Welcome And The Big Problem

Hey, it's Mark, and welcome back to the only podcast for employees that the employees listen to. Today we're talking about whistleblower rights. So you saw illegal activity inside the company, wage theft, maybe, safety violations, fraud. We see fraud a lot. Discrimination cover-ups. We see that a lot. Uh you reported it. You reported it to HR, you reported to your manager, and now you're getting written up, and you don't know really why. You're getting isolated, getting that kind of cold shoulder treatment, and getting pushed out, and you maybe have a severance agreement. That's a classic retaliation, and whistleblower rights are supposed to protect you, right? Federal laws, like the Sarbanes Oxley and Dodd-Frank, uh, in state laws, like New York Labor Law 470, give you protection when you report violations of law. But protection only works if you know how to use it. And if you listen to this podcast enough, you know that uh there are steps you need to take to protect yourself. So the first thing I always say to people is write it all down for yourself privately. Get it all straightened out factually for yourself, because eventually you're gonna have to do an affidavit. Next thing is uh number one, you want to report it in writing and keep copies. The best way to report any type of whistleblowing is over the company email system. Once you send it, it's documented, it's time-stamped, and it's also backed up. And be very specific about what you're reporting. Uh, don't be vague, get your facts in order before you do it. Uh, number two, know that internal complaints count. You don't always have to go straight to the government. So we're basically talking about trying to protect your job in any way you can. But when you're at this stage and you're blowing the whistle, you have to understand something that you're basically putting your job on the line, and companies don't like that. They're not going to be happy that you continue to work there. It's very rare that an employee will stay working for a company after they blow the whistle. Number three, document everything that happens after you speak up. This is really important because we look to see if there's any type of retaliation behavior that's going to occur after you make your complaint. It's the easiest claim to prove, and employers, you should know, generally will ghost you after you make a complaint. You do not care about the investigation of your complaint. It's not an issue that you should concern yourself with. People commonly complain that there's no feedback or response by the company after their investigation or the employee demands some type some form of investigation and the results thereof. That's not going to happen. So just get past that. The idea here is to document by complaining and then document for yourself privately on a non-work-related computer what facts took place thereafter. And we're looking for any type of adverse action, some level of harm, as the Supreme Court has now instituted a new ruling. Not a significant harm, but some level of harm. So it's a lower threshold you need to experience of an adverse action, let's say a demotion or a performance review or lack of a bonus payment, or I mean, firing is a firing. That's an easy one to spot. Finally, number four, never sign a severance or release agreement without having a attorney review it because you need to know what you're giving up. And you need to know also do you have legal leverage in the form of the claim of you know blowing the whistle and what its value is? It's really its true value. It's it's hard for you to understand the value of something without talking to an attorney. And I don't mean that to try to bring up business. I mean literally, you need to understand what is the value of that claim. Now, the value of a claim of whistleblowing, it could be the SEC has a value on it. They reward uh employees who blow the whistle and they get recoveries of what the SEC, typically, I think it's 30%. So you need to understand what the value of what you're complaining about before you even do it. And so that's very important. Don't sign release agreements before you understand the value of what you're doing. The hard truth many employers treat whistleblowers as the problem, not the crime. That's why you need to know your employer or your whistleblower rights before you blow the whistle. Thank you for listening, and thank you for letting me be of service.