We’ve likely all known a shady employer or two, but nothing reveals the true character of who you’re working for like a crisis in your personal life. A good employer will be empathetic and make space for your struggle. A bad one? Well, a Redditor’s story is a perfect example of what has sadly become the default for all too many employers today.

A worker was fired the day after he shared his cancer diagnosis.

Even most lawyers agree that it’s best to never share your medical information with your employer unless it’s absolutely necessary — say, to apply for leave. Otherwise, the unfortunate but unavoidable truth is that you are setting yourself up for it to be used against you.

That seems to be precisely what happened here. In their Reddit post, a worker shared that their coworker was just diagnosed with cancer. The man is in his late 40s and has been a dedicated employee. “He was always excellent at his job,” the Redditor wrote. In the end, it didn’t matter.

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The employer claimed the firing decision was made before the diagnosis, which lawyers say is a common lie.

Despite being “excellent at his job,” the worker was immediately fired — he shared his diagnosis on the afternoon he received it and was terminated the following morning. “They let him know … the decision was made before they knew of his diagnosis,” the colleague wrote.

Unfortunately, this situation is far too common for that story to be plausible. Some studies have found that more than 50% of cancer patients lose their jobsand lawyers say being fired immediately after diagnosis is shockingly common.

But because such a firing is unambiguously illegal, employers lie about it, often coming up with an alternative reason for the firing like poor performance or attendance. Lawyers say this is because there is often a perception that a cancer patient will be unable to do their job properly.

“True or not, it’s a stark reminder (that employers) don’t view us as human beings.  Let alone treat us like ‘we’re a family,'” the Redditor wrote. “Needless to say it has really changed many of my colleagues’ opinion of the company.” Understandably so.

Employment lawyer Ryan Stygar said that even worse, workers often assume they have no case when something like this happens because the stated reason for firing has nothing to do with the diagnosis. However, employment lawyers urge workers to immediately contact a lawyer if they are terminated after a diagnosis because they are often able to establish that the diagnosis was in fact the reason.

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Many said this case was hopeless because of the new administration’s changes to labor laws. This is patently false.

Several other Redditors urged this poster to tell their coworker to lawyer up ASAP — and were immediately met with tons of pushback. “It’s not going to go anywhere because of DOGE and his employers know it,” one commenter wrote, referencing the illegal Department of Government Efficiency spearheaded by unelected ideologue Elon Musk.

“What little employee protection we had, we no longer have under this administration,” they went on to say, which is patently false — and exactly what the new administration and all who support them want you to think.

None of them knows what they’re talking about, however. For starters, many of the dictates of Trump’s Executive Orders (EOs) about labor laws only apply to the federal workforce, and legal challenges to the EOs are ongoing. Importantly, the EOs also have no bearing on laws like the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which can only be repealed by Congress or the Supreme Court.

Perhaps most important of all, as one Redditor tersely put it, “DOGE does not control the courts,” nor does it control the myriad state-level employment laws that exist in every state in the Union.

People quickly countered by snarking that DOGE does not “yet” control those things, but deciding to just lay down and accept a wrongful termination on that basis is like refusing to buy yourself groceries because the supermarket might burn down at some point in the future. It’s idiotic. The store is standing at this point in time. Go buy your groceries.

Just because people in Washington are swinging their proverbial appendages around and the news media is working overtime to keep you terrified about it doesn’t mean any of it is true or will have any lasting impact. You still have rights. Stop giving them up willfully because you’re feeling sorry for yourself — and stop telling others to join you. Get up and fight, or get out of the way.

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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.