A new workplace ethics survey reveals concerning news: Employees who report wrongdoing are much more likely to pay for their honesty today.

The rate of retaliation against whistleblowers doubled from 22 percent in 2013 to 44 percent in 2017, according to the latest Global Business Ethics Survey from the Ethics & Compliance Initiative.

On the surface, it would seem that this backlash is because reporting of misconduct hit the highest recorded rates in the 24-year-old survey’s history; typically, reporting and retaliation follow similar trends. But in the latest survey, the retaliation rate doubled, while reporting edged up 7 percent.

The survey doesn’t attempt to explain the divergence. However, it does point to an increasing pressure on employees to compromise standards, a trend that’s been building during the past decade. Perhaps surprisingly, a bullish market typically coincides with more pressure to compromise standards. Such pressure can be an early indicator of a weakening of ethical cultures, which leads to worse conduct, the survey said, predicting trouble unless companies take action to bolster ethics.

And revenge may be best served cold, but retaliation for whistleblowing is dished out swiftly — nearly three-fourths of retaliation victims said the repercussions came within three weeks of an initial report of misconduct, the survey found. The reported transgressions most often tied to retaliation are:

• Accepting gifts or kickbacks, or bribing public officials (83 percent of reporters experienced retaliation)
• Making improper political contributions (62 percent of reporters experienced retaliation)
• Punishing someone who has reported wrongdoing (56 percent of reporters experienced retaliation)

One bright spot was that fewer respondents (47 percent) reported having personally observed misconduct, near a historic low for the survey. For perspective, the range since 2000 has been between 45 percent and 54 percent.

Fortunately, federal regulators offer protections — and even rewards — for those who report their companies’ misdeeds. And California is among the states that have followed suit in establishing whistleblower statutes aimed at dealing with fraud against state and local governments. Also, the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun emphasizing cybersecurity, including protecting cybersecurity whistleblowers.

However, it’s important to understand how protections apply. For example, a recent court case narrowed the Dodd-Frank financial reform law retaliation protections, tying them to cases first reported federally instead of internally to an employer. This is somewhat problematic because almost 83 percent of successful SEC whistleblowers first brought up their concerns inside their companies, according to the SEC’s 2017 report.

Don’t walk the whistleblower path alone. Call Keller Grover at 866-663-3308 for a free consultation, or find out more about specific types of whistleblower claims and how we can help you here.