Tales From the Crypt of Lost Employment Cases

What this episode covers

The Walking Papers is a bi-weekly podcast by Van Kampen Law that aims to give listeners, who are on the wrong side of some situation at work, practical advice on how to turn the tables on their employers. Van Kampen Law one of a small handful of firms in North Carolina that exclusively practice plaintiff-side employment law. Based out of Charlotte, NC, Van Kampen Law combats discrimination provides representation to victims of employment discrimination and sexual harassment from the factory floor to the board room. In this introduction episode entitled “Tales from the Crypt,” founding partner, Josh Van Kampen tell us of his journey from representing large corporations in the cut-throat legal market in Chicago, IL to exclusively representing plaintiffs in employment cases in North Carolina. Josh explains common mistakes he sees workers making before they come to his office and what are some steps they could take when they began to become concerned about a situation at work. Chiefly, Josh explains why it is so important to collect evidence while a person is still employed and why resigning is never a good idea. In the weeks to come, Josh Van Kampen will provide more practical advice for people who are on the wrong side of some situation at work. Quotes: Josh on denial, a common mistake he sees workers making: “You always want to see the best in people, the best in your manager, the best in your company, and there will inevitably come a time in your career where that is not the case and you become a number and where you become a target, and I think a lot of people are slow to pick up on that.” (04:46) Josh on the federal laws that pertain to employment situations having only a 180-day statute of limitations period: “There is no hitting the snooze button when it comes to having a successful employment case.” (06:11) Josh on opportunities employees, who suspect a problem may soon arise at work, should take: “You have an opportunity as a current employee to harvest evidence we won't get to for 18 months after you have been fired. It's important to take advantage of that opportunity.” (08:21) Josh on why the right employee have in North Carolina to review their personnel file anytime as a current employee is often critical to a case: “..it certainly happened before in my cases where personnel files have memos added after the fact or even write ups that are added after the fact, and if we just had an image of what the personnel file looked like during the employment, we could catch them in that stacking of the personnel file.” (09:47) Next Episode: Josh Van Kampen provides more practical advice about how to best respond to bullshit evaluations in the workplace. Links and Other Resources: •Tales From the Crypt (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096708/) (03:41) A TV series airing, often late at night, from 1989 – 1996 that showcased Tales of horror based on comic books of the 1950s Connect with us: Our website: www.ncemploymentattorneys.com (http://www.ncemploymentattorneys.com) Follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/VanKampenLaw/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/VanKampenLaw), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/van-kampen-law-pllc), and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/vankampenlaw). For more information on how Van Kampen Law can help you, call 704-247-3245 or contact us online by filling out our confidential online intake form (https://www.ncemploymentattorneys.com/client-intake-form/).