ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author uses a case in which he was actively involved to examine the issue of whistleblowing and, through this issue, broader questions regarding the ethical obligations of social workers to employers and to society, particularly in those instances where such obligations conflict with the client's interest. In the ethical sense, the responsibility for speaking out is a duty owed the society that assures the profession certain privileges, protections, and status. In the social work profession, this duty is also an obligation, incurred in the very process by which entrance into the profession is earned. Confidentiality introduces us to the case of the social worker who blew the whistle on the practice of the agency in which he was a supervisor. Everything that one might anticipate could happen to this worker did, although in the end he was vindicated. First, consider the specific issue of confidentiality.
