Has anyone ever been a whistle blower? How? why? when? where? what happened?

[metalmaude]

I have in schools twice.

Once for records being faked, including coursework grades, meeting minutes, registers, standardisation, etc

I was told if I kept complaining I would be disciplined, so I resigned.

On the second occasion for racism, and the other person lost their job, and I was treated fairly, but it was still a horrible experience

I'm a teacher. Many years ago, we had a male supply teacher working in the school, who was on duty at break. Two boys were having a bit of a scuffle and the man separated them. He assaulted both of them by grabbing their hair and slapping them in the face. I was disgusted and reported it.
The head of the department the supply teacher was in came to see me, furious, and asked why I'd reported the incident. He only wound his neck in when I pointed out that I was not the only witness - there were at least six students were there too, struck dumb in shock by it.

NHS - nothing was done. I left. Typical NHS for where I was - the same trust absolutely crucified a far more important person than me for whistleblowing and other things were dealt with under the carpet rather than let them be known, which made my manager's refusal to permit me to take a secondment and assurance that she would never approve any of them, any training or any scale increases as long as I remained there a rather minor threat by comparison.

Another place, I found evidence of fraudulent payments and gave the boss the files, saying there was documentation missing, knowing he would look it up and realise what was going on without me having to say the words. The person responsible was eventually sent to prison, but not before they'd tried to fit me up for it, not realising I'd already twigged there was something amiss. So their attempt to put my signature on the next batch of fraudulent payments wasn't believed.

On the third occasion I found something at an employer, I was really pissed off. Like can nobody actually keep within the Law? In fairness, it was acted upon, but a load of pathetic wailing and 'nobody told me that/but she said it was fine' bullshit came out. One of them left, the other stayed because they could blame it on the other person.

These days, I'm very quick to make it absolutely clear what legal responsibilities/requirements/rationales there are so that nobody can ever say 'oh, I didn't know' or try to implicate anybody else in the process of trying to wriggle out of it. If somebody is going to do something stupid, I'll be damned if they're going to take me down with them.

A colleague of mine whistle blew. It cost both her and her husband their jobs. A friend of mine whistle blew. He had to move to Australia to be able to work in his profession again. The NHS is very hard on whistle blowers.

Are all of these examples "whistle blowing"?

I thought whistle blowing was very specific where you have to raise an issue in the public interest outside of your organisation, not just a complaint or telling your bosses/hr something.

I wouldnt define telling my bosses/hr about a colleague fiddling overtime, the lad selling company IT hardware on ebay, the reception guy with porn on his screen, bullying, the team who left work mid nightshift with their supervisor leaving a plant empty to watch a boxing match (all of which, and more I have done over 35 years of working ) whistle blowing.

Yes, I am a big grass 😜

I was just thinking that @NoTouch some of these are raising concerns with line management, which is normal.

You’re a whistleblower if you’re a worker and you report certain types of wrongdoing. This will usually be something you’ve seen at work - though not always.
The wrongdoing you disclose must be in the public interest. This means it must affect others, for example the general public.

From the gov.uk information

Yes.

Most horrific time of my life. I wish I hadn’t bothered.

I worked in a school and whistle blew about a female member of staff who was behaving very inappropriately with male sixth formers. She was also having an affair with the deputy head.

The school then decided I was incompetent at my job and suspended me pending a competency review. Took me ages to find another job as they kept giving me bad references. I’m currently in litigation for constructive dismissal. The female member of staff is still working there despite numerous complaints having been made against her. Maybe I should have shagged a member of the SLT and I’d have been safe

A young member of staff in a hospitality/food industry was being racially abused by three older male colleagues. It soon involved the chefs knives from the kitchen being thrown at the victim! I witnessed this once and went to HR the next day, the Police were called, one of the abusers got a jail sentence and one a suspended sentence. The victim was swiftly promoted to work with one of the directors. This was 30 years ago.

Forgot to say the reason was because I thought she had overstepped the mark a few times, nothing worth lodging a complaint over, but when I caught her sitting on the knee of a sixth former I decided enough was enough. She lied about it, as did he and I was told I was jealous.

Also the Head said I was incompetent and I’d been suspended, then told me to gather my things and go home.

Ironic that he didn’t watch me as a I gathered my things, so I was able to download a lot of my work and emails onto a USB in my office. Meaning a lot of the accusations levelled at me I can prove to be false (such as a claim I cocked up a quote for something when I didn’t). Fucking idiots

Not sure exactly what the definition is but I’ve reported things twice. Once in a SEN school as a young and inexperienced TA. I’d become increasingly worried about how a teacher riled kids up until they ‘needed’ restraining, along with what I now recognise as emotional abuse of children and staff members, and failing to protect vulnerable children from others. I had ‘discussed my concerns’ repeatedly with my line manager to no avail, but when I handed in my notice I went to see the headteacher about it. Other TAs who I hadn’t known were worried got in touch to say thanks, they moved her somewhere where she could be observed at all times, don’t know what happened after that.

Years later I saw bullying and rough handling in a retirement home while on a placement. Me and another student discussed together and reported to our tutors - we were told to discuss with the head of service who was dismissive (later found out she was related to the ringleader). Seemed like there was quite a lot of pressure to drop it but we reported again to uni and it ended up going through official channels. There was an investigation and much worse stuff was uncovered and those responsible convicted and the place shut down. Still makes me cry thinking about what I read happened and the thought that we might have not pushed if there hadn’t been two of us for moral support, and then it could have gone on for years longer.

Yes, in banking scandal in 00’s. I was asked to produce something to hide management involvement, instead I sent the proof they were involved to Compliance.

Those involved sacked and breached by FCA.

That sounds very upsetting @WeetabixTowels

I know someone who didn't whistle-blow but had been given some information from a very unreliable source. They contemplated it and initially didn't do anything but tried to find out more themselves. I can't give details but suffices to say it was true and turned into a media circus. This person's name was leaked locally and was accused of colluding or even encouraging a paedophile. It got really nasty, bricks thrown through windows, death threats to family members etc. Even a group standing with placards blocking them into their house until removed my police. It really was a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Education decades ago. Close colleague - guilty of malpractice in internal GCSE exams. They actually did this in front of a trainee, who reported it to me as their mentor. Colleague admitted it and blamed it on pressure. They had an official warning from a member of SLT they were close to and the exam board was informed.

They knew I'd had no choice but to report. What they hadn't understood was the timing. The exams were being sent off that day and they'd gone home. It wasn't a case of having the time to tell them to come clean first - as soon as my mentee told me what they'd witnessed (they were meant to be observing best practice ffs) I had to let HOD know so they could work out what the hell to do next re notifying exams officer.

I was ostracised for a term. HOD voiced the opinion I could have turned a blind eye. I suspect they were also not above scrutiny. The colleague is still in teaching and has had a good career. They got good references and the SLT member expressed sympathy at the time that they had to reprimand them.

The ones who suffered the most?
The pupils, whose marks went down as a result.
I was put in a difficult position, treated like I was a traitor and I lost a friend in the process. It was a bloody awful experience and a very lonely time.

Depressing that there are so many breaking codes of conduct and behaving in abusive and inappropriate ways and getting away with it. Makes you wonder why bother raise your kids to follow the rules and be a 'decent citizen'.

The NHS sounds the worst for it 😑so much abuse of power, and disregard for patients dignity and safety.

I cannot fathom how NHS mangers cream off salaries in the region of 200k with a great pension and job security (unless you whistleblow) yet contribute precious little or indeed undermine patient safety.

The flirty 6th for teacher sounds unhinged. But what is it with the SLT protecting her? So sleazy.

I did, for very poor practice that affected patient safety. The person was investigated, absent for a while, the reinstated in the same role. It was a farce. So I left & glad I did as the department & nhs trust is now subject to a very public enquiry.

‘I had a moral duty’: whistleblowers on why they spoke up | UK news | The Guardian

Education, once and ignored.

Another, I should have said more and considered what was going on in a wider context, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Colleague convicted, it all added up then.

I'd thought racist tendencies and was wrong. The person in question became a convicted paedophile.

I was sort of, I exposed that the company I worked while pregnant was not following rules around maternity leave and accumulating annual leave correctly for salaried workers. They tried to fob me off multiple times but I knew I was right and wrote a formal letter to HR threatening legal action if they did explain how they were allowed to circumvent the rules. They relented and then had to go back and give women who’d come back recently from mat leave a bunch of annual leave holiday or backpay them. Plus about 10 women announced pregnancies during the same year I was pregnant. They did NOT like me.

Yes, 15 years ago in an academic setting. There was corruption in grant making and often, research findings were to be produced according to what the grant provider wanted. "Inconvenient" research findings were often blocked and not published. On one occasion, the enormity of the findings which were too be hidden and forgotten was too much. In addition, many lab animals were being experimented on for no reason throughout this corrupt shit show.
This is an "elite" research institute in the field. I wasn't a senior person. I blew the whistle on the corruption. I did not realise what would come down on me which I can't go into here. Even all these years later, I still get threatened. I actually blew the whistle on a wing of a huge pharmaceutical company and should have known what would happen.

Sort of in social work - I made a complaint about the lack of management oversight and consequent risks to a day old baby being discharged from hospital to an unsafe home.

I was told whilst they understood my concerns my complaint would be deleted from the child's record.

My DH reported a manager that was bullying 2 co-workers, over a period of time. One of the co-worker's was off work with stress and he rang her and threatened her if she didn't return by the end of the week he'd see she'd get sacked. DH overheard the call and reported it. This manager was a classic bully he never tried bullying the men and gave female colleagues all the less prestigious jobs. DH and another male colleagues both reported this manager for different things and after disciplinary action he resigned.

I have. In an FE college. My manager referred to a student as a chink. I went I HR and made what I thought was a confidential complaint.

Within two weeks there were 2 complaints about me from her friends in our department. Accusing me of bullying. I was suspended and eventually managed out. I had been there for less than two years.

Education is corrupt and fucked. Much like the NHS I imagine. It destroyed my mental health. I heard my manager received a verbal warning for her language. She then went on to marry the HR manager.

To all who tried - and failed to effect change - thank you and I’m sorry x

I don’t understand why whistle blowers get treated this way. Why do people have such a big problem with people reporting serious problems? It just sounds like victim blaming. Does anyone ever report things anonymously? I’m so confused.