If you spoke up you might get branded (nice name) as a whistle blower. The not-so-nice names: tattler, rat, snitch. What could happen to you when you blow the lid? And is it worth it?

Here's what to expect if you spill the beans:

1. To be discredited. "The company will overturn every rock it can to dishonor you and paint you as the worst employee they ever had, warns James Helmer, Cincinnati attorney. "The king often kills the messengers that bring the bad news. Companies go into a state of denial instead of owning up to a problem. They circle the wagons and go after the messenger."

   One whistle blower he knows lives on a boat; some have moved away. Companies have filed counterclaims against employees who went public, charging defamation. But any time a company did that in Helmer's cases, the case was rejected by the court.

2. To lose your work friends. A former New Jersey Prudential Life Insurance employee who complained of an unethical practice, said in a Wall Street Journal article: "'It's like I've got the bubonic plague."

3. To be demoted or forced out of your job after the company tries to discredit you. The Prudential man was terminated, the company alleging he was "an abusive manager who had sexually harassed subordinates."

Leigh Ann Haynes, a keeper at the Cincinnati Zoo who spoke up when a co-worker was attacked by a bear in 1990, was demoted the next day, refused the demotion and was suspended without pay. Eventually, she left. Since then, she's gotten one interview for a part time position in the summer cleaning the pony area of a children's zoo.

So why even consider blowing the whistle? Some companies value ethics and have an ethics office or anonymous hotline so someone can come forward without being punished.

You're also protected by the law if you take a series of steps before you go to the authorities.

For example, the Ohio Whistle blower Act says you can't be discriminated against or fired if you notify your superior verbally and in writing about the problem. You may also be able to get financial rewards through the federal False Claims Act.

If you go this route, document your claims. Then plan for the worst--even if you have faith that your company supports you to your dying days. Says Helmer: "People are always surprised when their company turns against them."

Although you may need to find a new line of work, you are not unemployable.

Something else to keep in mind is that society treats whistle blowers like scum. A New York Times Magazine article by Michael Lewis tells of the businessman who "senses that his job prospects will suffer if he proves himself capable of independent thought and action. He is right, at least to judge from the way we treat those who lack the instinct to keep mum."

Lewis points out that everyone talks about business ethics, but no one does anything about them. And why should they? "A man who pursues his own socially dubious interests within a large corporation may easily wind up the subject of flattering profiles and weepy eulogies. A man whose corporate betrayal emits the slightest whiff of self-interest is reviled and suspected of opportunism."

Even though society "should be better off for their betrayal of their bosses...loyalty is more highly valued in business than in any place but the Mafia and the military (where followers in both must be prepared to kill for the boss)."

The most important issue of all: your personal ethics and responsibility for the lives of others. Do you have an obligation to speak up? Columnist Marshall Loeb, in Fortune wrote: "It seems to me that you have reason to speak up only when you see behavior that is both gross and repeated" and can cause serious harm to someone.

Yes, you will be ostracized for speaking up. But can you live with yourself if you don't come forward? Leigh Ann Haynes says she couldn't. "What else could I do? I couldn't look myself in the mirror. What if it happened again to someone else?"

© by Andrea Kay