Court Opinion

ID: 9785432
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:42:46.052162+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:22.598173
License: Public Domain

CHIN, J.
I dissent.
Plaintiff alleges she was subjected to adverse employment actions due to her opposition to a personnel order that, she now claims, she believed constituted unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex. She seeks the protection of a statute that prohibits retaliation against a person who opposes a forbidden employment practice. However, until after she filed this lawsuit, she never communicated to her employer her alleged belief that the order was *1063sexually discriminatory or, indeed, unlawful in any way. This case thus presents the question whether a person can be a whistleblower without blowing the whistle. At least in this case, where the personnel order was not clearly unlawful, I would say no.
The majority concludes that plaintiff may recover damages from her employer for retaliating against her because she failed to carry out a personnel order that she reasonably believed violated the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.) even if (1) the order did not, in fact, violate the FEHA; and (2) she never related her belief to her employer. I disagree. The whole point behind giving whistle-blowers special protection is to encourage them to speak out to try to prevent employment discrimination before it takes place or to expose it after it occurs. It makes no sense to give this special protection to someone, like plaintiff here, who did nothing (until after she filed a lawsuit) to communicate to her employer that she opposed what she believed to be a discriminatory act.
The trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of defendant.
I. Summary of Relevant Facts
Plaintiff Elysa J. Yanowitz alleges the following. She was a regional sales manager based in San Francisco for defendant L’Oreal USA, Inc. (L’Oreal). Sometime during the fall of 1997, Jack Wiswall, the New York-based general manager of L’Oreal’s designer fragrance division and one of Yanowitz’s superiors within the company, ordered her to terminate a female salesperson because he thought she was “not good looking enough.” In her declaration, plaintiff described the salesperson as a “dark-skinned woman” who she believed was “of Iranian descent.” Wiswall told her something like, “Get me somebody hot.”
Plaintiff did not carry out the order because she believed it was unlawful. In a declaration that she prepared for this litigation, she explained the reasons for her belief: “This was the first time in all of my years as Regional Sales Manager that anybody had ever asked me to make a final employment decision based upon the physical appearance, much less the subjective physical appearance, of an employee. And there never was any suggestion that any of the males who were under my supervision should be hired, evaluated, promoted, or fired because of their physical appearances. At the time that Wiswall gave the instruction, there was a male sales associate in Cosmair’s [L’Oreal’s former name] Ralph Lauren installation in Macy’s San Francisco Union Square Branch. I also had a male account executive in Seattle, Washington, and until recently, or conceivably even at that time, I *1064had a male coordinator in Macy’s San Francisco Union Square Branch. In earlier years, I had had two other male account executives. I had hired one of these individuals as a coordinator and later promoted him to an account executive. And shortly before I went out on disability leave, I had made a job offer to another male for a coordinator’s position, as I recall, in Macy’s Union Square Branch.” Because of these facts, she “believed that it was contrary to both federal and state sex discrimination laws to terminate a female employee who was performing satisfactorily and who presented herself in a businesslike fashion because of the subjective belief of a male corporate officer that the woman did not fit his notions of physical attractiveness, when opinions as to the physical attractiveness of male employees never were taken into consideration in connection with any employment decisions.”
Sometime later, when Wiswall learned that the employee had not been dismissed, he told plaintiff something like, “Didn’t I tell you to get rid of her, I want her out of here.” He observed a “young attractive blonde girl, very sexy,” and told plaintiff to “get me one that looks that.” She responded, “Jack, you’ve got to give me adequate reasons or justification for dismissing her.” In her declaration, plaintiff states, “After the initial directive, Wiswall persisted in questioning me whether [the salesperson] had been terminated or when I would terminate her. I protested to Wiswall on a number of occasions that he had to give me a justifiable reason to terminate this employee. The matter became particularly difficult when ... in March 1998, I learned that [the salesperson] was one of the top performers in the men’s fragrance department throughout the entire chain.” When asked specific questions during her deposition regarding the number of times she spoke with Wiswall on this subject, she could remember only the initial directive and a single follow-up conversation. She could not specifically remember additional conversations with Wiswall on the subject.
Plaintiff did not say anything to Wiswall to convey that she felt the order was discriminatory other than asking him to give her “adequate grounds to dismiss her.” She does not allege that she told Wiswall that the salesperson in question was a top performer. She never reported to Richard Roderick, her immediate supervisor within the company, or anyone else within the company, including the human resources department, that she believed she had received a discriminatory order from Wiswall. She explained in her declaration that she said nothing to Roderick about her concerns because she “did not have any confidence that Roderick would say, much less do, anything. I found Roderick to be totally ineffectual and lacking independence.” Moreover, she “did not report Wiswall to or seek assistance from [the] Human Resources Department, because I did not have any confidence that that Department would provide any assistance in dealing with Wiswall. That *1065Department did not have the reputation of assisting lower level employees or even middle management personnel in disputes involving upper management.”
Ultimately, plaintiff did not terminate the salesperson and, apparently, no one else did either. L’Oreal also did not terminate or demote plaintiff, but she alleges that, as a result of her not terminating the salesperson, she was subjected to other adverse employment actions. She eventually departed the company on disability leave due to stress.
In this action, plaintiff alleged, among other things, that she was the victim of discriminatory retaliation due to her refusal to carry out the order to fire the female employee, an order that, she believed, would have violated “the prohibition against discrimination by sex established in the” FEHA. The trial court granted L’Oreal’s motion for summary judgment, but the Court of Appeal reversed as to the retaliation cause of action. We granted L’Oreal’s petition for review and must now decide whether the facts of this case state a valid cause of action for unlawful retaliation under the FEHA.
II. Discussion
A. Prima Facie Case of Retaliation
Plaintiff claims L’Oreal illegally retaliated against her in violation of Government Code section 12940, subdivision (h) (section 12940(h)), part of the FEHA, which makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to “discriminate against any person because the person has opposed any practices forbidden under” the FEHA. She claims L’Oreal retaliated against her because she opposed Wiswall’s order to fire the female sales representative. She alleges this retaliation constituted unlawful discrimination because she reasonably believed the order itself unlawfully discriminated on the basis of sex. But this allegation encounters a problem at the outset. Plaintiff did not tell L’Oreal of her alleged belief. She never told anyone within the company that she believed the order to terminate the salesperson constituted sex discrimination or, indeed, was unlawful for any reason.
The majority and I agree on the broad principles applicable to retaliation claims. “Lawsuits claiming retaliatory employment termination in violation of CFEHA are analogous to federal ‘title VII’ claims (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.; hereafter title VII), and are evaluated under federal law interpreting title VII cases.” (Flait v. North American Watch Corp. (1992) 3 Cal.App.4th 467, 475-476 [4 Cal.Rptr.2d 522].) To establish a prima facie case of retaliation, “the plaintiff must show that he engaged in a protected activity, his employer subjected him to adverse *1066employment action, and there is a causal link between the protected activity and the employer’s action.” (Id. at p. 476.) As I explain, plaintiff’s action founders on the first and third of these requirements; she engaged in no protected activity, and there is no causal link between the employer’s action and the nonexistent protected activity. Because of this, I need not consider whether L’Oreal subjected plaintiff to any adverse employment action.
We recently explained the “need to protect whistleblowers,” like plaintiff claims to be. (Miller v. Department of Corrections (2005) 36 Cal.4th 446, 475 [30 Cal.Rptr.3d 797, 115 P.3d 77] (Miller).) Section 12940(h) “aids enforcement of the FEHA and promotes communication and informal dispute resolution in the workplace.” (Miller, supra, at p. 472, italics added.) “The FEHA’s stricture against retaliation serves the salutary purpose of encouraging open communication between employees and employers so that employers can take voluntary steps to remedy FEHA violations [citation], a result that will be achieved only if employees feel free to make complaints without fear of retaliation. The FEHA should be liberally construed to deter employers from taking actions that would discourage employees from bringing complaints that they believe to be well founded.” (Id. at p. 475, italics added.) We also explained that the United States Supreme Court recently expressed similar concerns in holding that “[t]itle IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (Title IX)) provides the whistleblower with a private right of action for retaliation.” (Id. at p. 475, citing Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Educ. (2005) 544 U.S. 167 [161 L.Ed.2d 361, 125 S.Ct. 1497].)
These policy concerns are valid. Employees should be able to complain about what they believe to be unlawful employment practices without fear of retaliation. But it makes no sense to extend whistleblower protection to someone, like plaintiff, who did not make any complaint, did not engage in any meaningful communication, did not seek any informal dispute resolution in the workplace, and did nothing to try to cause L’Oreal to take voluntary steps to avoid or remedy a perceived FEHA violation.
Although section 12940(h)’s language requires the person seeking its protection to oppose “any practices forbidden under” the FEHA—which seems to require that the practices actually be forbidden—courts have expanded the statute beyond its language to permit a retaliation claim by an employee “who has complained of or opposed conduct that the employee reasonably believes to be discriminatory, even when a court later determines the conduct was not actually prohibited by the FEHA.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1043, citing Miller, supra, 36 Cal.4th at p. 473.) I agree with this expansion and the policy behind it. But if we are to interpret the statute as not requiring conduct that was actually illegal but merely conduct the employee *1067believes to be illegal, then surely we must require that the plaintiff communicate this belief to the employer. It makes no sense to hold both that the conduct need not be unlawful and that the plaintiff need not complain of it.
A multitude of federal cases interpreting the analogous federal retaliation law supports this conclusion. An oft-cited case is Booker v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., Inc. (6th Cir. 1989) 879 F.2d 1304 (Booker).) In that case, the plaintiff alleged that he had been illegally demoted due to a letter he had written to the company’s human resources department that, he claimed, opposed racial discrimination. The court disagreed that the letter constituted opposition to unlawful discrimination. “An examination of the letter indicates that it is not in opposition to a violation of the Act. Booker was not contesting any unlawful employment practice; he was contesting the correctness of a decision made by his employer.” (Id. at p. 1313.) The letter in question did claim the plaintiff was the victim of “ethnocism,” a word the court could not locate in any dictionary. About this claim, the court said, “Assuming that Booker intended discrimination, we hold that a vague charge of discrimination in an internal letter or memorandum is insufficient to constitute opposition to an unlawful employment practice. An employee may not invoke the protections of the Act by making a vague charge of discrimination. Otherwise, every adverse employment decision by an employer would be subject to challenge under either state or federal civil rights legislation simply by an employee inserting a charge of discrimination.” (Ibid.)
Other cases are to similar effect. “In order to engage in a protected opposition activity . . . , a plaintiff must make an overt stand against suspected illegal discriminatory action.” (Minnis v. McDonnell Douglas Technical Services Co. (E.D.Mich. 2001) 162 F.Supp.2d 718, 739, italics added, citing Booker, see also Maynard v. City of San Jose (9th Cir. 1994) 37 F.3d 1396, 1405 [evidence did not support a retaliation claim when the plaintiff framed his complaint in terms of a “violation of the Department’s hiring practices, not in terms of racial discrimination”]; Allen v. Denver Public School Bd. (10th Cir. 1991) 928 F.2d 978, 985 [a grievance was not “protected opposition to discrimination” when there was “nothing on the face of the document to alert the reader that discrimination is being alleged”]; Pieszak v. Glendale Adventist Medical Center (C.D.Cal. 2000) 112 F.Supp.2d 970, 993-994 [the plaintiff did not “point to any involvement in a protected activity” because her “complaining about Lopez’ harassment does not mean that she was complaining about sexual harassment”]; Reynolds v. Golden Corral Corp. (M.D.Ala. 1999) 106 F.Supp.2d 1243, 1252 [“If plaintiff intended to complain to Barnes about sexual harassment, she had an obligation to tell him so or, at least, to give him sufficient facts from which he could conclude that plaintiff’s problem involved conduct directed at her because of her sex”]; id. at p. 1253 [no valid retaliation claim because “plaintiff does not claim to have reported the alleged sexual harassment to any of Gibson’s *1068superiors other than Barnes,” and even as to Barnes, “plaintiff did not oppose, discuss or suggest unlawful sex discrimination during that conversation”]; id. at p. 1254, citing Booker; Beeck v. Federal Exp. Corp. (D.D.C. 2000) 81 F.Supp.2d 48, 55 [no case law suggests that “protected ‘opposition’ extends beyond open allegations of discrimination to the sort of stoic, silent endurance plaintiff alleges here”]; Primes v. Reno (N.D.Ohio 1998) 999 F.Supp. 1007, 1016, citing Booker [concluding that a “vague suggestion of racism” is “not sufficient to constitute ‘opposition’ under Title VII and cannot form the basis for a retaliation claim”]; Crumpton v. St. Vincent's Hosp. (N.D.Ala. 1997) 963 F.Supp. 1104, 1119 [“In order to be protected activity, plaintiff must present evidence showing that [the defendant’s] management knew that her concern or complaints related in some way to race and a claim of being discriminated against on that basis”; merely “complaining about a supervisor’s conduct” not sufficient]; Garcia-Paz v. Swift Textiles, Inc. (D.Kan. 1995) 873 F.Supp. 547, 559 [the statute does not protect “persons who simply champion the cause of an older worker, even if the advocate acts out of an unarticulated belief that the employer is discriminating on the basis of age. Thus, liability will not attach unless the activity in question advances beyond advocacy and into recognizable opposition to an employment practice that the claimant reasonably believes to be unlawful”]; id. at p. 560, citing Booker, Aldridge v. Tougaloo College (S.D.Miss. 1994) 847 F.Supp. 480, 484 [plaintiff’s grievance was not protected expression because it did not “protest any form of sex discrimination”]; id. at p. 485, citing Booker.)
I agree with the majority that courts should not parse an employee’s complaint technically. “We do not believe employees should be required to elaborate to their employer on the legal theory underlying the complaints they are making, in order to be protected by the FEHA.” (Miller, supra, 36 Cal.4th at p. 474.) I further agree that “[a]n employee is not required to use legal terms or buzzwords when opposing discrimination. The court will find opposing activity if the employee’s comments, when read in their totality, oppose discrimination.” (Wirtz v. Kansas Farm Bureau Services, Inc. (D.Kan. 2003) 274 F.Supp.2d 1198, 1212, quoted in maj. opn., ante, at p. 1047.) The problem here is that plaintiff did not use any words to inform her employer she thought the order was unlawful sex discrimination. Her words, in their totality, only asked for justification; they did not hint at a concern that the personnel order constituted sex discrimination.
The court in Garcia-Paz v. Swift Textiles, Inc., supra, 873 F.Supp. 547, discussed how articulate an employee must be in complaining about perceived unlawful employment practices. “While some courts have indicated that vague references to unspecified discrimination are not protected, no clear rule has emerged as to the level of specificity required, and the standard employed by most courts is not exacting. [Citations.] [f] Employees often do not speak with the clarity or precision of lawyers. At the same time, however, *1069employers need not approach every employee’s comment as a riddle, puzzling over the possibility that it contains a cloaked complaint of discrimination. But the thrust of inartful, subtle, or circumspect remarks nevertheless may be perfectly clear to the employer, and the Court discerns no evidence that Congress intended to protect only the impudent or articulate. The relevant question, then, is not whether a formal accusation of discrimination is made but whether the employee’s communications to the employer sufficiently convey the employee’s reasonable concerns that the employer has acted or is acting in an unlawful discriminatory manner.” (Id. at p. 560.)
Here, plaintiff’s complaint of sex discrimination was not merely “inartful” or “subtle” or “circumspect,” but nonexistent. Although, ironically, as the majority recognizes (maj. opn., ante, at p. 1037), plaintiff’s performance reviews within the company have long and consistently criticized her “communication” skills, surely she was capable of communicating in some fashion her belief that Wiswall’s order was unlawful sex discrimination. She never mentioned to anyone within the company that she felt the order was discriminatory. She never explained, or even alluded to, what she articulated in her declaration—that “[tjhis was the first time in all of my years as Regional Sales Manager that anybody had ever asked me to make a final employment decision based upon the physical appearance, much less the subjective physical appearance, of an employee.” She kept her belief, and all of the reasons she allegedly had for that belief, entirely to herself.1
The majority claims that plaintiff’s statement to Wiswall that she needed justification presents a prima facie case that she complained of unlawful sex discrimination. This statement, however, was not a claim of discrimination at all, much less sex discrimination. As L’Oreal aptly points out, “a manager’s request for ‘adequate justification’ from a superior could convey reservations about the wisdom or soundness of the superior’s directive from a business standpoint—why seek the removal of a salesperson who (the manager believes) is doing a good job? Why needlessly risk antagonizing the important account employing the salesperson? The manager may simply be reluctant to carry out an unpleasant task directed at a person the manager personally likes or respects. Or perhaps she simply thinks the directive is ‘unfair.’ ”
*1070All of these are very logical possibilities that have nothing to do with sex discrimination—or discrimination of any kind. Indeed, plaintiff herself indicates in her declaration she believed the order was a bad business decision because the salesperson in question was a top performer—information that she also apparently kept to herself. Plaintiff’s mere request for justification is even further removed from a complaint of discrimination than those found too vague in the cases cited above. She did not come close to making “an overt stand against suspected illegal discriminatory action.” (Minnis v. McDonnell Douglas Technical Services Co., supra, 162 F.Supp.2d at p. 739.) Nor did she even give Wiswall, or anyone within L’Oreal, “sufficient facts from which he could conclude that plaintiff’s problem involved” sex discrimination. (Reynolds v. Golden Corral Corp., supra, 106 F.Supp.2d at p. 1252.) At most, she “was contesting the correctness of a decision made by [her] employer,” which is insufficient. (Booker, supra, 879 F.2d at p. 1313.)
The majority suggests that the employer should have investigated what plaintiff meant on the off chance that she held some undisclosed belief that the order was unlawful. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1048.) But “employers need not approach every employee’s comment as a riddle, puzzling over the possibility that it contains a cloaked complaint of discrimination.” (Garcia-Paz v. Swift Textiles, Inc., supra, 873 F.Supp. at p. 560.) The purpose behind providing whistleblowers with special protection against retaliation is to encourage “open communication between employees and employers so that employers can take voluntary steps to remedy FEHA violations . . . .” (Miller, supra, 36 Cal.4th at p. 475.) This purpose is furthered only by requiring, as the law does, that employees overtly oppose what they believe is unlawful discrimination. Placing the onus on employers to try to find out whether an employee believes an action is discriminatory and for some reason has chosen not to speak out, does not further this purpose.
Moreover, plaintiff did not say anything—not even to seek a justification— to anyone within the company other than Wiswall. L’Oreal, her employer, is a large company. The purpose behind the retaliation statute is to encourage internal communication so the employer can avoid unlawful acts or take prompt corrective action. In order to further this purpose, arguably a plaintiff should have to complain to someone within the company other than the person who ordered the suspected unlawful conduct—someone who might be able to judge the matter objectively and take any necessary corrective action. Plaintiff alleges that she said nothing to anyone else within L’Oreal, not even the human resources department, because she did not have confidence in them. But the special protection against retaliation does not extend “to the sort of stoic, silent endurance plaintiff alleges here.” (Beeck v. Federal Exp. Corp., supra, 81 F.Supp.2d at p. 55.)
*1071The contrast between this case and the cases the majority relies on that do find a prima facie case of protected activity could hardly be greater. In Miller, supra, 36 Cal.4th at pages 472-473 (see maj. opn., ante, at p. 1046), the plaintiffs complained repeatedly to several persons, including a “sex harassment advisor” and “Internal Affairs” about the alleged harassment. In Wirtz v. Kansas Farm Bureau Services, Inc., supra, 274 F.Supp.2d at page 1213 (see maj. opn., ante, at p. 1047), the plaintiff “repeatedly discussed his concerns . . . with his direct supervisor” and made “three formal complaints to the defendant’s management.” In Truskoski v. ESPN, Inc. (D.Conn. 1993) 823 F.Supp. 1007, 1012 (see maj. opn., ante, at p. 1048), the plaintiff’s complaint of the disparate impact of a staffing policy “had definite overtones of gender bias and discrimination.” And in Mathieu v. Norrell Corp. (2004) 115 Cal.App.4th 1174, 1187 [10 Cal.Rptr.3d 52] (see maj. opn., ante, at p. 1048), the plaintiff “presented evidence she told Dunn ‘everything’ about [the complained of] conduct and that ‘such treatment, being directed to her as a [woman], constitutes sexual harassment.’ ” Here, by contrast, plaintiff said nothing that had even an overtone of sex discrimination.
I do not doubt that a personnel order might be so blatantly discriminatory—for example, an order to fire all African-American employees—that any employer would know that it was unlawful and would further know that an employee’s failure to carry it out was due to the belief (actually knowledge) that it was discriminatory. This is not that case, and the majority does not appear to claim it is; indeed, the majority stresses that the order need not actually have been discriminatory at all for plaintiff to prevail. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1043.) Wiswall ordered the salesperson’s termination due to her appearance. Plaintiff has never claimed she believed the order was unlawful discrimination on the basis of appearance (a ground not explicitly covered by the FEHA; see maj. opn., ante, at p. 1044), but instead she claims she believed it was sex discrimination. She based this belief on a chain of reasoning grounded on several facts, which she kept to herself. Whether she was correct or not, the order, by itself, was not so blatantly discriminatory on the basis of sex as to place L’Oreal on notice that plaintiff was opposing an act of sex discrimination.
Plaintiff has also shown no causal link between any protected activity and the alleged adverse employment actions. First, as I have explained, she engaged in no protected activity. Second, even if she had done so, no evidence exists that L’Oreal knew she was engaging in such activity. “ ‘Essential to a causal link is evidence that the employer was aware that the plaintiff had engaged in the protected activity.’ ” (Morgan v. Regents of University of California (2000) 88 Cal.App.4th 52, 70 [105 Cal.Rptr.2d 652], quoting Cohen v. Fred Meyer, Inc. (9th Cir. 1982) 686 F.2d 793, 796; see also *1072Mulhall v. Ashcroft (6th Cir. 2002) 287 F.3d 543, 551 [plaintiff “failed to produce any direct or circumstantial evidence from which a reasonable jury could infer that Metcalfe and Ray knew or were aware of his protected activity”].) A person cannot retaliate against someone for activity the person does not know about. To prevail on the claim, plaintiff would have to show that L’Oreal “retaliated against [her] because [she] complained of sex discrimination.” (Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Educ., supra, 544 U.S. at p. 184 [125 S.Ct. at p. 1510].) This she cannot do. Plaintiff does not claim that anyone within L’Oreal other than Wiswall knew of her protected activity, for she said nothing whatever to anyone else. Even as to Wiswall, no evidence, direct or circumstantial, exists that he knew of plaintiff’s alleged belief. The reason for this conclusion is simple. Plaintiff kept her belief, and the reasons for it, a secret from her employer.
B. Statute of Limitations
While my conclusion that plaintiff has failed to state a prima facie case of retaliation makes further discussion unnecessary, I comment briefly on another aspect of the majority’s analysis. Four years ago, in Richards v. CH2M Hill, Inc. (2001) 26 Cal.4th 798 [111 Cal.Rptr.2d 87, 29 P.3d 175], I joined a majority to conclude that where an employer’s course of conduct constitutes a “continuing violation” of an employee’s rights under the FEHA, the statute of limitations begins to run only when the course of conduct ends, or when the employee is on notice that further informal efforts to end it will be futile. (Richards, at p. 823.) More recently, the United States Supreme Court has determined, for purposes of analogous federal antidiscrimination laws, that one cannot recover for “discrete acts” of discrimination or retaliation falling outside the applicable limitations period. On the other hand, the high court held, where a “hostile work environment” claim is presented, and any of the acts contributing to the hostile environment took place within the limitations period, the employer’s related earlier behavior may also be considered for the purpose of assessing liability. (National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Morgan (2002) 536 U.S. 101, 105 [153 L.Ed.2d 106, 122 S.Ct. 2061].)
In concluding here that L’Oreal’s hostile acts may be considered collectively, though some occurred more than one year before plaintiff filed her FEHA claim, the majority seems to feel it must choose between Richards and Morgan, and it elects to repudiate Morgan and adhere to Richards. I see no need for this approach. On the instant facts, Morgan itself supports the majority’s statute of limitations conclusions.
Thus, plaintiff did not frame her FEHA retaliation claim in terms of discrete, individually forbidden acts occurring both within and without the *1073limitations period. Instead, she alleged explicitly that the employer’s retribution took the form of harassment arising from an ongoing hostile work environment. The majority so analyzes the claim, insisting that it “need not and do[es] not decide whether each alleged retaliatory act constitutes an adverse employment action in and of itself,” because plaintiff “has alleged that L’Oreal’s actions formed a pattern of systematic retaliation for her opposition to Wiswall’s discriminatory directive.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1055.) As the majority notes, such a theory of retaliation is valid; “there is no requirement that an employer’s retaliatory acts constitute one swift blow, rather than a series of subtle, yet damaging, injuries. [Citations.]” (Ibid.)
The majority does not contravene Morgan by acknowledging that the entire course of L’Oreal’s allegedly retaliatory conduct, both before and during the applicable limitations period, may be considered in assessing L’Oreal’s FEHA liability. Thus, were it necessary for me to reach the issue, I would agree with the majority that the statute of limitations does not bar collective consideration of this conduct. In doing so, however, I would avoid deciding whether Richards should survive Morgan to the extent the two decisions disagree.
HI. Conclusion
As the United States Supreme Court recently reaffirmed, retaliation claims serve a valuable purpose by protecting whistleblowers. (Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Educ., supra, 544 U.S. 167 [125 S.Ct. 1497].) The objective of protecting against discriminatory practices “ ‘would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve if persons who complain about sex discrimination did not have effective protection against retaliation.’ ” (Id. at p. 180 [125 S.Ct. at p. 1508].) But the majority distorts the retaliation cause of action beyond all recognition. It now says plaintiffs claiming illegal retaliation need not complain of what they believe to be an unlawful employment practice until after they file the lawsuit. But it makes no sense to extend this special protection to a person who did not communicate to the employer—in any way, shape, or form—the belief that unlawful sex discrimination was occurring before filing a lawsuit for retaliation. Section 12940(h) protects opposition to unlawful employment practices, not merely the failure to obey a personnel order because of an undisclosed belief the order is discriminatory for reasons also undisclosed. The FEHA’s purpose is to prevent discrimination, not to encourage employees to generate lawsuits quietly. The majority encourages the generation of stealth lawsuits but does nothing to further the purpose of the retaliation cause of action or the FEHA itself.
*1074To receive the special protection that section 12940(h) gives to whistle-blowers, one must blow the whistle—not in any technical way, but in some way. Plaintiff did not do so. Hence, I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which reversed summary judgment in defendant’s favor.
Baxter, J., concurred.

The majority states that besides requesting justification for the order, plaintiff “additionally stated that she had hired and supervised both male and female sales associates for a number of years, and never had been asked to fire a male sales associate because he was not sufficiently attractive.” (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 1044-1045.) She did so state in a declaration that she prepared for purposes of this litigation, but she never said this to anyone within L’Oreal before the lawsuit.