Third, whistleblowing can involve significant safety or public health issues, such as lying about whether bulletproof vests are really capable of stopping bullets, or whether healthcare workers are pushing unnecessary medical procedures on patients. Second, whistleblowing under the False Claims Act or other similar laws involves some people essentially stealing money – and oftentimes others not getting the government services that they should receive. “Don’t come running to tell me that Hermione took an extra cookie.” “Don’t go tell Mom and Dad that Jeremiah got in trouble at recess.” Parents, teachers, babysitters, older siblings – there is a pretty solid alliance of people who have said not to tattle.įirst, a whistleblower is reporting fraud – not just some minor misbehavior or transgression.
Most of us have been told since childhood that it’s not nice to be a tattletale. Should you report this? Who will get hurt? What will other people think? It seems that your supervisor is cheating the government by lying about testing that your company hasn’t really done on its products, even though testing is required under your government contract. When dealing with the office tattletale, the best thing you can do is maintain your dignity and professionalism- not give them more to talk about.Imagine the following scenario: You’ve observed some cheating at work that really troubles you. Trying to get revenge will only snowball into disaster. But just because someone else is acting like a bratty child doesn’t mean you should revert back to elementary school behavior yourself.
It may be tempting to put stink bombs in a troublemaker’s wastebasket or scratch the word “snitch” onto their car. Fingers crossed for the light bulb, but even if it goes the other way, at least you know you tried to help. Jones every time someone makes a mistake, you’re really alienating yourself.” This could be a light-bulb moment, or it could cause the more vicious personality to laugh in your face.
So it may be to your benefit to pull them aside, and say something like, “I know you probably don’t mean to, but when you tell Mr. But it’s entirely possible this person does not even realize they’re the office stoolpigeon. The last thing you want to do is antagonize a tattletale, because the next thing you know, you’ll be their number one target. If they’re kept completely out of the loop, they’ll have nothing to tattle about. That’s when you do your best to avoid them whenever possible, and warn your coworkers to do so as well. Even if it turns out they’re just downright sadistic, all hope is not lost. Compliment them on their work, or ask them out to lunch. If the tattletale is seeking attention or approval, make an effort to give that to them in other ways. Could it be a cry for help? Is it an attention-seeking behavior? Or does this person just get pleasure out of other people’s pain? Whatever the case may be, it could benefit you to gain a deeper understanding of what motivates this individual-not so you can excuse their behavior, but so that you can stop it. There has to be a reason Molly or Ben has chosen to take on the role of office tattletale. This puts you in a proactive position rather than a defensive one, which is always a critical advantage.
Going to your boss and confessing immediately takes control and ammunition away from the tattletale and gives you the opportunity to explain what happened in your own words. If you accidentally screw up, and you know the in-house rat is going to scurry into your supervisor’s office and spill the beans, beat them to it. So the simple solution is: don’t do anything unethical, illegal, or ill advised. It’s genuine misconduct that is going to get the tattletale’s motor mouth running and probably get your boss on your case as well. But if the workplace blabbermouth is running to the boss reporting that you knocked over a box of paper clips, chances are the boss is going to be more annoyed with the squealer than with you. Unless this person is a compulsive liar, if you don’t do anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about. In order to take the power away from the tattletale, you have to take away their ammunition.
#Tattletale professional
But these tips will help you deal with the office snitch in a professional and productive manner. But how do you deal with a person like this? Reporting them to a superior feels hypocritical. There’s no doubt the person in your office who runs to the boss to report every little slip-up is not going to win any popularity contests. No matter how you say it, the office tattletale is bad news.
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