March 25th 2008
Living with the Whistle-Blower
Whistle-blowers—employees who believe their organizations are engaged in illegal, dangerous or unethical conduct and speak out about it—occupy a peculiar niche in America. On the one hand, the public applauds their courage. On the other, it stands quietly by as the whistle- blowers are punished and ostracized for their revelations.
- Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly, engineers at Morton Thiokol, testified about serious technical flaws in the space shuttle Challenger and were promptly transferred to menial jobs.
- Herbert Rosenblum, an official of New York’s Human Resources Administration, revealed that 14,000 people who had died or moved away were still on the city’s Medicaid rolls. His reward: demotion and a pay cut.
- Several years ago, Charles Atchison, a quality control engineer at a Texas nuclear power plant, brought numerous safety infractions to the attention of a regulatory board. He was fired and blackballed.
