Something happened at work. Say what happened, in confidence.

Describe it at your own pace. Nothing goes to your employer until you choose to send it, and you can stop at any point. If it is not resolved and your employer's plan includes mediation, you and your employer will each be able to choose a mediator from the same list.

Wiser Workplace has not launched. Open today: the employee waitlist, employer registration, and mediator applications.

For employees · For employers: hear it before it becomes a charge.

Say it once, in confidence, at your own pace.

If you are an employee: Wiser Workplace is an independent service, not your employer's HR system. Your employer pays its own subscription; it does not run the platform, and it cannot change what you wrote or the time you sent it. While your case is open, your portal shows what you said, when you sent it, and whether and when your employer answered. You can request a copy of your personal information under the Privacy Policy. If your employer is not on the platform yet and you give us an address, we invite them to join. The invitation says only that a concern was raised; until they join, nothing you wrote is sent. It costs you nothing. Employees never pay; employers pay a subscription. At launch, your employer can read and answer your concern on any plan, including the free one. If it never joins, you can withdraw the concern at any time. The free guides list the agency contacts.

A confidential route that runs before any agency filing or lawsuit.

If you are an employer: at launch, you receive the concern and can answer it in writing through the platform. If it is not resolved and you are on a paid plan, you and the employee can each choose a mediator from the same list.

How it works

Confidential intake

You write down what happened and attach anything you already have. It stays with us until you choose to send it.

Your employer can answer in writing

Your employer receives the concern and can reply through the platform, on any plan; the platform records whether and when a reply comes and does not promise one. If that does not resolve it, and your employer's plan includes mediation, you and your employer each choose from the same list of independent California mediators; at launch each mediator's background, rate, and availability will be shown.

Mediation, through that mediator

The exchange runs through the mediator. Mediation is voluntary: either side can leave, and it may end without an agreement.

Free California employment law guides

All 71 guides. Not legal advice, and reading one does not create an attorney-client relationship.

What stays private, and what does not

What you write is confidential from outsiders under the Terms. Wiser Workplace agrees not to share it with third parties, your employer agrees to the same before it can read it, and you agree too, with the exceptions the law protects, such as talking to your own lawyer, a government agency, or your coworkers about your working conditions.

Before a mediator is involved, either side can use what was written in a later proceeding. Write with that in mind. Messages exchanged after your employer first replies, while you negotiate, are meant to be settlement talks that a court may keep out as proof of fault; your submission, the first reply, and any message that reports conduct you have reasonable cause to believe is unlawful are not, and a court decides.

Once both sides choose a mediator and the mediation begins, California's mediation confidentiality applies:

California Evidence Code § 1119. Anything said, and any writing prepared, for the purpose of, in the course of, or pursuant to a mediation is generally inadmissible and not subject to discovery in a later noncriminal proceeding. Summarized for orientation, not as legal advice. Limited statutory exceptions apply. This protection starts once both sides have chosen a mediator and the mediation begins. Before that, the only confidentiality is the promise in the Terms, and that promise is against outsiders.

Handle the dispute while it is still a conversation.

For employers: mediation is cheaper than litigation and it ends the matter privately. It is also voluntary, so it can fail. What we can tell you is exactly what the process involves and what it costs.

Register your interest · Estimate what a dispute costs an employer · Mediators · Guides · Costs · Mediator standards · Glossary