Employee and boss relationships in Washington among the weakest in U.S., new study says

TACOMA – There are a number of factors to consider when thinking about taking a new job. Some of them include wages, benefits and work-life balance, but do you ever consider the quality of the relationship with your boss?

Probably not, which means you’re either having issues or have had issues with previous employers, but you’re not alone.

Federal-lawyer.com conducted a study that surveyed 5,000 who were tasked with rating their relationship with their bosses on scale of 1-10, 10 representing the best relationship.

According to the study, employees across the country rated their relationship with their bosses an average of 6.5 out of 10, which shows that the connection between employees and management varies in strength across the country.

The study also found that relationships between employees and management in Washington were among the weakest in the country, with employees rating their relationships an average of 6.3 out of 10, lower than the national average.

The strength or weakness of the relationships between employees and managers is a clear indicator of how healthy the workplace environment is. A healthy work environment promotes productivity, dedication and commitment to the company, according to the National Library of Medicine.

The average national rate of employee and boss relationships shows that workplace cultures across the country are not as healthy as they could be, which could result in a decrease in dedication and lack of communication.

According to the law firm, employees who have strained relationships with their higher-ups are less likely to feel empowered to outwardly report issues to management, but will instead turn to whistleblowing.

But how likely is it that employees across the country and in the Evergreen State will turn to whistleblowing?

Are Washington employees inclined to whistleblow?

In addition to the study that had employees rate their relationship with their bosses, Federal-lawyer.com also conducted a separate study that surveyed an online panel of 3,000 adults to investigate how likely they would be inclined toward whistleblowing to call out malpractice in the workplace.

For this study, the law firm used internal data sources to obtain population data set and used a two-step process to ensure representativeness through stratified sampling and post-stratification weighting.

The study found that the employees surveyed had a split opinion on whistleblowing, with 50% of the employees surveyed saying they would risk their career to expose malpractice, while the other 50% would not.

“Whistleblowing allows people to align their actions with their moral compass by exposing wrongdoing,” said Nick Oberheiden from Federal-Lawyer.com. “It fosters transparency and accountability, potentially leading to organizational reforms and societal protection against corrupt practices. Whistleblowers can take solace in knowing there are laws designed to shield them from retaliation and, in some cases, they may even be rewarded for their courage.”

The split opinion could be due to the fact that 51% of respondents were unaware of the their legal rights as whistleblowers combined with the lack of trust in the company to protect whistleblowers.

Although the study found that their was a split opinion when surveying the entire panel, Washington employees were not equally split on this topic.

According to the study, 67% of the employees surveyed from Washington said they would risk their career to expose malpractice.

In Washington, whistleblowers are legally protected under the Whistleblower Act that was enacted in 1982. The state law defines a whistleblower as any individual employed or holding office in any department or agency of state government. Under this law, state employees are able to report suspected improper governmental action and makes retaliation against employees whose reports result in a whistleblower investigation unlawful.

Other key findings:

• Willingness to whistleblow varied by state

• Nearly 19% of respondents observed unethical or illegal activities at work but chose not to report them.

• 30% of employees believe their company’s system for managing misconduct reports is insufficient.

• About 91% asserted that companies should enhance transparency and support for whistleblowers.