, and leave a review so more first responders can find it.

You can find Bridget at https://ladylawshield.com/about-us

Transcript

Welcome And Show Mission

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Resilience Development in Action with Steve Bisson. This is the podcast dedicated to first responder mental health, helping police, fire, EMS, dispatchers, and paramedics create better growth environments for themselves and their teams. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Well, hi everyone, and welcome to Resilience Development in Action. I can't tell you how excited I am to meet someone again. We met through PodMatch. I like to tell people where I meet people. But I was reading, we were connected. I read it. I was like completely enamored by what her story was. And then I got to talk to her. I always I can tell you that when you do a pre-interview that lasts 10 to 12 minutes, like we did, that tells us how much we're going to connect, probably on the podcast. Usually the ones we go like five minutes, you're like, ooh, I'm going to have to dig on that one. But anyway, and we had to both learn how to pronounce each other's names. So this is also really great. Um but Bridget Truxillo, welcome. Great science development in action. Thank you, Steve Bisson. There you go. See, we're we both nailed it. I I think it's always funny because I always ask that beforehand, and some people like repeat it as fast as they possibly can. You actually pronounced it for me, and even I showed you how I wrote it down. So it's always good to have people who understand that sometimes I literally need like the thing written down in order to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Oh yeah, and I'm a very visual person too, especially with names, because I feel like my brain doesn't hold on. And so yeah, I'm with you on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

You know, before I like I feel like I gotta let you introduce yourself, but I'm the same way. I I mean, between working on a crisis team, doing therapy and working with the first responder world and jails for so long. When people ask me names, I'm like Johnny Jane. Yeah, so I get the whole name thing. I don't know why, but I'll remember their story for like like I already partly know your story, and I could probably tell your story. But if you ask me your name, maybe five five days from now, I might go. Yeah, shoot.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

I know.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Anyway, same Bridget, I'm gonna practice it. So, Bridget, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Bridget’s Background And Career Path

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Happy that to do that. We were talking earlier about I live in Houston, Texas. I'm not from Texas. I'm I say I'm kind of from the south because I've lived a lot, I moved around a lot growing up, but I'm basically from Louisiana, North Louisiana near Streepport, if anybody knows where that is. My husband's from New Orleans, so he all the time says that I'm from southern Arkansas, which whatever. I don't take, I don't care if you say that. I have three kids, three wonderful kids, two girls, both about to be in high school, 10th and 9th grade. And then I have a son who tomorrow will be nine. So he's going into fourth grade. I am an attorney, been an attorney now for 18 years, which wow. And I feel like that's a long time. And then I had somebody reach out to me not too long ago and said that, and this is probably what you could put on your therapy hat with this, because I they said that they didn't believe that I had been in law enforcement, which I'll say this. I'm also former in law enforcement, which I'll say that in a second. Didn't believe I'd been in law enforcement, or that there's any way that I had gotten all the experience that I'd gotten and the amount of time I'd been in law enforcement, so therefore was suggesting I was lying about it. And then also said that being an attorney for 18 years wasn't long enough to have a credible opinion on legal issues.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah. I'm uh I had to just leave that one alone for a couple of days. Anyway, so I am former law enforcement. I was a deputy sheriff in Florida. So all the places I've lived includes I went to I moved to Florida for college, go gators. I'm a big gator fan. Even when we don't have a good football team, I'm still a fan. I lived right after I graduated from Florida, I went to Police Academy in Gainesville and worked for Alaska County Sheriff's Office, which is where Gainesville University of Florida is. Did that for about four and a half years when I left, and certainly there's a story to that. I left on purpose and for a reason. Went to law school in South in Miami, a small Catholic university, so that I emotionally could be closer to my dad, who was in the Keys at the time, because I knew I'd be broke and could eat his food whenever possible. And then I met my husband, actually, right before I started law school, he had just moved to Houston. I had family here, I came to visit, met him. We ended up dating the entire time I was in law school in Miami, and that's what brought me to Texas. So that's all of me in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Well, that's a lot of you in some ways. And was gonna ask you, are you originally from, you know, South Arkansas? That makes sense to me. And sorry, you know, I told I told you pre-interview, my in-laws, so to speak, are from Austin, so go go Aggies. So, but it's okay. Florida is a well, I think we're no, they're in a different uh conference now, so we're good.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Yeah, and you would offend a lot of Aggies in that because the Longhorns are in Austin, UT, and AM is the Aggies, and I'm not a fan of either. So Ashley, I encourage you to say that the Aggies are in Austin. I think it's funny.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Well, to be honest with you, I don't know where they are, but I also I have an I have an 18-year-old now who's going to Yukon, so go Huskies. Yeah, so you know, I have a lot of choices. I I just can't say where my alma mater is because McGill is in Canada and people have never played.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

By the way, with the comment that you got, I gotta, I didn't, I don't want to communicate too long about this because you can't diagnose someone you don't know. Right. It's got personality disorder written all over it. I'm not a doctor, so I can say this. Maybe there's part of their anatomy that's too small in order felt and felt very, very threatened by you. But anyway, that's just my two cents.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Well, I would agree with all of that. And certainly big girl enough to know that I don't need to take on your problems, buddy. So don't if that's your opinion. I obviously very much disagree with their assessment of my experiences. And the only thing I I did say back to him, you know, good luck with your show. And certainly don't appreciate you questioning my credibility. But, you know, have a nice life. You know, not gonna get into it.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

I don't want to get in, I don't want to get into either about how possibly it's uh a gender ting, too, but whatever.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

No, I can certainly agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Because girls can't really be in law enforcement as I understand it.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Certainly not SWAT team. And you know, we'll talk about that. That I used to be on, I was on SWAT team for two and a half years, and that's the part where he just didn't believe me. Like, you know what? I I could offer 30, 25 guys as witnesses to that, but I'm not even gonna bother offering that information to you because you know, it's not worth it.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

So, okay, so how does this woman who goes to school in Florida decides, gee, I want to become a police officer and also go for SWAT? What

Why She Chose Policing And SWAT

SPEAKER_00 7:11

goes from that to the woman in that decides to do that? I I I'm really gloss, actually.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Um the well, and and to back it up even further is that I graduated with a degree in horticulture.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

So Oh, even better, better questions now.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

So I was in when I was in college, you know, I and you have an 18-year-old, and like they expect you to, and we all that we're all there. If you go to college, you gotta pick what your degree is gonna be. Well, how do you know what that's gonna be? I mean, there's certain few people in this world I think that are very clear on what they want to do when they grow up. Or you know, like my niece knows she wants to go, I think she wants to be a vet or something. So like she's very clear on that. And when she goes into school, you know, and that definitely could change, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. And my I chose, well, this is dating me. The movie The Firm with Tom Cruise was very popular at the time. And I thought, well, that's cool. I'll go to law school. Because and also he was a tax attorney, which I can guarantee you that most tax attorneys don't run off to the Cayman Islands to go find some records and get chased by the mob and all this kind of stuff. Well, I went to college and thought, wait, that's wait, tax attorney, that sounds awful. Never mind. And I thought, well, I'll choose engineering. My uncle's an engineer and he's a nice guy. No idea what engineering was about or how many maths and sciences and physics class you'd have to take for that. And not that I was incapable of doing those classes, but in my fourth year of college, I was in agricultural and biological engineering. I chose that particular engineering because I thought, oh, that'll take me outside because I just never envisioned myself being an office person. And then all of those maths and sciences and things really sucked and thought, well, shoot, I don't know what I want to be an engineer. And my one of my really good friends was in horticulture. And I thought, well, I like plants. And I chose that because I talked to the horticultural school, and they said that they would take all of my maths and sciences as my electives, and that all I would need is one more year of their core classes, and I could graduate. So I was like, sweet, I'll do that. Well, then come time to graduate, and I thought, shoot, I don't really want to do this plant thing forever. And also dating myself, and it's kind of a joke. G. I Jane with Demi Moore came out at the time, and I thought, that's cool. I'll go try to be a Navy SEAL and shave my head. But, and I joke about that, and no, I say all the time, like, no disrespect to any Navy SEALs and how serious and difficult it is to get through that program. But also dating me is when I had that idea, women weren't even allowed to try out for the SEAL program. They are now. I also have some very strong opinions on whether like women being in those type of specialty units. But I was young, I was really into being, you know, working out, and I didn't know if like part of what drew me to law enforcement, and nobody in my family's ever been in law enforcement before. Two reasons. One is because I believe in the rule of law, I believe in right and wrong, and I believe that's a very honorable profession, just like the military, to help help us all live in a safe society and holding people accountable when they do something wrong. It's the same way I raised my kids. If you do something wrong, we're gonna talk about it because you've got to understand that there's consequences to actions, good and bad. Take responsibility when you do something wrong and learn from it and don't do it again. But you know, I think I'm a decent parent and that I'm teaching my kids to be good people, and I think that law enforcement and military go out there and and sort of play that role a bit. Like you hold people accountable when things go wrong so that it can be better going forward. So I definitely wanted to do my, and I say like I'm a dork in the way that like I truly believe in like a lawful society, I believe in our constitution, and no system's perfect, but I think it's a pretty darn good one. And then secondly, I wanted a job that would require me to be fit because although I would work out a lot in my 20s, I didn't know if I would have the motivation to stick with that. And now I can say 20 something years later, I'm 51 years old as of last week, and I still work out regularly. So, and also it's true what they say about law enforcement and donuts. It really is not for the most part, not a very healthy bunch. So I got into the job and realized, wait, these guys aren't really that fit. And I was also just a real proactive cop. And so I did patrol, and within a year, I was in undercover narcotics unit because I I did local law enforcement because I thought I wanted to do federal, and to get to federal, I wanted to get experience. So I went into the narcotics unit because there was no no woman on the unit. They want they wanted one and needed one. That was me. Um and then a couple months later I tried out for SWAT team because there was an opening on that. Again, from a very, you know, I like to do the hard things, obviously. And obviously, there's a very strong physical component to being on SWAT team. And I made SWAT team. So did that for about two the two, I was narcotics for three years, SWAT team for about two and a half until I left. Because while being on SWAT team was the coolest thing ever, I was the only female member they'd ever had and have not had one since. And I say, as low I loved it, it's also the reason why I quit law enforcement altogether. For all of the reasons you would expect being the only female in a specialty unit like that.

Sponsor Break Deemed Fit Discount

SPEAKER_00 12:34

So just a quick break, guys. I'm gonna talk about a new product that I really like. I actually bought one at her hoodies, it was amazing, and I really enjoyed wearing it. Uh this episode is gonna be supported by Deemed Fit. Deemed Fit is a first responder-owned activewear and a leisure brand. And one thing that I genuinely like about them is that they support different causes. I actually gave a few people I know who work with first responders, our nonprofits, their name to uh DEMFit, and I know they're talking to them. They do a lot of initiatives and collections that are based on mental health for first responders. And if you go there right now and you buy anything, including the mental health support stuff, uh use the code R D A 15. That's right, R D A fifteen to get 15% off on any products that you get. Again, it's called R D A 15. Go to deanfit.com, D-E-E, M-E-D, F-I-T.com and enjoy 15% off at checkout to save. Now, right back to the episode. That's

Being The Only Woman On SWAT

SPEAKER_00 13:40

a long answer. That's a long answer, but now like you just intrigue me with your ending of that answer. Like, what you know goes a little bit to maybe talking even about how do we go from SWAT to deputy sheriff to you know, we're gonna talk about that, and then to employment attorney, but you said, you know, all the stuff that we know that happens on a SWAT team being an only woman on the team and all I'll be honest with you. I'm the type of guy or like, let's say what it is, because I think that sometimes we say, oh, we know, but do we? And I think what I mean by that is everyone knows about like, oh, you know what it is to be a spouse of a f a first responder. You do, but you what what does that really mean, right? So I don't know where you want to go. I definitely would like to know more about the difficulties that you talked about. And how do you go from there and deputy sheriff to becoming an employment attorney? Because it sounds like your career went from horticulture to being an attorney.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Yes. You know, a horticulture was just a matter of doing something to get that stupid piece of paper, which is right back here behind me, that you can't see, but it actually has orange and blue trim on the the piece of paper. Okay, I just have a very the all this paper behind me is very expensive.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

But because I've law obviously graduated from college, I just went to law school much later. I mean, there's a gap in between, obviously, but then I've actually taken four bar down. So that's why I have all these papers behind me. But so being a female on a SWAT team, I mean, just being a female in law enforcement, yes, it is predominantly men and and also firefighters. Less so less of a difference in EMT, definitely dispatches predominantly women. Corrections, so corrections, firefighter, law enforcement, predominantly male. And like in law enforcement, I can say it's roughly around 13% women, give or take, some agencies. And it's obviously a very macho profession. It's a paramilitary profession. And with that, you know, mostly men, and it's a tough job, and it's a physically demanding job. And and so do I think women can do the job? Absolutely. Are they physically capable of handling it? Yes. You have to be very aware of what your limit your strengths and weaknesses are. And as a female, I would never ever have, not by choice, tried to take on a guy by myself. I was always very good at getting backup before I had to arrest somebody or you know, any situation where it was gonna like and you just have that feeling, like I'm need, okay, I need to get backup for this. And especially in SWAT, but just being in in that profession in general is women are just different. They're wired different, they're built different, we respond to issues differently, and that's not bad. But that difference is always there. It's apples and oranges. You know, an apple's not better than an orange, but they're never gonna be the same. And I think too many people, I think women especially, they go into this thinking, oh, I can prove to them I can do this, and then they'll treat me the same. No, they're not. It's you're always gonna be different. And obviously going into SWAT, like I knew I just I knew that I knew what I was doing. I knew that I was gonna be the only female, and I, you know, and I'm five foot five, and and I I'm not gonna tell you what I weigh, but I mean, I I don't remember what I weighed then. It's luckily it's not that much different now, 25 years later. Good for you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

And after after three kids, even more impressive.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Yes, after three kids. What I think is that you think that you can do this, you think you can prove them that you can do the job, and that eventually they'll accept me, eventually they'll consider me one of their equals, and that's never gonna happen. In my case, it's that they just I feel like it's that you just can't wrap your head around that this female is here and that she can she can have a role on the team. And what happens is they just never really accept you, never really accepted me. Every mistake I made was always a bigger mistake than anybody else's. I was just constantly being written up. Every mistake I made was documented. And at first you think, oh, okay, I made a mistake, I'll do better tomorrow. You're like, oh, gosh darn it, you're right. I'll do better tomorrow. But after two and a half years, I started thinking, screw you, go write somebody, go out, go write up that guy who just made the same mistake I did, but nobody said anything about it. And I think it's hard for people when you think, well, I did make a mistake, but it so the the reason why I became an employment law attorney is because I needed an employment law attorney when I was at the sheriff's office. And I never reported it, I never did anything about it. And then that meant that I quit the job that I thought I was gonna do for the rest of my professional life. That's not what I wanted to do. Yes, I went to law school, that's not a bad thing, but I had no idea what to do with that. And it took me 13 years, I would think say, to really find direction professionally because of basically being run away from the sheriff's office. And so it was harassment, discrimination, retaliation. When the one time I did try and tell to my lieutenant, who's also my SWAT commander, and say, look, I I'm not asking for better treatment, I just want equal treatment. Like, and I gave him an example as generically as I could. Like one of the guys made, you know, made this, somebody made a mistake, and I did something similar, and you wrote me up and you put a letter on my file. Like, I'm not trying to get somebody in trouble, and I'm not trying to get myself out of trouble, but this should be the same. And he went to my team, my SWAT team, who I'd been training with for two and a half years, and told them I was trying behind my back and said I was trying to route out one of my own teammates, and they all started calling me a snitch behind my back. So it was heartbreaking, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. And I quit probably four months after that. And so fast forward 13 years, four 13, 15 years later, even though I was so mad at all of them and I never wanted to be a cop again, I still wanted to, I wanted to do something with law enforcement because I just felt purpose there, like I said. And I what I discovered was that, and especially after the summer of 2020, when George Floyd died and everybody hated law enforcement, and all of a sudden we were all murderers. And I say we just because I I still consider myself part of the population. And that made me really, really mad because the I mean, 98 to 99% of all law enforcement are really good people who make good decisions on a regular basis

Turning Workplace Harm Into A Law Practice

SPEAKER_02 20:10

and are not trying to kill anybody. And I was mad about that for a couple of weeks, and then just the way that I am like the sun comes up tomorrow, let's what you know, let's be positive poly about it. What could we do? And what I decided is I like, how could I help? Well, what can I do for law enforcement to see? No, we're not murdering people, but is there something we could do to do better? How can we be better? How can we make a positive impact in our compute can in our community some way? And the way that I realized I could do that is well, law enforcement and first responders already have a mental health issue. Well, how can I help with that? Well, like I do a lot to take care of my mental health, and a lot of that revolves around exercise, because that's like a mental health tool for me. And so I thought maybe I could put together like a mental health program, but then I realized that's not really my lane. And my lane is being an attorney, and I know that when you have a problem at work, it is consuming. That's all you can think about, talk about. That's the way I was. And I knew I could help with that. So that's how I ended up. I was already an attorney for a long time, decided to start my own firm. Actually, I didn't want to start my own firm. I just wanted to do this kind of work and realize nobody else was doing it in this way. And so I started up my law firm to help law enforcement and first responders address and handle the legal pro the problems they're having at work because I know that becomes a mental health problem. And I don't want that to be the thing that pushes you down that negative slope, slip very slippery slope. So I've very much created my own law firm as a mental health tool, and it and it comes from that place of to be able to give you answers and it's somebody you can trust, and it's a confidential place of trust, similar to you, where you, you know, with therapy, is they want to be able to tell somebody their problems and not get, and if they don't want to, it doesn't have to get back to their. Department because that really does provide them an unbelievable amount of relief. And I know that because I have clients and spouses and moms and people emailing me all the time saying, Thank you so much for what you're doing. Like a wife emailed me two weeks ago and said, You I can see that this is like physically see this is released, like lifted a burden off of her husband's shoulders, just because I'm here answering questions for him and telling him what he should do and and you know, and that he can trust me. So again, a very long answer of you know, very long answer. But having gone through it and worked in the been in the culture, and I think that makes a big difference, you know, from your profession, like they seek out somebody who's culturally competent, somebody who can understand what the culture is about, because they're also very leery to like put a burden on somebody else who doesn't understand the culture, who doesn't understand the things that they've seen. And they want to be able to unburden it somehow, but they have to be careful who they do that with. So I love what I do for you as well, too. Like I am taking on a lot of people's problems and I worry about them and I worry that I'm not doing enough for them. But it comes back to like I know I'm a trusted source, and you know, I just want to I just want them to know they have somebody who's listening and and like know you're not crazy, and I'm here to help you.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Well, you know, all I can think of is privileged communication, and that's what lawyers have as well as first responders. Uh, for therapists for first responders. And I think that having that privileged communication is so essential, in my opinion. I think that plays a huge factor. I honestly was listening to you, and all I can think of is we have like a series of podcasts that we could do together. I honestly thought that while you were talking because there's so many things. The uniqueness of your experience with law enforcement, your uniqueness of being in the law firm, and understanding mental health. And then let's add the layer of being a woman in the law enforcement field. I mean, there's so many things there that to me I'm I can go on and on about. Like I said, I have like 12 more questions, not quite not even kidding. But the uniqueness of mental health issue law firm first responder, and then you added something that's also near and dear to my heart, family. Because family members always get neglected, and they don't like you might walk the thin blue line, but that thin blue line is very thin when you go through hell and back.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

And I think that that's one of the things that comes to mind. And recently looked up, I know it's from 2013, so the numbers are a little old. But when you look at how many law enforcement people across the United States get in trouble versus how many don't have a record, don't get anything, don't have any problems, it's 90% of law enforcement doesn't have a problem at any point in time in their career. It doesn't indicate how long they are all those careers are. But the point I make with people is it's interesting that we concentrate on the 10% of law enforcement, and then within that 10% of law enforcement that goes wrong, we make it much bigger than it should be because you know a cop in uh Texas does something wrong, so obviously the cop in Idaho sucks.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

Makes no sense whatsoever because it's the same discrimination that people will say about gender or race or socioeconomic or LGBTQIA stuff. I can go on and on because I think that we have like I said, I seriously think we have a series of podcasts just between me and you. But I think it might be important to go back to well, I have a problem with my work at you know, at my department, at my sheriff's office, whatever.

Unions Versus Employment Lawyers And Deadlines

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Uh let me talk to the union. Well I I hear, you know, from what you're telling me and what I've always thought, but it's nice to hear someone who's in both sides to understand that. I always tell people, like, nah, your union doesn't know shit. You need to go to talk to a lawyer who may have a better understanding of that. So I don't know if that's part of the challenges that first responders face in that workplace, but uh it's one of the first things I want to throw out because they always talk about unions, but I think talking to a lawyer is as important as talking to a union.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

A hundred percent. And I I I feel like I could screen this from the rooftops every day, every single day of the year for year after year. I I'm not anti-union. I was in a union when I was at the sheriff's office. Depending on which state you live in, you have more protections than others. Like I'm in Texas or Florida, where I was where I was in the sheriff's office is the same. They're at will states, so they don't have the same like statutory labor law rules as somewhere like Massachusetts, or I've had many clients out of Illinois where if you like get terminated, you have specific rights by law to aggrieve it or appeal it or things like that. But it I tell people all the time, like, join a union. It you can afford it. And if for no other reason you get protection if you ever get criminally indicted for something. Because I promise you can't afford a criminal lawyer. You're gonna need it, and then you're gonna end up having to sell your house and mortgage everything you own and try and pay for it. But also, they do help you, even in an at-will state, union reps or union lawyers are gonna help you if you're getting investigated by internal affairs in the disciplinary process, they can help negotiate less or more, or help you write your statement if you're gonna have to write a statement. But what they don't do, and I don't want to say 100% of the time, but awfully darn close to 100% of the time, they don't do employment law. And what I mean is, let's say you're being investigated and you're being disciplined at the, you know, it's sustained and you're gonna get some discipline or whatever, and your union lawyers can help you with all that. And your union lawyer might say, Oh yeah, I think this is I think this is discriminatory. You should do something about it. But they can't help you do anything about that. They're not gonna be able, maybe they'll help you write up a statement to report that. And that's one of the things I'll tell everybody. And that's why I like sign up for my newsletter, shameless plug, because once a month I try and give you just quick little tips on things you need to keep in mind if this is happening to you, is number one is you've got to write it down. And number two is you've got to report it internally, because legally they're not required to do anything about your problem if you don't. And what I mean by report it is, I mean you have to say, I think I'm being discriminated against because I'm female, white, hurt, Jewish, pregnant, I mean, whatever it is, you but you have to explicitly say it out in, and I say in writing, like an email is fine. I'm not saying you've got to snail mail something. Do it if you want to, it don't care. But you've got to, in writing, email or otherwise, put them on notice of what the problem is. And maybe your union lawyer will review what you want to write, but they can't report it, they can't do that for you. And then what if you want to file an EEOC claim or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission? That's the way, like if you are facing one of those things, you have to to file something first with the either the state or the feds. Because you can't you can't sue before you file that first. So if you ever want to sue somebody because it's so bad, you're gonna have to file one of these EEOC or state equivalent claims. And so that's where I think people go wrong is and especially I hear this from a lot of people in the Northeast, because the unions are much more powerful with collective bargaining agreements and such. They'll say, no, you don't want to do that, or no, like, no, let's do this first, let's wait and see how it goes. Well, especially in the Northeast, like I think I talked to some people in the Northeast who are like, yeah, I've been on I've been on uh paid leave for a year and a half while they try and sort this out. And I'm like, well, that's great, but your 300 days is up. You might not ever be able to file an EEOC claim because you've missed the date. Now, that may or may not be true, and there's a lot of what-ifs in the legal world. But you have timelines and it's strict. Like if I want to file that same claim in Texas, I have 180 days. If I want to file at the feds at the EEOC, it's 300 days. But if it's day 301, it's too late. You can't ever file it. And so the pro that's where the problems come in is it one is that they say, well, that's not what they do, so they don't really know those timelines necessarily. Two is they'll say, well, let's wait and see how this happens. And then, you know, again, it's a statute issues. But three is they'll say things like, Do you really want to do that? I wouldn't really want to fight that battle if I were you. And that's completely wrong. At the very least, book a call with somebody who does know this law very, very well and says, okay, but you here are your options, and then you can decide. And that's really one is you can't like I don't do free calls anymore, just so you know. You call us, you're gonna have to pay for it. You get 30 minutes because we're going to give you answers in that call. You get an attorney on the phone, you don't get just some intake paralegal, or it's not even a paralegal, intakes below a paralegal. You get an actual attorney on the phone to listen to the problem that you can, you know, as much as we can on a 30-minute call, and then they're gonna tell you, yes, you can do something about this, we can help you, or here's what you need to keep in mind, no, you can't, and here's what you need, like, but if this happens. And so you're gonna get answers, and we're gonna say, yes, you should, and your union guy's wrong, or your rep. And again, I'm not bashing unions at all. I think you should be in one. And also, if it's employment law related, you need a specialist for that. Like, it's no different than saying, like, well, I brush my teeth every day, so I don't need to go to the dentist ever. No, because there's they can make we were talking about teeth earlier, you and I. Yeah. Um so I'm bringing that back in. But I say, you know, that's like, you know, you need to go to the specialist. I'm an attorney, but I'm not gonna write your will. I mean, you're I'm gonna send you to somebody who specializes in that. And so, yes, unions are great and they just can't do everything. So, and and you know if you need help. You already know. And maybe you ask, should I go see talk to somebody about this? And even if your union people says, No, you don't need to do that, no, you don't. Don't do that. Yes, you do, and you already know that. So just find somebody and and have a conversation.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

So many things that come up for me here. One of the things is that, you know, while we talked about the 9010 earlier, unions are well intended. I of course being in the Northeast, I see a lot of union people and a lot of good stuff comes out of the unions, and I'm pro-union for the most part. And what I mean by that is sometimes I'm not.

unknown 32:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

We'll leave it at that. You can call me if you want to know the my my views on that.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

I I've certainly have some union horror stories for sure. But yeah, I agree with you.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

But I think in the union, and maybe we can maybe we can we can go the other half and start maybe talking about this, but I'm gonna throw it out so that we'll leave a little cliffhanger. One of my pet peeves is that sometimes the union is in bed within admin because they're out for themselves. So I know that I'm gonna be leaving you all on a controversial ending, but I'd like to talk a little bit about that because that again, correct me if I'm wrong, Bridget, but that happens a lot.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

It does. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

How about we go in the next half hour if you're willing to stay for another half hour?

Where To Find Bridget And Closing

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

And uh for those of you who are finishing on this first part of the episode, I I will see you in on the next episode. And for those of you who enjoyed this interview, Bridget, where can they find you for just so that they know?

SPEAKER_02 33:06

Yeah, best place to find everything, resources, sign up for the newsletter. Social links is my website, LadyLawShield.com. If you need to book a call, that's the first thing you see on the top of the page. But all the resources, the different ways we can help, the type of work we do. I mean, like I said, social media links. It's all there, LadyLawShield.com.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

And I will be putting that in the show notes, so please join us on the other side for the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

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