The tricky business of whistleblowing has hit the headlines again following a senior Google employee’s claim that the tech giant made her redundant after reporting a colleague’s misconduct.
Victoria Woodhall told a London-based employment tribunal that she was subjected to a campaign of retaliation on informing her boss of the colleague’s behavior, which included sexual harassment. The colleague was later dismissed for gross misconduct following an internal investigation.
Google denies that Woodhall, former senior industry lead at its UK Sales and Agencies team, was made redundant due to her whistleblowing activity. Instead, it claims she became “paranoid” and that she lost her job as part of a regular business decision to close the department. The tribunal has yet to rule.
According to Dr Enya Doyle, Founder of harassment prevention consultancy Enya Doyle Consulting, this kind of whistleblowing scenario is quite a typical one in that it is based on wrongdoing, a systemic abuse of power or perception of such. But she adds:
What’s interesting about the Google situation, and it’s not common, is that it was brought by a senior person. When people bring cases, it’s generally junior colleagues who are paid under 30,000 ($41,470) per year, so it’s those at the bottom of the rung that have exhausted other avenues. You don’t often see a senior colleague reporting misconduct, but you do often see them as the ones being reported.
The usual suspects...
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