According to this, "any instance of suspected fraud must be reported and not reporting it may lead to charges of complicity."

What if you just play dumb and if you're ever asked, you can claim that these acts seemed to be standard business practices? It's gotta be highly unlikely that you'd ever be singled out and questioned given the number of people who know as much as you do.

Do others have similar concerns? This isn't something you can talk about. Word gets around. People would get suspicious if you asked a lot of questions. Wouldn't it be a kicker if you ended up being the one targeted for investigation?

If there's really something going on, then somebody (or bodies) must know a heck of a lot more about it than you do. Just let it go.

On the other hand, this is very suspicious ... and I'd have to be brain dead to not see that. What if an investigation were to turn up something criminal? Or, what if nobody says anything and there's no investigation and yet something criminal is allowed to proceed as if sanctioned by those of us who knew ... knew enough to initiate an investigation?

Would that be the responsible thing to do? I can only answer for myself, but am I so sure I'd feel comfortable turning a blind eye? The sleep of the just?

Twenty years ago, a Fortune 500 that I worked for was found guilty of falsifying sales figures to prop up share prices long enough for insiders to sell off before investors discovered what was actually happening with revenue. The 35-day month it was known as, and the CEO was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud.

The people I work with now are public sector, and they have haven't been this close to exposed fraud. In fact, many seem to think that fraud is something that happens out there in a world they don't understand and a world they presume to be fundamentally unethical and in need of external supervision, unlike their own. What they don't get is their own hypocrisy. Wouldn't it serve them right to be exposed in their own backyards ... with them being 'complicit?'

Then again, this would be an internal investigation. There's no requirement to involve the police. It would take a media leak to get that to happen, and how many pensioners-in-waiting would take that risk?

But maybe it's because I'm just a gig worker that I have a responsibility that others don't. That sounds queer, but it's kinda like game theory in economics where each party calculates their risks and opportunities and acts accordingly. For grand, here for 40 years, the risks are very high and there aren't any obvious benefits to going whistleblower. Think of the stress ... at that time of life when Freedom 67 is just around the corner.

I, however, have very little to lose—just a gig job though not a bad one and not so easy to replace as one might think. But what about the chance to stick it to them? I mean, really, gig jobs—is that the best they can offer? This might shake them up ... make them a little nervous, give them ulcers. Wouldn't that be poetic justice for these hypocrites feeding from the public trough with nobody around to monitor them? 'Who watches the watchers' kinda thing.

So, it's vengeance, is it? Not really so idealistic after all? You can't fool yourself, you know. Others might—just might—think that you're a starry-eyed idealist, quixotic and naive and just plain not fully grown up. But you'd know differently. Think you could convince yourself otherwise?

Well, it would be meaningful in a way to take on the Establishment—win or lose. But I'm really too old to be doing that kinda stuff. I have to think about stress, mental health and all that kinda shit, too. This would be a time- and energy-sucking process ... nothing rolls out efficiently here. I do know that!

So, what do you do, hero? Are you a little more afraid now that you've thought it over?

Probability of changing behaviour in a place like this—asymptotically approaching zero.

Probability of increased anxiety and depression—high and rising.

Chances that you'll look back with pleasure at 'doing the right thing,' 'taking on the system,' 'sticking it to the man?'

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