WHISTLEBLOWERS
I’m a corporate whistleblower. OK, what’s a whistleblower? Well, a whistleblower is somebody who speaks out about illegal or unethical practices at work, like the boss scamming the corporation, or a Corporation pouring toxic chemicals into the sewer.
My brother sent me a book by a British Professor, Gerald Vinten, "Whistleblowing. Subversion or Corporate Citizenship?" Paul Chapman Publishing. This is the most depressing book I have ever read, and I couldn’t finish it. However, I read enough to tell me that going with a fraud case was as "hard" as one could get, and that the best approach was to try all internal options first, just to maximize your chances. This is exactly what I did, i.e. I followed Vinten’s premium strategy because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time..
THE CASE Case Strategy; THE CASE Why Did The Strategy Go Wrong
As Vinten points out, whistleblowers can do a horrendous amount of damage, including threatening the survival of the corporation itself. No kidding! Hydro-gate has massive damage potential, and did from the opening bell.
POTENTIAL FALLOUT At The Start; POTENTIAL FALLOUT During Strong’s departure; POTENTIAL FALLOUT Right Now
Vinten also asks what drives corporate whistleblowers, and doesn’t really seem to have the answer. (Don’t ask me what’s driving me … I just saw something at work that I couldn’t live with, couldn’t move, and went for the obvious solution … change management) But something drives whistleblowers, and it drives very hard. Maybe it’s the personal impact; maybe whistleblowers have higher ethical standards than most.
The biggest problem with being a whistleblower is stress. For me stress was much worst at the beginning, until I could "see" the problem and potential solutions. Right now, my stress level is comparatively low, especially now that I don’t work for Ontario Hydro any more. In the early days, I had tight jaw muscles, headaches and so on. Now stress is not a serious problem, but it’s there..
For the Corporation, whistleblowers must be the lowest form of scum, even when they do have a case (they surely do, otherwise they would be fired long ago). Unfortunately, watching Ontario Hydro Management in action over the last five years has convinced me that ‘once whistled’, you have to get rid of the Managers involved because all they do is screw up. There’s loads of examples of screw-ups probably related to Hydro-gate.
My lawyer told me that, once "rumbled", all Managers do is ‘dance’ to avoid discovery, and they should be removed …. I thought he was exaggerating at the time, but now I know he’s not.
Just for the record, I don’t particularly recommend anybody getting into the ‘whistleblowing’ business. It’s very hard on you, your head, your spouse, your marriage, and your family. Of course, nobody dreams up a plan like Hydro-gate … it just happens. And it just happens under a combination of circumstances. In my case, it was: right location, right job, wrong government, and I had to do something.
One last comment about whistleblowers: "Do they serve a useful purpose in modern capitalist society?" Damn right they do! Without whistleblowers, Management would literally get away with murder. Whistleblowers rank along with venture capitalists, junk bonds and a number of other ‘fringe’ parts of the system as ‘necessary evils’.