When someone who works for a company sees something happening that is not right, and they take their concern to their superiors, they are not always thanked or congratulated for giving those in leadership roles a chance to make things right. Often, their concerns are dismissed, which is bad enough, except that it does not end there. Some whistleblowers get fired from jobs that they have worked diligently at for years. Others remain on staff, although they experience heartbreaking injustice at work on a day to day basis. Both those employees who get fired and those who remain on staff in some capacity are often mistreated in ways that range from defamation to threats, bullying, and other forms of abuse.
A look inside the life of an Assistant Human Resources Officer at the McGuire VA Hospital reveals just how painful the life of a whistleblower can be. She still works for the hospital, but what she does can hardly be called work. She claims that she has not been assigned any meaningful tasks for about a year now, since she refused to give in to pressure to hire another manager’s husband for a job that she knew he was not qualified to fill. To add insult to injury, she was recently asked by one of her superiors what she has accomplished over the past year.
The consequences that the officer has experienced since she stood her ground and voiced her concerns regarding the alleged nepotism have been harsh to say the least. She gets paid, but she feels that taxpayers ought to know that their money is being wasted on her salary because she was stripped of her job responsibilities. Her office was nearly moved out to a trailer, but she fought back against that, too, and she was transferred into a tiny space that is not in a trailer. Her office is not only small; it is isolated, and she has no doubt that she was banished – how could she think otherwise when she previously supervised over fifty people.
The officer has endured verbal attacks, and her office door was plastered with signs that describe the characteristics of a bad leader. When she has reported the hostilities in her work environment to superiors, the mistreatment got worse, and she became the target of not just one but four internal investigations. She feels that she was singled out for abuse to serve as an example so that other employees would not even think about reporting their concerns. The Office of Special Counsel is now investigating the officer’s allegations, and she hopes that they will prosecute the hospital.
Barrett Law PLLC: Standing Alongside Mississippi Whistleblowers Through the Claims Process
If your attempt to address concerns about work practices in your company with senior management was met with retaliation, you might be able to seek protection under whistleblower protection laws. Like the case mentioned above illustrates, retaliation is hurtful no matter what form it takes, from being isolated and stripped of job duties, to verbal abuse and many other forms of intimidation. If you have experienced retaliation, the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC may be able to assist you. To find out more, please call the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (800) 707-9577 to schedule your initial consultation.