Your job is your identity. Your job makes you proud and fills yours with satisfaction. You take great joy in doing your job right and finding ways to improve efficiency is your specialty. You have a team and your boss has been admiring your work; praising you for your accomplishments and asking you to dinners to meet other superiors in your company. This is the projected path you have always wanted and have fought so hard for. Then your boss starts to ask you to do some not-so-normal behaviors. He asks you to cut some corners. Change some numbers. Manipulate some comments and hide some materials. These are behaviors not natural or custom to your job. You pride yourself on being honest and true. You love your job, but you also don’t like what your boss is asking you to do because, for lack of better words, it’s shady.
In keeping with this scenario, let’s say that after a few months of engaging with this behavior you are feeling awful internally. The next week you are going to be reviewed by an ethics committee or compliance director to ensure that all your job behaviors are legal. They stop at your office, what are you to do? Lie? Or tell the truth?
A whistleblower is an odd term. It is somehow both said derogatorily but with respect. Those who are whistleblowers attempt to right wrongs or bring attention to questionable behaviors. Whistleblowers are people who speak on the “illicit activity” in an organization. And who gets upset at the whistleblower? Those who are enacting the illicit activity.
At The Kaufman Law Firm in Los Angeles, we have attorneys who specialize in whistleblower litigation. We are aware that not every business practices ethical or legal business practices. We also know that when someone attempts to break the silence about these practices, it is common for the whistleblower to experience some kind of retaliation whether it be in the form of threats, demotion, or termination.
Under California law, it is illegal for employers to wrongfully terminate, demotion, or act in retaliation to an employee who has called out any fraudulent, unlawful, or unethical behavior. Here are the most common types of situations in which whistleblowers find themselves reporting:
These topics do not just pertain to one person. These topics can affect a whole host of people as well as contribute to a super negative work environment. Being a whistleblower should not be a derogatory term. Instead, you should be proud of standing up for what is right for yourself and for the benefit of others. Our whistleblower attorneys at The Kaufman Law Firm are here for you through this trying time. We understand that you were want to do your job to the best of your ability. Give us a call at 310-981-3404 or click here for more information about how we can help you.