Whistle-blowing

[gladhands]

Has anyone ever reported curruption for a current or former employer?

 

[Grenadier]

Do you want to get sued for defamation?

 

[Lord-Barrington]

Originally Posted by gladhands

Has anyone ever reported curruption for a current or former employer?

Anything you'd like to share? I can make it worth your while.

Regards,

Raj Rajaratnam

 

[Daseinflaw]

Originally Posted by Lord-Barrington

Anything you'd like to share? I can make it worth your while.

Regards,

Raj Rajaratnam

+1

 

[dragon8]

Originally Posted by Lord-Barrington

Anything you'd like to share? I can make it worth your while.

Regards,

Raj Rajaratnam

Are you asking me for non-public information?

 

[Grenadier]

Originally Posted by dragon8

Are you asking me for non-public information?

Only if it's not material.

 

[texas_jack]

It'd have to be pretty bad because your career maybe over if you report it. Nobody likes a snitch.

 

[CutRight]

You can always report it anonymously...

 

[Master-Classter]

snitches get stiches... but blowing the (bosses) whistle gets a promotion.


or so I've heard.

 

[lastlight]

Depends on your job, what security do you have for your job upon reporting. Is it so bad that you feel it is worth personal risks and damage to your character as 'the snitch'.

If you decide to do it I suggest you get a lawyer first.

 

[slycedbred]

Good friend of mine blew the whistle at a university. Entire white population of university faculty was exploiting foreign (mostly asian fob) workers to standards that were highly illegal. Entire department was sued, they were all fired, and my good friend never got a job again.

 

[Matt]

I had an incompetent boss who was damn near putting the company under. I had already resigned and was Vietnam-bound. I really liked my big bosses (issues with GM, great relationship with COO and CEO), so when I resigned (on a Friday), the Hong Kong based COO flew down to Singapore to talk to me about what was up and try and talk me out of it the following Monday. I figured that they had been good to me, and deserved to hear what was going on in their office.

I spent the entire weekend with a notepad, jotting down examples of how she had harmed the company in her ~9 months tenure so that when I met the COO, I didn't go blank and sound whiny.

It ran to 5 A4 pages, front and back.

We met, I laid it all out. He was stunned.

He met her the next day. Presumably laid it out.

On the Friday I was told that my resignation had been accepted, and with the amount of leave I had owing to me, I was free to go, and complete whatever was outstanding from home.

A mass exodus followed - every single consultant in the consultancy resigned, they were literally a zero consultant consultancy - and three months later, that GM "resigned for health reasons".

Moral of the story, even though I was right, and later vindicated, I should have kept my mouth shut and bowed out gracefully. Given my relationship with the CxOs, I felt as though I owed it to them to be open about what was going on in an office that they did not sit in.

Big mistake.

While I laid out a solid business case about what was going on, basically what they heard was a mid level employee telling them they made a mistake in a senior hire. People don't like being told that they are wrong....

I don't know if this counts as whistle-blowing or not, and I don't know if it applies to OP's situation, but it is a story of reporting issues inside a company ultimately causing me more grief (in the short term anyhow) than it was worth.

Incidentally my former firm now refers me business, so in due course, I guess that is a tacit admission that they should have listened, but ultimately, I still should have shut my mouth and got out gracefully.

 

[nootje]

same as matt, not really whistle blowing but i did turn around on former employers.

A while back I was working with a couple of guys to take over a company here, they didnt know anyone in finance or m&a but wanted to take over the company and I work in m&a. The whole project was really weird from the start as there was more secrecy then needed in this deal, and the finance structure changed about weekly. To boot the they were the only ones who were allowed to deal with the owner.

After a couple of months of this and getting nowhere I started to get suspicious and backtracked some stuff. Turned out they were just trying to get a hold on the company without paying anything and then running of with its cash assets (the owner had left a few years worth of profits in the company). To boot they had not payed me in two months.

I met with the owner, set up a separate deal and sold the company to a decent party. Needless to say Ive made some life long enemies with this. It was worth it though as I wouldnt have liked to see the owner get ripped off/scammed.

 

[Timbaland]

Matt, I don't think that's considered whistle blowing because the GM was just incompetent. It didn't sound like she did anything illegal or morally wrong. Cool story to hear about though. I see a lot of that happen in the tech industry. People with MBAs and supposedly great backgrounds/work experiences are hired to run companies and they don't know **** about tech. Then they make some stupid decisions that all the engineers know are stupid and the business fails.

I see a lot of people taking advantage of being in high spots like hiring family/friends who aren't qualified for jobs and some of whom don't do anything, but nothing illegal. I bet this happens a lot though.

 

[Matt]

ya I know, I mention mainly as I was thinking about the consequences of opening your mouth, and whether it is likely to end well for your own career. In my own experience, it hasn't. YMMV.