Interlude: Whistleblower

 whistleblower: one who reveals something covert or who informs against another, especially: an employee who brings wrongdoing by an employer or by other employees to the attention of a government or law enforcement agency. NOTE: A whistleblower is commonly protected legally from retaliation. (From https://www.merriam-webster.com)

But in my experience, a whistleblower is one who . . . 

  • Is not believed
  • Would rather not "get involved"
  • Asks for advice from friends and family he trusts, and is told to drop it and move on
  • Is told by experts that could help her, that she is doing the right thing, but then become scarce when the time comes to help
  • Is told by people in the know, that the wrongdoing he saw happening, and is reporting, actually happened
  • In desperation, goes to advocacy groups like the ACLU and NAACP, but is told there is nothing they can do to help her
  • Is offered money to sign non-disclosure agreements
  • Is blacklisted
  • Loses friendships
  • Loses her marriage
  • Loses the respect of other close friends and loved ones that once admired her
  • Is mocked
  • Is marginalized
  • Is labeled a troublemaker
  • Is told she "Does not get hired because she is always trying to change the world."
  • Is labeled a conspiracy theorist
  • Is told they can report it, but it won't make a difference, so don't try
  • Is, in fact, retaliated against
  • Learns an important lesson: Don't ever try to point out wrong-doing by people with power, ever again. Keep your head down and don't stir things up
I was not a big whistleblower. My case at Nortel was not a big deal, as big deals go. But I learned, that even rather ordinary cases, which could easily be handled at the management level, by Human Resources and wise executives, that could result in win-wins for everybody - - - are instead dealt with via managerial blunt instruments that keep the culprits safe for a few months, or a few years . . . long enough to move on to other jobs, to retire, for things to settle back down. 

Also, in my experience, these little ethical lapses that really do not amount to "big deals" happen all the time. The problem is that good people actually do things that don't "look good." But nobody thinks about it because, hey . . . these are good people, man! Do you really think Joe Niceguy is trying to improperly influence the vote for varsity softball captain? Really?

Nobody wants to push back on ordinary, common cases like this . . . that happen all the time, everywhere. Move on. Don't worry about it. 

When the stakes are much, much higher . . . when there is more to lose . . . people are even less likely to point out wrongdoing. 

I tended to become, perhaps, a reckless whistleblower. Frustrated at the lack of people that care . . . I went from one such case, to the next. Never taken seriously. Never given a hearing. Never treated like maybe I had a perspective that others were lacking. Never seeing that the goal is improvement, not trouble. My frustration as an ethics practitioner paralleled what was playing out in American life, in the years 1980-2020. 

This launch into the world of whistleblowing may very well have started in the spring of 1980, during my sophomore year at the University of Michigan. But that's another story. 



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