8/2/2019 Welcome to the World of a Whistle Blower

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Welcome to the World of a Whistleblower 

Randy Robarge, a nuclear power plant supervisor, never intended to be awhistleblower. To Robarge, raising concerns about the improper storage of radioactive material at Commonwealth Edison’s Zion power plant on LakeMichigan was just part of doing a good job. The 20-year veteran was sorespected when it came to safety issues that Commonwealth Edison used himto narrate the company’s training video on safety, which is still usedthroughout the industry. So he never expected that speaking up would end hiscareer.

 At first the harassment was subtle. He says he was routinely denied days off and asked to cover for employees who were out. Co-workers kept their distance, and supervisors began criticizing his work. Three months later 

Robarge was out of a job. Over the next two years a federal investigationwould prove that Zion’s radiation containment procedures – the ones Robargehad complained about – were lax, and the plant was eventually shut down.

The Department of Labor also ordered the company to pay Robarge a smallsettlement for his improper treatment. In the eyes of the court, Robarge wasvindicated. But six years after speaking up and hundreds of job applicationslater, Robarge still can’t get a job in his industry. “It’s a living hell,” saysRobarge, 49, who supports himself with savings and odd jobs. “This is mylivelihood, what I love to do. But I’m off limits. No one wants to touch me. Iwas labeled as a whistleblower.”

Unfortunately, Robarge is not alone. About half of all whistleblowers get fired,half of those fired will lose their homes, and most of those will then lose their families too, says C. Fred Alford, author of  Whistleblowers: Broken Livesand Organizational Power . For every Sherron Watkins, who became a heroafter she blew the whistle on Enron’s shady financial deal making, there areabout 200 whistleblowers that people never hear about who fare poorly.Overall, 90 percent of whistleblowers can expect some kind of reprisal-publichumiliation, isolation, career freezing, firing, blacklisting-from their company.

Since co-workers and even friends rarely rally behind whistleblowers, feelings

of isolation and betrayal run high. “It is lonely,” says Michael Lissack, theformer Smith Barney banker who became a whistleblower celebrity after exposing a municipal finance scam on Wall Street. “My wife said, ‘Thank youfor ruining both our lives,’ and walked out the door.” There is even an annualretreat for whistleblowers headed by a psychologist, to help them deal withthe stress and repercussions of speaking up.

Source: Adapted from Daniels, C. (2002, April 15). It’s a living hell: Whistleblowing makes for great TV.But the aftereffects can be brutal. Fortune, 367-368.

Gómez-Mejia, Luis R., Balkin, David B., and Cardy, Robert L., (2008), Managing Human Resources,Fourth Edition, Pearson Education, Inc., pp. 535-536.