You've Got to Be Kidding!: How to Keep Your Job Without Losing Your Integrity

Lessons from Other Whistle-Blowers

“You risk everything when you do it,” states Jim Alderson, who endured years of exhausting and expensive lawsuits after being terminated for squealing on the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain for Medicare fraud.

Despite the growing body of laws designed to protect employees who raise legitimate concerns, retaliation still occurs—frequently. Just ask the two courageous Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees who testified before a congressional committee regarding the FAA’s lapse of safety inspections within the airline industry. Both said they were badgered simply for doing their jobs. This brings to mind the admission by U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who has cosponsored whistle-blower protections, “Whistle-blowers are as welcome as a skunk at the company picnic.”

Retaliation can take many forms: harassment, discrimination, pay cuts, reassignment to bureaucratic Siberia, being buried in paperwork, demotion, declines of all requests for time off—the list goes on and on. Once you blow the whistle, you are marked as a “troublemaker” or “not a team player”—and you have to watch your back.

“This was the most difficult thing I have gone through in my lifetime,” said former vice president of internal audit at WorldCom, Cynthia Cooper, who informed the company’s auditor of improper accounting practices. “There were times when I was scared to death.” Cooper exposed one of the biggest instances of fraud in corporate history, and ...