What Is A Whistleblower Anyway?

Every day, people all over the country see wrongdoing being perpetrated in their workplaces. It could be anything from fudging accounts, to activities that may place the health and safety of others in jeopardy. It could be a violation of a safety code, the dumping of hazardous waste, selling contaminated products to customers or a myriad of other things

Most people prefer to “just let it go” and opt for not saying or doing anything about the misconduct they see. They “do not want to get involved.” However, luckily for the rest of us, there are those brave souls who chose not to “just let it go”. They choose to take a stand in order to make a difference and put an end to unethical and illegal behavior.

Legal, federal and state government definitions of a whistleblower are different in many respects. But what they all have in common is that they define a whistleblower as being someone who uses his constitutional right to free speech to expose to public view, directly or indirectly, abuses of power and illegal, unethical and immoral activities that are being conducted by an organization, business or Federal or State government agency.

Whistle blowing can take the following forms:

• Reporting or otherwise bringing to the notice of the appropriate authorities (such as top management, government agencies or inspection agencies) any violation of laws or rules or any form of wrongdoing or unethical action
• A refusal to participate in wrongdoing or malpractice being done in the workplace
• Providing evidence of wrongdoing, or revealing the location of such evidence, to any authorized judicial body or government agency
• Providing evidence of wrongdoing or malpractice to the media for the purpose of warning the public about such activities

Whistle blowing can be either, for ongoing activities or for those done in the past.

While many countries have recognized the need to provide protection to the whistleblower, the fact remains that whistleblowing can be a stressful and even frightening experience. Uncertainty about future employment prospects in the company is the first issue that arises. Then, there is the problem of attitude of fellow workers who may have suffered because of action taken against the company that arose out of the whistleblowing. There are even cases where the employer takes legal action against the whistleblower in an attempt to cover up or divert focus from their misconduct!

Whistleblowers are people of courage who stand by their convictions and care about the good of the society in which they live.