Jeff—actual ‘whistleblowers’ make true and important allegations that withstand scrutiny and fact-checking. I agree that legit whistleblowers need the protection of anonymity.
But not all disgruntled ex-employees with a beef against their former bosses are whistleblowers in this sense. Many are pursuing their own retaliation strategies, often turning trivial or imagined slights into huge subjective moral outrages—and often getting credulous friends, family, journalists, or activists to support their cause and amplify their narrative.
It’s true that most EAs had never heard of ‘Alice’ or ‘Chloe’, and didn’t care about them, until they made public allegations against Nonlinear via Ben Pace’s post. And then, months later, many of us were dismayed and angry that many of their allegations turned out to be fabricated or exaggerated—harming Nonlinear, wasting thousands of hours of our time, and creating schisms within out community.
So, arguably, we have a case here of two disgruntled ex-employees retaliating against a former employer. Why should their retaliation be protected by anonymity?
Conversely, when Kat Woods debunked many of the claims of Ben Pace (someone with much more power and influence in the EA/Rationalist community), why was she not considered a ‘whistleblower’ calling out his bullying and slander?
Yet again, the gender bias in ‘moral typecasting’ becomes important, as I mentioned in a previous comment here.
So, arguably, we have a case here of two disgruntled ex-employees retaliating against a former employer. Why should their retaliation be protected by anonymity?
Highlighting that is an important crux (and one on which I have mixed feelings). Not all allegations of incorrect conduct rise to the level of “whistleblowing.” A whistleblower brings alleged misconduct on a matter of public importance to light. We grant lots of protections in furtherance of that public interest, not out of regard for the whistleblower’s private interests.
Is this a garden-variety dispute between an employer and two employees about terms of employment? Or is this a story about influential people allegedly using their power to mistreat two people who were in a vulnerable position which is of public import because it should update us on how much influence to allow those people?
In Australia people can be, and have been, prosecuted when they whistleblow on something commercially or otherwise sensitive (that was of major public importance!) by disclosing it publicly without completely exhausting internal whistleblowing processes. So even in cases of proper whistleblowing, countervailing factors can dominate in what the consequences are for whistleblower.
actual ‘whistleblowers’ make true and important allegations that withstand scrutiny and fact-checking. I agree that legit whistleblowers need the protection of anonymity.
I think that’s too strong? For example, under my amateur understanding of MAlaw I don’t see anything about the anti-retailation provisions being conditional requiring a complaint to withstand scrutiny and fact-checking. And if this were changed to allow employers to retaliate in cases where employees claims were not sustained then I think we’d see, as a chilling effect, a decrease in employees raising true claims.
I agree that requiring that the claims be sustained would have a chilling effect. However, in many contexts, we don’t extend protections to claims submitted in bad faith. For instance, we grant immunity from legal retaliation against people who file reports of child abuse . . . but that is usually conditioned on the allegations were made in good faith. If a reported individual can prove that the report was fabricated out of whole cloth, we don’t shield the reporter from a defamation suit or other legal consequences.
Note that this is generally a subjective standard—if the reporter honestly believed the report was appropriate, we shield the reporter from liability. This doubtless allows some bad actors to slip through with immunity. However, we believe that is necessary to avoid reporters deciding not to report out of fear that someone will Monday-morning quarterback then and decide that reporting was objectively unreasonable.
In your example, I suspect that knowingly filing a false report with a state agency is a crime in MA (as it is with a federal agency at the federal level), so there is at least some potential enforcement mechanism for dealing with malicious lies.
Jeff—actual ‘whistleblowers’ make true and important allegations that withstand scrutiny and fact-checking. I agree that legit whistleblowers need the protection of anonymity.
But not all disgruntled ex-employees with a beef against their former bosses are whistleblowers in this sense. Many are pursuing their own retaliation strategies, often turning trivial or imagined slights into huge subjective moral outrages—and often getting credulous friends, family, journalists, or activists to support their cause and amplify their narrative.
It’s true that most EAs had never heard of ‘Alice’ or ‘Chloe’, and didn’t care about them, until they made public allegations against Nonlinear via Ben Pace’s post. And then, months later, many of us were dismayed and angry that many of their allegations turned out to be fabricated or exaggerated—harming Nonlinear, wasting thousands of hours of our time, and creating schisms within out community.
So, arguably, we have a case here of two disgruntled ex-employees retaliating against a former employer. Why should their retaliation be protected by anonymity?
Conversely, when Kat Woods debunked many of the claims of Ben Pace (someone with much more power and influence in the EA/Rationalist community), why was she not considered a ‘whistleblower’ calling out his bullying and slander?
Yet again, the gender bias in ‘moral typecasting’ becomes important, as I mentioned in a previous comment here.
Highlighting that is an important crux (and one on which I have mixed feelings). Not all allegations of incorrect conduct rise to the level of “whistleblowing.” A whistleblower brings alleged misconduct on a matter of public importance to light. We grant lots of protections in furtherance of that public interest, not out of regard for the whistleblower’s private interests.
Is this a garden-variety dispute between an employer and two employees about terms of employment? Or is this a story about influential people allegedly using their power to mistreat two people who were in a vulnerable position which is of public import because it should update us on how much influence to allow those people?
In Australia people can be, and have been, prosecuted when they whistleblow on something commercially or otherwise sensitive (that was of major public importance!) by disclosing it publicly without completely exhausting internal whistleblowing processes. So even in cases of proper whistleblowing, countervailing factors can dominate in what the consequences are for whistleblower.
I think that’s too strong? For example, under my amateur understanding of MA law I don’t see anything about the anti-retailation provisions being conditional requiring a complaint to withstand scrutiny and fact-checking. And if this were changed to allow employers to retaliate in cases where employees claims were not sustained then I think we’d see, as a chilling effect, a decrease in employees raising true claims.
I agree that requiring that the claims be sustained would have a chilling effect. However, in many contexts, we don’t extend protections to claims submitted in bad faith. For instance, we grant immunity from legal retaliation against people who file reports of child abuse . . . but that is usually conditioned on the allegations were made in good faith. If a reported individual can prove that the report was fabricated out of whole cloth, we don’t shield the reporter from a defamation suit or other legal consequences.
Note that this is generally a subjective standard—if the reporter honestly believed the report was appropriate, we shield the reporter from liability. This doubtless allows some bad actors to slip through with immunity. However, we believe that is necessary to avoid reporters deciding not to report out of fear that someone will Monday-morning quarterback then and decide that reporting was objectively unreasonable.
In your example, I suspect that knowingly filing a false report with a state agency is a crime in MA (as it is with a federal agency at the federal level), so there is at least some potential enforcement mechanism for dealing with malicious lies.