LESSONS FROM Jan 6th TESTIMONY

As we are seeing with Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony at the Washington hearing into the January 6th, 2021, incident, one must be very careful in what they say or do. Whether this is a private conversation, or someone eavesdropping on it. Your words may be used against you or have wide reaching results. This chat could have been recalled accurately, inaccurately or misunderstood. ?It could have been electronically captured, or something you wished you had not told anyone about. Although this case has far reaching implications, it holds a message for you. Here are some examples:

1.???A senior manager told an employee that they had done a great job for the company saving them millions of $ and even wrote this in a commendation letter. Then in a group meeting to recognize that achievement and set an example for others in an off the cuff moment said, “this person would be with the company forever”.

The employee was terminated for nothing that they had done, but the result of a company layoff, reorganization, or some other event unrelated to them. The employee then sues the company, as they were told they “would be with the company forever”,?based on that managers statement and written words, the employee made non-recoverable expenditure and could lead to their financial ruin. This action was based on their commitment for long term employment. In some states this would be dismissed “as they are at will employer”, while in others they might be awarded damages, or be reinstated in their job

Advise: never say “forever” to an employee (the word “a perm employee” has been banned for many years)

2.???A patriotic employee tells others that the company is doing tens of millions of $ in business thru third parties (cut-outs) to avoid a US boycott with an embargoed country receiving a banned product and receiving launder payments. But the employee, to protect themselves from their employer use code words even though this message was an encrypted on the “dark-web”.

Unbeknownst to the employee or the company, the US government has ways to deciphering encryptions and ?can prosecute those involved with illegal transactions. The company could be convicted and likely get rid of the troublemaker. This employee could sue under the whistleblowers protection act, but that might be more than they bargained for, related to legal costs, have difficulty in getting a new job, receive threats, etc.?

Advise: If you should ever be put in this position make sure you know what you might just have started. So, if you do this, strongly believe in your cause, and be fully prepared for the possible consequences: financial, social, emotional, and even life threating or changing results. If this is not the case, don’t be a “KIA” warrior.

3.???You start or even just pass around a joke or rumor about someone your thought to be true or overheard, be it: an affair someone was having, a questionable transaction they made, etc. And if the person got wind of?this, you could be put at risk in some way; be that conversation true or false. ?This party might want to take some kind of retribution against you. Things like this sometimes have a strange way of backfiring.

Advise: Don’t put yourself at risk by getting involved is a seemingly harmless joke or rumor that might come bac to haunt you. You may even put someone else in your group else at risk, or if that person were trapped, they might try to shift blame to you. When the stakes are high no one wants to be the fall guy.

So how do you avoid being at risk in the above type of situations. Think before you act or get involved in risky situations. If you do, believe the cause was worth the risk. Think of Colin Kaepernick, ?the employees who exposed unethical or illegal business practices, Tesla workers who disclosed racism, just to name a few.