"Whistleblower"

In the world of Safety Professionals, choices have to be made on a daily basis that could effect the outcome of your career. Especially if you work for a company that uses safety as window dressing.

Consider this; If you spot a severe safety violation, report it to the Supervisor and that person tells you to ignore it, what do you do? A) Ignore it and compromise your principles as a Safety Professional, or B) Keep dogging it until it gets fixed, jeopardizing your employment status.

Lets face it, most large companies have the ability to "Get the word out" about troublesome Safety Guys, causing you to potentially get blacklisted within your own industry. Most people try use the "Whistleblower" act as a crutch, but have you ever considered the consequences of that?? Now not are you only a nuisance, but your a tattle-taler of the highest level.

While its true that the DOL does give relief through "Whistleblower" protection, do you really want to be called a "Whistleblower"?

In the end, as Safety Professionals, we all have principles that we must abide to. If for no other reason, because there are a lot of families that depend on us to send their loved ones home every days. Just remember, people are not owned by companies, they are loaned out to us by their families, and those families expect that they will return in the same condition.