What happens after you file
When intake opens, here is what will happen after you submit a workplace concern.
Resolution timeline
You Submit Your Concern
Fill out our confidential intake form. Your information is encrypted and treated as confidential under our Terms of Service. You control what the employer sees.
We Review
Wiser Workplace checks that the employer you identified can be reached and that you are a California employee. The employer receives your description as you wrote it, with the categories you selected and, if you filled them in, whether the issue is ongoing, what you would like to happen, and what documentation you have. Your name and contact details are not sent to the employer unless you agree, or the law or a court requires it.
You Preview and Approve
Before you submit, you see what the employer will receive and decide whether to send it. Nothing goes to your employer until you do.
Employer Is Notified
The employer receives a notification with what you previewed. 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. The platform records when each step happens; it records when a reply comes, and when none has come, and does not promise one.
Employer Responds
The employer can respond, request more information, or propose a resolution. If the employer does not respond, the non-response is recorded and you are notified. You may pursue any other option at any time.
Resolution or Exit Note
You and your employer can exchange messages and documents through the platform's confidential channel. If you reach an agreement, you close the case as resolved. If you do not, the case closes unresolved and the exit note points you to the EEOC, the California Civil Rights Department, and the Labor Commissioner, and reminds you of your right to consult an attorney of your own choosing. At launch, if the concern 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 of independent California mediators; you each rank the list, and the mediator ranked best across both lists, taken together, is chosen. Once that mediation begins, California's mediation confidentiality applies to it.
Written Resolution
If both sides reach agreement, you receive a written resolution record. Everything is documented and timestamped.
Your rights stay yours
Your Other Options Are Preserved
If the platform response does not resolve your concern, you can still file a complaint with the EEOC, CRD, the Labor Commissioner (DLSE), or, depending on the nature of your concern, with federal whistleblower programs at the SEC (under the Dodd-Frank Act for securities-related fraud), OSHA (under SOX section 806 for publicly traded company concerns or under section 11(c) of the OSH Act for workplace safety retaliation), or other applicable agency, subject to the applicable filing deadlines. Using Wiser Workplace does not pause or waive any of your legal rights. You should track your own filing deadlines or consult a licensed attorney about them.
Retaliation Is Illegal
California Labor Code §1102.5, Government Code §12940(h), and federal law prohibit retaliation for many kinds of workplace complaints, but not every complaint is protected, and the platform cannot tell you whether yours is. The platform creates a timestamped record of communications. What the parties choose to do with that record is their decision and is best discussed with their own counsel.
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. That promise is about outsiders: before a mediator is involved, either side can use what was written through the platform in a later proceeding, so write with that in mind. After your employer first replies, the messages the two of you exchange while trying to settle are meant to be settlement talks under California Evidence Code section 1152. That rule can keep them from being used to prove liability, that is, to prove who was at fault. It does not cover your first submission, your employer's first reply, or any message of yours that itself reports conduct you have reasonable cause to believe is unlawful, and a court decides what it covers. Section 1152 is a rule about evidence, not a privilege: it does not create confidentiality on its own and it does not bar discovery. No mediation has begun yet, so California's mediation confidentiality does not yet apply; at launch, once both sides choose a mediator and the mediation begins, it applies to that mediation. The Terms let either side share what was written with their own lawyer, with the employer's responders who need to know, and when the law requires it, and your right to file with a government agency and to testify under oath is always preserved. No system is absolutely secure against unauthorized access. Read the confidentiality terms.
You Never Pay Anything
Your employer covers the platform subscription. There are no hidden fees, no cost per action, and no payment ever required from you.
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