Dear Bob ... I'm an hourly employee in IT. My co-workers and I are in trouble for following instructions. Let me explain. My company recently signed large contracts with multiple offshore service providers, headquartered in multiple countries. Management has given the project a lot of visibility, including visibility on Wall Street. This means there's a lot riding on the success of the effort. Because multi Dear Bob …I’m an hourly employee in IT. My co-workers and I are in trouble for following instructions. Let me explain.My company recently signed large contracts with multiple offshore service providers, headquartered in multiple countries. Management has given the project a lot of visibility, including visibility on Wall Street. This means there’s a lot riding on the success of the effort. Because multiple service providers are involved with different native languages, my co-workers and I have been pressed into service as translators. Because the work is translating, there’s no way to make it time-efficient, and between half and all of our work weeks end up devoted to this work, leaving no time to take care of our own projects.No overtime been approved for us (that would hurt the numbers). Because of the visibility of the offshoring effort we’ve been told to charge our time to our projects, even though we aren’t working on them. The result? We’re all now on disciplinary probation because our projects aren’t getting done.I’ve talked to HR and showed them my documentation with no apparent result. So now what – am I at risk legally through Sarbanes-Oxley, or just at risk of unemployment? What do you think I should do, other than look for a new job (which I’ve already started to do)?– WhipsawedDear Whipsawed … First the good news – you aren’t likely to be personally subject to any legal culpability. The mis-reporting of work hours is unlikely to get into the 10-K, and as a practical matter, no prosecutor would bother going after a bunch of non-exempt employees who were, after all, the victims of the scam, when there are bigger fish to fry. And anyway, you documented the problem and brought it to HR, so your hands are clean.That’s all the good news I have. Here’s the rest:From your description, the goal of this nonsense is to brag to the shareholders about the success of the program. That means there’s no point making use of any open door policy your company might have to try to get this fixed. The risk of entering the wrong open door exceeds the benefit of entering the right one. So don’t try to make executives aware figuring once they do they’ll fix it. They have a stake in perpetuating the problem. So you have a choice. The practical course of action is to keep your head down while leaving this rat’s nest as fast as you can.You can, instead, choose to fight for your rights. If you wants to do this, contact an attorney specializing in employment law – this isn’t something you should undertake on your own. Even better would be organizing everyone in your department to engage the attorney as a group. This spreads the expense while (I’d think) strengthening the attorney’s ability to negotiate with your employer.My guess is that if you pursue this option you’re looking at an expensive undertaking, with a decent long-term chance of being reimbursed financially for your troubles, but a lot of heartache along the way, and damage to your reputation as a good person to hire – you’re making yourself an official troublemaker by pursuing legal remedies. It still may be worth it to you. Your attorney can advise you on this front as well, better than I can.Your last choice is the whistleblower option. Take everything I said about fighting for your rights and multiply by ten. It’s probably the right moral choice. But few whistleblowers experience anything but hardship, and even if you eventually win, I doubt you’ll get much gratitude from anyone. Even the shareholders who ought to thank you are more likely to sympathize with the company than you.– Bob ——– Technology Industry