Following the phenomenon called the “great resignation”, according to a report by Vice magazine, many employees would be ready to become whistleblowers, to denounce bad professional practices.
Some business practices, either to win customers or to divert competition, are not ethical, and sometimes go as far as illegality. Many employees do not adhere to these methods and call them into question, motivated by the wave of questioning of the professional world and “dework”.
Some decide to parasitize the system, and use discussion groups to organize themselves around the “antiwork” movement. Others prefer to take action. In France, more and more employees plan to denounce irregularities or injustices within their companies. Now protected by the Sapin 2 Law, whistleblowers are therefore more numerous in France. For whistleblowers within public bodies, a site has even been launched to report mismanagement of public money.
Disadvantages continue to discourage whistleblowers
But being a whistleblower is not easy: after denouncing, you find yourself isolated, both professionally and socially. Indeed, the risk for some young professionals of never finding a job again exists. Not everyone can afford to be a whistleblower, despite the new laws that protect them. As the Vice report explains, “deserting one’s job and denouncing practices, even fraudulent and illegal, of one’s employer, remains a strong decision often considered as a small social death.” Associations therefore exist to help protect whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers in all sectors?
Jérémy Désir, a former trader at HSBC bank, created the association “You are not alone” in 2021 to support whistleblowers inspired by his own desertion. According to Vice, the association has already accompanied hundreds of people who did not need to resign while denouncing bad practices in their sectors, because whistleblowers can have “quite varied levels of radicalism, consciousness and politicization”.
At the international level, a Bordeaux entrepreneur in the media sector, Gilles Raymond, has also created a foundation to offer concrete protection to whistleblowers, “The Signals Network”. The organization makes it possible to publicize certain revelations while protecting the whistleblower. Although publicizing the risky affair creates a greater risk for the whistleblower, strong media coverage of its revelation can force the company to change its practices.