Just because someone is in a position of power doesn’t mean they always do the right things. You might find yourself in a situation where your boss is acting illegally. Don’t ever feel like you have to stay silent because of your position.
If your gut is telling you something is wrong – act.
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5 Responses to Unethical Workplace Activities
Here are five ways you can respond when you notice illegal or unethical workplace activities.
1. Understand the Full Situation
Before you do anything irreversible and hurt your position within your job, make sure you fully understand the situation. Sometimes emotions can cloud your judgment.
Taking one night to cool off and sleep on the situation helps see what is going on with more clarity.
Accusing someone of unethical or illegal activity can permanently hurt someone’s reputation – even if they prove their innocence later.
2. Record All Your Evidence
Before exposing an unethical or illegal practice, gather all your evidence. Collect data, images, correspondences, and recordings to support your claim
Keep this evidence in a safe place. Depending on how illegal the activity is, consider making copies and saving evidence in a lockbox.
The evidence helps you fully understand the situation and gives you proof of your claim. By waiting to collect evidence until after speaking up, you risk people destroying evidence to protect themselves.
Start the collection process immediately upon suspicion of the activity.
3. Address the Situation Internally
Before bringing in the law, start by addressing the situation internally.
If the situation is a small unethical act by a boss, you can go directly to your boss and explain why you feel the action wasn’t fair. Here are some examples of small unethical activities you can address directly:
Taking unfair advantage of an employee
Having unethical relationships with coworkers
Misusing Office supplies and time for personal gain
If the situation is more serious – like fraud, illegal activities, and abuse – don’t go to the perpetrator. Instead, bring the case to the attention of another manager or supervisor for more support within the workplace.
Always keep your safety a top priority. If you have any doubts about how far your boss or other perpetrator is willing to go to protect themselves – avoid confronting them alone.
4. Consult an Outside Attorney
While this is step four, you can always start the entire process by finding a lawyer to protect yourself. A personal defense lawyer will know your rights and advise you what actions you can take without compromising yourself as a key witness.
A lawyer can also safely record and store all your evidence as you collect it. They’ll be able to protect you if the tables turn and your boss or other perpetrators try to frame you instead.
While your workplace may provide legal advice, depending on how deep the illegal activity runs, consider hiring an outside attorney.
5. Take Legal Action Against the Perpetrator
If all the other steps don’t resolve the situation, take legal action. If you’ve gotten to this stage, definitely hire an attorney to help you understand your rights and protections.
Someone who exposes their workplace or someone within their workplace as illegal or unethical is considered a whistleblower. However, there are specific criteria that you need to meet for the whistleblower laws to protect you. An attorney can go through your location’s specific whistleblower laws.
Image by Anastasia Gepp from Pixabay
You can read more information on your whistleblower rights at Whistleblowerinfocenter.com.
Standing up for what’s right takes courage. Stay safe and confident in yourself!