There is a fire, but the party is carrying on regardless. I run from person to person, trying to tell them. They need to get out. They need to get out now. My mouth opens to scream at them to leave, but no sound comes out. They ignore me. My mouth opens and closes, gaping like a fish.

My husband shakes me awake: “You were shouting again. It’s just a dream.”

The dream was a recuring one and I didn’t need a psychoanalyst to interpret its metaphors. I was struggling at work. I tried to fix the problems myself, but didn’t get anywhere. I was  too scared to keep raising the issues. They gnawed away at me, eroding my confidence, my joy in the work, starting to poison my values and my relationships with colleagues. 

Not speaking up was having a negative effect on my wellbeing. In the end I left the organisation, but the problems remained there.

Whistleblowing and wellbeing

Today marks World Whistleblowers Day, but it is also the start of World Wellbeing Week. I’m sure it’s a coincidence  – awareness days never seem to synchronise watches – but wellbeing and whistleblowing are inextricably linked in my mind.

This Wellbeing Week there will be lots of well-intentioned activities. Some may also be of benefit to people. Making time and space for you is valuable. Giving people the opportunities and the tools to focus on their health and wellbeing can only be of benefit. There is nothing wrong with free fruit, lunchtime walks or mindful poetry (see my work at Unfolding Poetry).  But these initiatives will never benefit people’s wellbeing if they are overworked, mismanaged, stressed and silenced.

I am often asked to explain the difference between speaking up and whistleblowing.  To my mind, there isn’t one. It’s just that one can only happen in a psychologically safe environment, and the other is what happens when people feel that the issue cannot be ignored, but that no one is listening or taking action.

When people first raise something, they don’t consider themselves as whistleblowers. When you listen to whistleblowers tell their story they began thinking they were doing the right thing; simply doing what is expected of them; doing their job, their duty; protecting their organisation; protecting the public.

As the psychohistorian C Fred Alston, and author of Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power wrote: “Whistleblowers are defined by the retaliation they receive.”

This World Whistleblowers Day, we will be reminded of the high profile whistleblower stories. Those who faced jail, were sacked, dragged through the courts, even killed. They are the shadowy figures on a Panorama programme, their voices masked, even as they speak up. They are living in fear. These aren’t people who can “bring their whole selves to work.”

Organisational deafness is why people end up taking their concerns elsewhere. These are people who are ignored, vilified, their reputations rubbished, and, even more worrying for us as a society – the concerns they have are left unrectified, perhaps until it is too late.

When people speak up – no matter how complex the situation – when they are listened to, and the focus is brought to rectifying the concern they have raised, you will not read about their case in the news or an employment tribunal. 

The Institute of Business Ethics in its 2024 Global Ethics at Work survey highlights that although more people are speaking up at work, there is now a larger proportion who have experienced retaliation when they have – nearly half (46%) compared with 43% in 2021. The survey also shares that one of the main reasons that people don’t speak up is that they fear that it will jeopardise their job. The whistleblowing charity Protect states that whistleblowing can impact a person’s health and wellbeing.  Some people who have spoken up say that even though they felt that speaking up led to a positive outcome, they found the process stressful and believe that this stress had a negative impact on their performance.

It might seem then that speaking up is bad for your health.

Psychological safety

The wellbeing needs of workers needs to focus first on how you do your business and treat people

Psychological safety doesn’t flourish in a vacuum. Feeling heard is what connects psychological safety and wellbeing outcomes.  Feeling safe to voice ideas, to collaborate, to challenge is good for your health because it enhances your wellbeing. It means that you matter.

This isn’t just about the big things – if you’re not listening to the little things, how can people feel safe to raise the big issue that might save your business or your reputation. I liken it to the broken windows theory – that if a broken window in a building is left unrepaired, it’s more likely that the rest of the windows will be broken, and the neighbourhood will fall into disrepair and criminality. As Malcolm Gladwell writes in The Tipping Point
“If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes.”

Fixing the broken window, the malfunctioning water cooler, improving a process, listening to concerns about car parking, challenging toxic behaviours, communicating you’ve heard and why you haven’t taken the actions hoped for – these are the organisational responses which role model listening in action. Listening demonstrates care, that the windows can be fixed.

The ability to speak up isn’t what makes you happier at work. It’s the confidence that you will be listened to. That your wellbeing really does matter.

Practical ways to walk the talk on wellbeing

• Put the humans at the centre of your speaking up and HR policies and processes
• Educate managers and leaders to understand what detriment looks like in their teams, and listen to them when they tell you their teams’ concerns
• Identify themes of what people are speaking up about, and use that intelligence to craft true wellbeing initiatives
• When people speak up, risk assess how vulnerable they might be to retaliation and keep in touch with people who have spoken up
• Be explicit about actions taken in response to speaking up and to detriment

Psychological safety isn’t (just) what you say – it’s what you do. It doesn’t just happen by telling people you’re listening, but by showing them the change that can happens when they speak and we hear.

---