We’ve noticed two big trends emerging lately: the EU whistleblowing directive and lockdown orders and other preventive measures regarding COVID-19. Most of us understand that to stop the pandemic from spreading uncontrollably, it is necessary that those ordered in quarantines, do stay in quarantines. 

Unfortunately not everyone accepts the rules and hence many governments have put sanctions into place and even started surveillance measures with drones. Even if whistleblowers are sometimes seen in a negative light, they might just be the solution we need for a COVID-19 scale problem.

Fear of being caught

The fear of being caught is one of the factors that truly reduces acts of crime. But even with the penalties of fines or even imprisonment, many people have violated the quarantine orders all over the world [1] [2]. 

The fear of such happening is the key and that's why there's so much backlash towards too many restrictions. On the one hand we feel that our citizen rights are being violated but on the other hand we can’t accept people violating the rules that impact not just us but the people we care for.

Reporting someone violating quarantine orders or COVID-19 restrictions is not an easy thing to do. It’s definitely something that most of us are not willing to do under our name. But a lot of us fear for our families and relatives who are in the riskier groups for severe symptoms. 

From the systemic perspective, even the knowledge that others may anonymously report on violations, may help to reduce the viral factor and hence slow down the spreading of the virus.

Protecting not just people but businesses

It's not just families we are protective for. For many businesses like small manufacturers and retailers requiring physical presence, the current pandemic is an existential risk impacting tens or hundreds of jobs directly and even more families indirectly. These organisations are fighting against the virus, not the government restrictions, to keep their doors open every day. For them, coworkers violating the quarantine orders are lonely wolves prioritising their own interests over team’s.

Resilience is often defined as the ability of a substance to return to its usual shape after being bent, stretched, or pressed. The current situation is pressing all of us but those of us willing to put every single protective measure in place, whether anonymous reporting channels or preventive inspections, might just be the ones that come out resilient or even stronger than we used to be.

Final thoughts

There's a fine line between living in a police state and whistleblowing someone for violating quarantine orders. We shouldn't accept everything as is but when scientifically proven actions help stop spreading the pandemic, we must take action together. Putting anonymous reporting channels in place is a small and cost-effective step towards the bigger picture.

In the past few months, we’ve implemented dozens and dozens of anonymous reporting channels for both large and small organisations. If you're looking for a whistleblowing or a compliance channel that covers quarantine violations and gets implemented in days, not weeks, have a look at our Whistleblowing module and contact us for more information!

We are building the world's first operational involvement platform. Our mission is to make the process of finding, sharing, fixing and learning from issues and observations as easy as thinking about them and as rewarding as being remembered for them.‍

By doing this, we are making work more meaningful for all parties involved.

More information at falcony.io.