Surveying Retaliation Against Compliance Officers

Surveying Retaliation Against Compliance Officers

From Compliance into the Weeds by Tom Fox

April 15, 2026 · 17 min · Episode 462

About this episode

Tom Fox and Matt Kelly discuss a new survey quantifying retaliation against compliance officers who report misconduct.

The award-winning Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast that takes a deep dive into a compliance-related topic, literally going into the weeds to explore it more fully. Looking for some hard-hitting insights on compliance? Look no further than Compliance into the Weeds! In this episode of Compliance into the Weeds, Tom Fox and Matt Kelly discuss a new anonymous Radical Compliance survey, launched with Case IQ and Compliance Week, to quantify retaliation against compliance officers who raise compliance concerns to senior management. The survey asks what misconduct was reported, who retaliated, what forms of retaliation took place, such as firing, demotion, harassment, budget cuts, blacklisting, and what actions followed. Matt also encourages responses even from those who have not experienced retaliation. Tom and Matt have previously discussed anecdotally but have not systematically studied, and plan to publish their findings and host a webinar later in the spring, likely in June. They also discuss potential structural protections informed by data, such as disclosure expectations around CCO departures (e.g., 8-K concepts) and contract/regulatory-approval models like…

People in this episode

Host: Tom Fox

Guest: Matt Kelly

Topics covered

  • retaliation against compliance officers
  • compliance concerns
  • Radical Compliance survey
  • structural protections
  • DOJ views on compliance autonomy

Keywords

  • compliance
  • survey
  • retaliation
  • senior management
  • misconduct

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Case IQ, Compliance Week

Books & works: Compliance into the Weeds, a Davey, a Communicator Award, a W3 Award

Places: India

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