The quotes below are from whistleblowers and lawyers we interviewed to compile this section. Their stories and experiences are varied. While some quotes below may contrast with others, each is an honest account of what that person’s experience entailed. Each person’s path is unique.
Lesson 1
Do not wait to talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer ASAP. Your lawyer works for you. Tell them what you want to do.”
Lesson 2
Look for lawyers who have worked on similar cases to yours. Lawyers who have experience working with publicly traded companies for example. Make sure the lawyer you are working with is a member of the bar in the state where your claim is.”
Lesson 3
Deciding what to tell and to whom can be paralyzing, and whistleblowers should not have to navigate these decisions in a vacuum. You need someone you can trust, who can connect you to resources, and who can help navigate through the legal, ethical, and personal issues associated with whistleblowing. I wish The Signals Network existed back in 2014.”
Lesson 4
Identify what your anchor is. You will face retaliation and lots of difficulties navigating the legal system, but the thing that kept me going was knowing that the company was wrong and causing harm to people by hiding a certain defect in their product. That anchor is what I turned to when I was facing especially difficult circumstances.”
LESSON 5
The world may not believe that the issue has the same significance that you think.”
LESSON 6
Stay under the radar at your company as long as possible.”
LESSON 7
Talking to a reporter should not be your first step.”
Lesson 8
Make a clear timeline of events from your hire to the incidents. Collect evidence early. This well-documented timeline will be useful to share with your lawyer, regulators and journalists. Stick to what you can prove 200% to never be questioned on what you are saying.”
LESSON 9
In our case, both the regulator and the media reporting created long-term impact.”
LESSON 10
Do not call, text, or otherwise keep evidence on your work phone/computer/cloud. Your access can be cut at any time. Your employer can also access those materials. Do not forward work emails to your personal email accounts. Take pictures of the emails on your personal phone instead.”
LESSON 11
Use secure apps, like Signal Messenger and ProtonMail, to communicate with your attorneys and others helping you.”
LESSON 12
Do not obtain evidence improperly. You cannot commit a crime to catch a crime.”
LESSON 13
In my case, going on the record was the biggest protection against retaliation. If you share information anonymously, they can still find your identity and if they retaliated it would be private. If you are public the retaliation will be as well.”
LESSON 14
Solidarity is the best protection. It’s hard to discredit 40 or even 10 people. Retaliation becomes counterproductive.”
LESSON 15
Plan your post-whistleblowing life. Do not focus only on whistleblowing, it takes years to see concrete outcomes. Manage your expectations regarding the outcomes. You won’t get your job back. It takes years to correct wrongdoings — look at Theranos.”
