Whistleblowing

Accessory

Is whistleblowing within an organisation positive or negative?? Does anyone want to share their opinion on this topic?

Gambler

I think it depends on the situation..

My advice to someone is always to think "Would you want to know if you were the boss?"

The amount of times I've heard people complain about something in work but not willing to actually say anything about it even though it's actually affecting the businesses performance is amazing..

DubTony

It obviously depends. If we're talking about downright criminal activity, that the company or business supports or turns a blind eye, to I'd say it is a good thing. But lesser situations, where management aren't involved, it's often enough to inform them and the thing can be cleared up.

A friend had a c-store (when you run them, you get to know others who run them :rolleyes:) where one of the staff contacted an EHO (environmental health office / health inspector) about the dirt of the deli. He'd hired a manager while he moved onto another project, who in turn had hired a new deli supervisor who didn't so her job very well. The EHO wrote to him and threatened all sorts of legal stuff if it wasn't sorted. It was a simple matter of ensuring proper procedures were in place, but when the new supervisor started these were allowed slip, and the manager wasn't paying any attention.

My friend checked the deli, and after a meeting with the manager, another with the deli supervisor, and a further meeting with the staff to determine who "ratted them out" he sacked the manager, deli supervisor and after identifying the whistleblower, sacked her too.
If the girl had gone to him and let him know the story, it would have been sorted out quickly and easily.

Darragh29

I blew the whistle once within a large multinational organisation in Ireland that I worked in, and contrary to how I thought the matter would be dealt with, I was invited to a meeting with a barrister, solicitor and a HR manager and politely asked would I be open to taking a large sum of money in return for my immediate resignation. One hour later I signed a quickly drafted legal agreement which resulted in the immediate termination of my employment.

The lesson I learnt from the experience was that if you are not happy somewhere, just leave. If other people want to run their business affairs in a half arsed persian bizzare manner, leave them to it.

PCPhoto

darragh ...do you mean that you noticed they were doing something illegal as part of the normal course of events and when you brought it to the attention of bosses you were given hush money and asked to move on ?

did you sign a confidentiality agreement ? Did you read the termination document or get a solicitor to check it before you signed ?

sounds like they know they are making mistakes but a "small" payout means less hassle for them ...how many others raised their concerns before you ...how much money have they spent on keeping people like you quiet.

Darragh29

PCPhoto wrote: »

darragh ...do you mean that you noticed they were doing something illegal as part of the normal course of events and when you brought it to the attention of bosses you were given hush money and asked to move on ?

Yes.

PCPhoto wrote: »

did you sign a confidentiality agreement ? Did you read the termination document or get a solicitor to check it before you signed ?

Yes, there were more solicitors involved on both sides than you could shake a stick at...

PCPhoto wrote: »

sounds like they know they are making mistakes but a "small" payout means less hassle for them ...how many others raised their concerns before you ...how much money have they spent on keeping people like you quiet.

They didn't want the negative publicity. What happened was a lot of people had concerns with how things like promotions were being handled in the workplace. As so often happens, a lot of people will talk the talk but when it comes to dealing with a serious workplace issue, invariably in Ireland, very very few will walk the walk. I decided to take action because I wasn't prepared to remain in a situation that was inherently unfair on me and people I worked with, and it was not before a lot of us had expressed our concerns to management directly but to no avail.

PCPhoto

any chance you could tell me what company - so I can apply for a job ? :)

Darragh29

PCPhoto wrote: »

any chance you could tell me what company - so I can apply for a job ? :)

Obviously no! I wouldn't advise anyone to bother blowing a whistle within an organisation. Not unless it could be done by writing an anonymous letter to The Phoenix magazine or something like that. In this country, the usual method of dealing with a problem in the workplace is for management to first try to brush it under the carpet, then protect the people at the top who will lie through their teeth to get out of whatever unsavory situation that their own incompetence and corruption have landed them in.

If you want to change the world, start up your own business, then you can be captain of your own ship. It took me some time to get my head around the fact that some organisations are very happy with corruption and cronyism running through their organisation.

shoutman

Surely you were happy that you got a nice comp package out of it though.

Darragh29

shoutman wrote: »

Surely you were happy that you got a nice comp package out of it though.

No, I didn't ever think that would have been an option. I was working for an organisation that had an awful lot to say about, "lets do the right things right", and "our staff are our most valuable asset", so when we decided to have a wider discussion about how things had gone to absolute f*ck where we worked and a small minority of people in management had managed to dispense with the stated company policy, once this was escalated to HR, we genuinely expected that someone in HR would stand up and say, hang on folks, these guys have raised a very serious problem here".

Instead what we got was a load of politics and a cover up and a "lets capitate the campaign" approach. It was made clear to me that it was either leave with a handshake or leave with nothing, as I wasn't going to be successful in what I was trying to achieve...

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Blew the whistle once a few years ago, was an extremely serious matter. There was a small meeting and the matter was dealt with. Sometimes it's not worth your while, other times it is. It also depends on how you blow the whistle