Review of Amy Block Joy’s “Whistleblower” – And a message to our profession

Years ago I read a book by a UC Davis faculty member about what happened when she spoke up and reported misconduct in the University.  The book by Amy Block Joy, called “Retaliation,” left a permanent mark on my perception of whistleblowing.  Since that time, I have kept the book in my desk drawer where I could reach it at a moment’s notice. Whenever discussions turn to whistleblowers and retaliation, I have had that hand as my favorite illustration.  I also use it as a prime example of how universities (not just companies) can commit serious violations and thus there is a need for rigorous compliance programs in academia.[1]    

Recently I read another book that she had written, titled “Whistleblower,” providing a deeper perspective on her experience.  This is also a book I would recommend to anyone thinking about reporting misconduct. The risks of speaking up are sobering, but her story of carrying it through and persevering is inspirational.  This book also brings to life the reality that every whistleblower has, at the same time, a full life going on while dealing with the enormous impact of speaking up.  It deepens the story that in explaining what happens she also opens up about what else is happening in her life.  Anyone who blows the whistle will also have a life-full of activities.  Being a whistleblower is not just about what happens at work.  It is also about how it affects the rest of your life. 

The book starts by noting that Amy had been at the University of California for 28 years; she had been at UC Davis for 14. She was the director of a nutrition program to improve the health and self-sufficiency of food stamp families in California. This was a federally-funded program to help the poor with nutritionally healthy eating habits.  In her position at UC Davis Amy had a subordinate who was breaking the rules and stealing from the program to fund her own life style.  When Amy first discovered this she immediately talked with her direct leader.  When she did this she hit a surprising amount of resistance. Ultimately she found out that her boss was working with the same subordinate to misuse federal funds for his separate program.  Her boss was the very prominent Chair of UC Davis’ Department of Food, Health and Society.

If you ever deal with government contracting and government funds, you can understand the temptation and the seriousness.  If you get federal money for a specific project, that is all you can use it for.  You cannot be “generous” and share the largess with other departments.  Sure there may be an underfunded project that will truly help mankind, and your program may be richly funded.  But you cannot be a nice guy and share your funds.  There is an old saying from the Supreme Court, that when you deal with the government you must “turn square corners.”   Amy had a strict orientation toward following the rules.  That is exactly the right approach for government contracts.

When her direct boss refused to act and even chided her for being persistent, she very wisely escalated.  But it is worth considering that at that juncture she could instead have stepped back and said that she did what she could do, raising it with the boss.  Instead, she went over everyone’s head in the university hierarchy.  But interestingly, it was not to an official university compliance office or compliance officer. This was 2006, when compliance and ethics (“C&E”) programs were a rather routine thing. Reading this as a compliance professional I was struck by the absence of any reference to C&E in the university.

Toward the end of the book, she provides advice for those who would speak up.  She first summarizes how she got there: “I wasn’t born a whistleblower. Like those before me, I just did what I believed was right.  And this was good enough.” p. 200

At the decision stage she counsels those who plan to speak up: “You have to decide how much you’re willing to put your life on hold. After blowing the whistle you need to hunker down and prepare for the fight of your life. How long can you handle the difficulties.”  p. 198 

Her final message in this book is one that a person who has spoken up might want to tape on their mirror: 

“And finally, a wish and a plea for all future whistleblowers: please know that it is very possible to look back and say, ‘Yes! I am glad I blew the whistle.’” p. 204

For anyone thinking of speaking up, I recommend reading this book. Or if you have already started that process, learn this story of someone who stepped into the battle and made it through. 

An important message for our profession.

To my colleagues in C&E reading this story, here is a point that is not in the book. What is our job?  We need to be in this fight.  We need to be fighting for the safety of those who speak up.  We need to do the hard, possibly unpleasant work of protecting these brave people.  We even need to be among those who invite the whistleblower out for coffee and listen to how this is affecting their lives.  I love this profession.  But we are not doing enough.  I hope that more C&E professionals read this book and learn Amy’s story. 

You can also read the story of Cynthia Cooper, another of my personal heroes. She is the one who blew the whistle on WorldCom.[2] I met her at an SCCE Compliance and Ethics Institute and heard her speak about how whistleblowers frequently end up depressed, divorced, alcoholic and unemployed! Ironically, even as I heard her speak, I also heard a hotel employee working with the camera crew blame her for the fall of Worldcom! 

We need to be there for these brave people.  We must never, ever rest on the simple and simply wrong proposition that merely swearing a mighty oath in a code of conduct that retaliation is “not tolerated” could possibly be enough   Recognize that retaliation is not only typically “tolerated” but is actively pursued – unless you, the C&E professional, are willing to stand in front of the whistleblower and take the shots for him or her.  It is up to us to do that hard work before the person who speaks up is put through what Amy had to endure. 

I recently read a discussion online by Hui Chen about the concept of bystander intervention, which we do not see discussed much in our field.  But the rest of us, whether in compliance or not, should apply that idea here. When you know someone has spoken up, do what you can to comfort them.  Even if you are afraid to do that in front of other employees who are angry at the whistleblower for speaking up, you can certainly find a quiet but meaningful way to comfort the person with the courage and caring to speak up. Better if you can do it in front of everyone, but the perfect does not have to be the enemy of the good.  If it is just an email after hours that may be one step that helps give the person some solace. 

One of our missions at this publication, Compliance and Ethics: Ideas & Answers, is to promote people speaking up.  We strongly urge companies to step up to reality.  Unless you take action – real, solid management steps – the response to someone who speaks up will very likely be retaliation. But there are things you can do – concrete, management-oriented steps. We have offered detailed tools for this in this newsletter.[3]

When C&E people get training, it should include something up front and personal about whistleblowers.  They need to know that this is not a nice, clean academic topic.  We are talking real people here – real sleepless nights, real families in crisis, real threats to safety.  They need to know how subtle yet real the threats can be for a whistleblower, what will happen if they, the C&E professionals, don’t step up and protect and champion those who speak up.

In an article we published in our newsletter, Amii Barnard-Bahn and I wrote that one step companies can take is to actually hire people who have blown the whistle.  That takes real courage and commitment.  But we should recognize that the norm for those who speak up and are then forced out is a boycott by the whole industry.  A whistleblower is someone who showed courage and commitment. Sadly, though, if you want to have people in your company challenge your sanity, just try proposing this. 

And for CEO’s who want to show real tone at the top and leadership, who want to help mold their corporate culture, here is a simple suggestion.  Talk with C&E.  Learn about someone who spoke up and identified themselves.  Call the person and personally thank and congratulate them.  Make a difference. 

The dog that didn’t bark.

When you read a whistleblower story, every story should have an inspiring part where they called the C&E office and were immediately comforted and thanked for reporting.  There should be a discussion where C&E assured them of the non-retaliation policy and told them to call if there was even a hint of retaliation.  There should be a heroic part where C&E reacted when the inevitable retaliation first occurred.  But when you read these stories, you just don’t read that.  For the C&E field, this is a signal of how much more work we have to do.  At a minimum, we need to be fully empowered and independent, so no manager or executive can intimidate or limit us.  Because if they can do that to us, then we cannot protect the whistleblower.  If the person who speaks up is not protected, then we have no right to expect vulnerable employees to speak up when they see wrongdoing.

[1] I also like to note that of the many academics who write about compliance programs, none or almost none ever mention misconduct and compliance in universities. A particularly odd side note of this is that the scholars in universities who write about compliance apparently never so much as walk across their campuses and even have coffee with their school’s own compliance officer.  They never test out their theories with their own home university.   

[2] See Cynthia Cooper, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower (2008; John Wiley & Sons).

[3] See Amii Barnard-Bahn & Joe Murphy, How to Prevent Retaliation: 6 Practical Steps,  https://ideasandanswers.com/how-to-prevent-retaliation-6-practical-steps/ ;  Keith Read, Retaliation – The Reality: From passive policy to a data-driven active anti-retaliation program, https://ideasandanswers.com/retaliation-the-reality/