corporate whistleblowers - backlash

November 21st, 2008
  • Corporate whistleblowers ? I need many reputable articles about how corporate whistleblowers suffer from bringing to light unethical issues. This backlash should include: 1. impacts on their existing career 2. difficulty in finding new jobs because they are seen as whistleblowers 3. any other negative impact


  • Dear Jay, When you say "reputable", do you mean all kinds of articles from websites/journals with good reputation (i.e., "New York Times" and not "National Enquirer") or only to peer reviewed "academic" articles?


  • Yes, I am looking for sources that folks respect. For example the new york times magazine ran an article about a woman who blew the whistle on enron and now is unemployed and when she is interviewed for work she is unable to find it because she is viewed as a whistleblower


  • Hello, jaystallard-ga! I have compiled some articles from reputable sources on the repurcussions faced by whistleblowers who reveal corruption or faulty practices within their organizations. === "Time Magazine's Persons of the Year - Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins," by RICHARD LACAYO AND AMANDA RIPLEY. Dec. 22, 2002 http://www.whistleblowers.org/html/TIME.htm "..whistle-blowers don't have an easy time. Almost all say they would not do it again. If they aren't fired, they're cornered: isolated and made irrelevant. Eventually many suffer from alcoholism or depression." "With these three, that hasn't happened, though Watkins left her job at Enron after a few months when she wasn't given much to do. But ask them if they have been thanked sincerely by anyone at the top of their organization, and they burst out laughing. Some of their colleagues hate them, especially the ones who believe that their outfits would have quietly righted all wrongs if only they had been given time. "There is a price to be paid," says Cooper. "There have been times that I could not stop crying." === From "WHISTLEBLOWING makes for great TV. But the aftereffects can be brutal," by Cora Daniels. Fortune Magazine. April 2002. http://www.soeken.lawsonline.net/hell.html "Randy Robarge, a nuclear power plant supervisor, never intended to be a whistleblower. To Robarge, raising concerns about the improper storage of radioactive material at ComEd's Zion power plant on Lake Michigan was just part of doing a good job. The 20-year veteran was so respected when it came to safety issues that ComEd used him to narrate the company's training video on safety, which is still used throughout the industry. So he never expected that speaking up would end his career." "At first the harassment was subtle. He says he was routinely denied days off and asked to cover for employees who were out. Co-workers kept their distance, and supervisors began criticizing his work. Three months later Robarge was out of a job." "It's a living hell," says Robarge, 49, who supports himself with savings and odd jobs. "This is my livelihood, what I love to do. But I'm off limits. No one wants to touch me. I was labeled as a whistleblower." "Unfortunately Robarge is not alone. About half of all whistleblowers get fired, half of those fired will lose their homes, and most of those will then lose their families too, says C. Fred Alford, author of Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power. "For every Sherron Watkins, there are 200 to 300 whistleblowers you never hear about who don't fare so well." Overall, 90% of whistleblowers can expect some kind of reprisal--public humiliation, isolation, career freezing, firing, blacklisting--from their company. "The forms of organizational harassment are limited only by the imagination," says Tom Devine, head of the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower advocacy group. Its Whistleblower's Survival Guide is a mainstay in legal circles." (Read further... === "Police Whistleblowers," by Jaime Adame. Gotham Gazette. June, 2004 http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/crime/20040602/4/995 "Eleven years ago, Detective Investigator Jeff Baird thought the people in power would protect him. His testimony exposing misconduct within the Internal Affairs Division was a key part of the Mollen Commission. Baird told city officials how officers within his division would create secret files designed to hide evidence that pointed to corruption and misconduct within the department." "I was only interested in positive change," said Baird, 49. "I didn?t think the retaliation would come." "But the retribution that followed would last the rest of his career - and beyond. Baird was shunned by many of his fellow officers and harassed by others. Transfers to different units quickly stalled a once promising career, according to Baird, who also said there was even a warning that his life was in danger." "Baird was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by his psychologist and applied to receive a special accident disability pension. The police medical board disputed this, however. The case went to court, with city lawyers arguing that Baird only deserved ordinary benefits." In April, a Manhattan judge sharply criticized the city for denying Baird?s claim, calling its arguments "pitiful." "In short, NYPD subjected [Baird] to an insidious 'death of a thousand cuts' in retaliation for his work on the Mollen Commission, with the Medical Board's refusal to even address the cause of his condition being the last gash. This the court will not condone.," Judge Louis York reportedly said in his ruling in favor of Baird." === "Whistle-blower receives honors and resentment," by Jim Lynch. Seattle Times of Olympia Bureau. January 3, 1999 http://www.soeken.lawsonline.net/ruud.html "Still, Ruud was laid off from Hanford in 1988 and shunned at another weapons site before resigning. He fought in court, claiming unlawful retaliation for whistle-blowing, and eventually got a job back at Hanford." "Meanwhile, Ruud, 43, still blows the whistle. During the past two years, he and Hanford scientist John Broeder proved that radioactive fluids leaking from massive storage tanks have spread much farther than Hanford authorities conceded." "Ruud says his recent efforts to expose that problem further alienated him at Hanford. "I am absolutely resented in every way by my superiors," he says." === Whistleblower feels isolated," by Tanya Giles. Herald Sun. May 14, 2004 http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9554635%255E2862,00.html "THE first prison officer to become a whistleblower with legal protection in Victoria felt bullied, isolated and alone, Parliament has been told." "Opposition corrections spokesman Richard Dalla-Riva told the Upper House the prison officer needed the full support of Government so future whistleblowers would have confidence in the system." === "Lawyer: state officials retaliated against whistleblower." Associated Press. May 10, 2004. http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=27357&format= (Summarized due to restrictions:) Bijan Mohammadipour, director of engineering at the Bureau of State Office Buildings, warned of asbestos and fire safety problems at the Saltonstall building in Boston. Mohammadipour was punished for his actions, recommendations were ignored, and he was left "out of the loop" as his company proceed with other unsafe projects. His office, which moved into a garage, was later moved back into an asbestos-laden building while others moved out. Mohammadipour did not leave his job. However, numerous health effects have resulted from the attack on his reputation and criticisms of his job performance. === "Whistleblower Rights Crucial to Homeland Security," by Cathy Harris. Federal Times. May 12, 2003 http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=1847640 "Surveys consistently conclude that 70 percent to 90 percent of whistleblowers report subsequent retaliation. Says Cathy Harris "I personally blew the whistle on the Customs Department in 1998 because of the abusive practice of racially profiling international travelers, especially black women. attribute my survival so far to national publicity.... But many whistleblowers never have that chance. And even with a spotlight on the issues, the repercussions often are the same: bankruptcies, divorce, loss of health and life insurance, loss of health and spirit, and sometimes worse." === "Jeffrey Wigand." PBS.org 1998 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/settlement/deal/people/wigand.html "Jeffrey Wigand, a Ph.D. in Biochemestry, was a Vice President of Research for Brown & Williamson Tobacco. After being fired from the company, he began talking to CBS News "60 Minutes." He was sued by Brown & Williamson, and his personal life fell apart. Wigand became a high school science teacher, and he stands as the highest level whistleblower ever to emerge from within the tobacco industry." === "Limits of a whistle-blower culture - Post Enron, tattletale stigma fade, but risks still outweigh rewards," by Jennifer LeClaire. Christian Science Monitor. Oct. 2002. http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1021/p17s01-wmcr.htm "Mr. Doyle was "blacklisted" by Hydro Nuclear Services, a division of Westinghouse Electric. Just last month he asked the Supreme Court to overturn enforcement of a waiver he signed in which he agreed not to file a claim against his former employers. He says they provided bad references in retaliation for his blowing the whistle on plant safety back in the late 1980s." "And, of course, most people are familiar with Karen Silkwood, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1974 while reportedly gathering evidence of poor safety standards at Kerr-McGee's plutonium production plant in Crescent, Okla." "Karen Silkwood and Sherron Watkins were heralded for doing a great service," says Steven Kohn, attorney and board chairman of the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit advocacy organization that supports employee whistle-blowers. "But it's hard to find a job after that, because nobody wants to hire a whistle-blower." "Many firms apparently don't want to retain whistle-blowers, either. More than half of workers who flagged incidents of unlawful conduct in 2002 were fired, according to a NWC study in September. Many others said they faced unfair discipline." "Fear of retaliation from co-workers is another barrier, say experts, including more subtle forms of payback, such as being ostracized. "The worst thing you can be accused of these days is not being a team player," says James Fisher, head of St. Louis University's Emerson Center for Business Ethics." === "People who blow whistle 'get crucified'," By Dave Moniz, USA TODAY. 12/17/2001 http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/12/18/guard-whistleblow.htm "Cases reviewed by USA TODAY support Ruttenberg's contention that even legal officers or the Guard's own investigators can suffer when they look into corruption." "Lt. Col. Gordon Schukei, a Guard lawyer in Wyoming, found his job threatened in 1998 after he recommended that Adjutant General Ed Boenisch be investigated for his part in a scheme to improperly promote a subordinate. Schukei, recently assigned to National Guard headquarters in Washington, declined to discuss the case. But Guard members familiar with the incident confirm that Schukei barely survived Boenisch's attempts to fire him before Schukei transferred to Washington. An Air Force investigation later determined that Boenisch had wrongly promoted the officer Schukei had complained about and that Boenisch had "condoned the backdating and falsification of official transfer and promotion orders." "A separate Air Force investigation found that Boenisch had improperly retaliated against Lt. Col. Roger Nyberg, another Wyoming Guard officer. Nyberg had tried to report misconduct against senior officers in the Wyoming Guard." "Scott Winne, a private attorney in Maine and a former Air Force judge advocate general officer who represented Nyberg, says he has never encountered a worse case of retribution against an employee. The Air Force inspector general found that Boenisch had improperly used discharge boards, tried to stop Nyberg from reporting misconduct and that he "abused his authority" to try to remove Nyberg from the Guard." "It was textbook retaliation," Winne says." === "Whistleblowers say exposing an employer can deal a career-crushing blow," by T. Shawn Taylor. Chicago Tribune staff reporter. August 18, 2002 http://www.soeken.lawsonline.net/chicago.html At the minimum, whistleblowers should expect to lose their jobs, advocates say. Whitehurst, 54, who sued the FBI and agreed to retire in 1998 as part of a settlement, wanted to continue working at the agency. But the FBI would rather pay Whitehurst his full salary for the rest of his life to stay at home." "It's the end of their life as they know it," Whitehurst said of whistleblowers like himself. "Whether they succeed or fail, they can never be allowed back in that family that they exposed." "Randy Robarge, a former radiation protection supervisor at Com Ed's nuclear power plant in Zion, has been unable to land a job in the nuclear power industry since he blew the whistle in 1996 on alleged procedural violations he feared could lead to a catastrophic event." "I was doing my job. Under no circumstances did I think I was a whistleblower," he said. "The plant was fined after Robarge reported radioactive material found on a lunch table. When he was told by his department head to skirt reporting procedures, he refused and was fired, he said." "Whistleblowers in the nuclear power industry are protected under the Energy Reorganization Act. Robarge sued Com Ed and won a settlement. But now, he's an untouchable. A separate lawsuit accusing Com Ed of breaching the original settlement and blacklisting Robarge is pending, said Kohn, his attorney." "Am I going to have to carry this my whole life? I never want to go through something like this again, and I hope I don't have to," he said." "Robarge said his wife and family have stood by him 100 percent. But Keith Schooley's 13-year marriage didn't survive his whistleblowing activities at Merrill Lynch in 1992." "Schooley, a financial consultant on the fast track at the Enid, Okla., office, was fired after he took allegations of cheating and fraud all the way to the board of directors. Schooley said he couldn't stand by and watch unethical behavior." "The only thing I made the mistake on was trusting the company to take the appropriate action," he said. "Whistleblowers are often misjudged. People view them as traitors or finks, when all they really want is to fix the problem, Kolesnik said. "They tend to be the kind of people who have to do the right thing. They can't look the other way," he said." "Depression is common, said Don Soeken, who runs a retreat for whistleblowers called the Whistlestop in White Sulfer Springs, W.Va. He also operates a whistleblower hot line called Integrity International. A two-time whistleblower, Soeken said if someone came to him before they blew the whistle, he would advise them not to. But most, like himself, would not only blow the whistle once, they'd do it again and again and again." He added: "They're more concerned with trust and honesty than their own health and safety. `I did the right thing. I can sleep at night. My conscience is clear.' " == "Retaliation against Whistleblowers: The Case of the University of South Florida." Kristin Shrader-Frechette. Published in Philosophy and Social Action, Vol. 26, No. 4, October-December 2000, pp. 43-56 http://www.smarterscience.com/shrader.html "By attempting to correct the grant-ledger problem internally instead of "going public," Shrader-Frechette was following one of the classical ethical norms for whistleblowing: behaving as a loyal employee and allowing employers the chance to correct the problem privately.[4] She was naive, however, to believe that her going through channels would protect her from USF retaliation. Because employees typically are politically and economically more vulnerable than employers, when whistleblowers privately alert employers to a problem and allow time for it to be corrected internally, employers can engage in both coverup and in preemptive retaliation. A better option might be for whistleblowers anonymously to reveal the problem to employers, wait for them to correct it, but report it to authorities, again anonymously, if the problem is not corrected within a reasonable time." "After she raised the problem of grant skimming in 1991, Shrader-Frechette never again received a substantial salary increase at USF, despite the fact that her annual evaluations were always at the highest level (outstanding). The provost, Tom Tighe, repeatedly overruled her department chair or college dean when they sought to give her significant salary increases." "When large state institutions like USF can use their political power and almost-unlimited taxpayer money for corrupt purposes -- to attempt illegally to demote whistleblowers, to tell PR lies, to hire expensive attorneys so as to disobey public-records laws, to conduct "surveillance" on whistleblowing faculty, and to employ retaliation -- the deck is stacked against whistleblowers. In spring 1998, when the stalking continued, Shrader-Frechette was forced to leave the university, her home, and her family in order to escape severe stress and retaliation." == "Whistleblowers in Environmental Science, Prevention of Suppression Bias,and the Need for a Code of Protection," by Elihu Richter, Colin L. Soskolne, Joseph LaDou and Tamar Berman. Proceedings: Investigating Research Integrity (2001) http://ori.dhhs.gov/multimedia/acrobat/papers/richter.pdf This report about whistleblowing contains short profiles of a series of whistleblowers and the ramifications they faced for their actions. Excerpts follow: Cases of suppression by a governmental institution -------------------------------------------------- "Cate Jenkins, an environmental scientist with the US EPA, claimed that chemical industry studies had consciously minimized the hazard of dioxin. She received a written reprimand for writing down what she knew about the history of the dioxin incinerator regulations, and was transferred from her position." "Omar Shafey, an epidemiologist in the Florida State of Health, was forced to leave his position after publishing an epidemiologic report on complaints of acute illness in residents exposed to drift from aerial spraying of malathion, used to control the Medfly." "Desi Mendoza Rivero, a Cuban physician, was imprisoned after he issued statements regarding an epidemic of dengue fever." "Grigory Pasko and Alexander Nikitin, government scientists in Eastern Europe, were accused of treason and subjected to physical abuse after they reported dangers from nuclear waste in Murmansk. From newspaper reports, it appears that Pasko?s subsequent acquittal was reversed. "Melvin Reuber, a toxicologist at the Frederick Cancer Research Facility in Maryland (which is part of US National Cancer Institute) studied links between pesticides and cancer. As a result of his studies, he is one of the world?s leading critics of pesticides. In 1981, he was subjected to an attack on his work and his credibility that shattered his career." "In the United Kingdom, a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) memo indicates that several researchers and health and safety activists who exposed poor health and safety practices were targeted for special surveillance. Cases of suppression by an academic institution ------------------------------------------------ "John Coulter, a medical researcher at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in Adelaide, South Australia was dismissed from his post after releasing a report that ethylene oxide was mutagenic ." "Robert van den Bosch of the University of California, Charles Lincoln of the University of Texas, and Robert Fleet of Texas A&M University all suffered abuse because of their research on the hazards of pesticides." "David Kern, an occupational physician and epidemiologist at Brown University MedicalSchool, received notice that his tenure would not be renewed and his clinic closed after he reported numerous cases of interstitial lung disease in nylon flockers at Microfibres." "In Israel, Dr Jerome Westin was greylisted for any governmental or academic appointments after publishing findings on massive contamination of the nationwide milk supply with organochlorines." Cases of suppression by industry --------------------------------- "In the 1940?s, Randolph Byers, the Harvard pediatrician, was sued for defamation and damages by the Lead Industries Association for publishing findings on brain damage from acute lead poisoning in children from nibbling paint chips." "Doug Johnson, a safety specialist for Tatitlek, Chugach, and Chenega Corporation in Alaska was fired after raising environmental concerns regarding Alyeska?s oil spill response program in Prince William Sound." "Myron Mehlman, a Mobil Oil Corporation toxicologist, was fired after advising a Mobil subsidiary in Japan to stop selling gasoline with hazardous levels of benzene, a known carcinogen. "Alexandra De Blas of Australia was threatened with a suit for defamation by a mining company when she attempted to publish a thesis about environmental impact of it soperations." "Dr Yoram Finkelstein, an Israel neurotoxicologist with important publications on organophosphates and lead, is currently the target of a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit against Public Protestors) lawsuit for libel after writing a medical opinion on the health risks from emissions of hexavalentchromium, Cd, lead, Ni, and other pollutants from an aluminum foundry." Survey Results -------------- "At the Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) held in 1999 in Greece, the Committee on Ethics and Philosophy distributed a questionnaire to the delegates. Out of 10 individuals who completed the questionnaire, five reported harassment following publication of research findings on health risks from environmental exposures. The following is a brief description of these cases: "Male MD, age 47, a scientist in a major Cancer Institute in Italy, experienced ostracism after publishing findings on asbestos exposure in a petroleum refinery and lung cancer." "Female MD, MPH, age 60, was threatened with loss of her job after publishing findings on TCDD exposure and cancer." "Male MPH, PhD., age 53, experienced ostracism and the threat of job loss after publishing findings on cancer mortality in Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange." "Two Female MDs, investigators age 59 and 47, experienced both ostracism and confiscation of data after publishing findings one thylene oxide exposure and breast cancer." (See article for footnote references) ==== "Whistleblower sues District's AIDS office: Gay employee alleges retaliation, seeks $2 million," by Lou Chibbaro Jr. Washington Blade. December 19, 2003 http://www.aegis.com/news/wb/2003/WB031208.html "A gay employee with the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration has filed a lawsuit charging that officials at HAA and the D.C. Department of Health retaliated against him for testifying at a City Council hearing in May that HAA is plagued by "gross mismanagement." "Michael Snoddy, a public health analyst at HAA since 1998, alleges in his lawsuit that DOH and HAA officials violated the city's Whistleblower Protection Act by orchestrating a pretext to downgrade his job performance rating because of his Council testimony." "Plaintiff, Michael Snoddy, alleges that he was intimidated and threatened, that his job performance was downgraded, that concerns about his job performance were lodged wrongfully, that his civil and constitutional rights were violated, and that he was defamed and retaliated against for protected disclosures he made to the public, press and the D.C. Council," the suit states." "In his Council testimony, Snoddy said that Lewis put in place a "culture of intimidation and fear of retaliation" aimed at discouraging HAA employees from going public about management problems that Snoddy claims were widespread within HAA. Snoddy said Lewis and other high-level HAA officials threatened to fire employees if they breached the "confidentiality" of information that could cast HAA in a bad light." === "Energy Criticized on Whistleblowers," by MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer. May 24, 2000. http://www.whistleblower.org/article.php?did=389&scid=124 "Nuclear site workers who call attention to safety problems face retaliation by contractors, who are in turn aided by the Energy Department in fighting employee complaints, whistleblowers and House lawmakers say." "Two whistleblowers told the House Commerce Committee's panel on oversight and investigations Tuesday that their employers retaliated against them after they raised pollution and safety concerns. In one of the cases, the Energy Department paid $500,000 in legal and settlement costs for a company that fired a crew of pipefitters who raised safety concerns at the Hanford nuclear site in Washington state." "Joe Gutierrez, a whistleblower at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said he has spent about $50,000 of his own money to press his case. Gutierrez said he got an unfavorable job evaluation after he challenged lab officials' claim that the New Mexico lab did not violate the federal Clean Air Act." "The University of California runs Los Alamos and two other nuclear labs, while Fluor Hanford Inc. is responsible for cleaning up Hanford. The Labor Department ruled the contractors improperly retaliated against Gutierrez and Walli, but in both cases the legal fight over the allegations continues." "They (contractors) can just bleed these poor individuals dry,"' said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. "As far as we can see, DOE takes no steps to protect these whistleblowers."' Additional Reading ==================== "FBI Urged to Protect Whistleblowers," by Curt Anderson. Associated Press. Nov 11, 2002 http://www.whistleblowers.org/FBI11-11AP.htm "Minneapolis whistle-blower may face dismissal from FBI," by Greg Gordon. tar Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent. Published Oct 23, 2002 http://www.whistleblowers.org/html/star10-23.html "Whistleblower fears he will lose job," by JASON BEATTIE. Scotsman.com. April 2, 2004 http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=16&id=374442004 === I hope these articles are helpful. If you need additional clarification, please don't hesitate to ask and I will be happy to assist further if I can! umiat Google Search Strategy whistleblower repercussions whistleblowers trauma AND whistleblowers lose job whistleblower divorce whistleblower


  • One more I just found: "What Color is Your Whistle?" by Michele Bitoun Blecher. Minority Nurse.com http://www.minoritynurse.com/features/nurse_emp/05-03-02c.html "An Australian survey of 95 nurses published two years ago in the Journal of Professional Nursing noted severe repercussions for the 70 nurses who reported incidents of misconduct but few professional consequences for the 25 nurses who remained silent. Fourteen percent of the whistleblowers reported being treated as traitors, 16% received professional reprisals in the form of threats, 14% were rejected by peers, 11% were reprimanded, 9% were referred to a psychiatrist and 7% were pressured to resign."


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