Workers who reveal waste, fraud and abuse can expect retaliation, financial loss and high emotional and physical stress, according to a survey by two Maryland researchers.
Donald R. Soeken, a psychiatric social worker, and his wife, Karen L. Soeken, a statistician, found that whistle blowers win little more than increased self-respect. But they also found, in the first systematic effort to determine what actually happens to whistle blowers, that most of them would do it again.
''They get pummeled,'' said Mr. Soeken, who runs a counseling service specifically for whistle blowers, the Association of Mental Health Specialties, in College Park, Md.
''Consider the effects on your children and family life,'' was the advice to potential whistle blowers from the wife of one of those in the survey, who had included a note with the response of her husband.
A whistle blower who worked in a nuclear power plant wrote: ''This has turned out to be the most frightening thing I have ever done. But it has also been the most satisfying. I think I did the right thing, and I have caused some changes to be made in the plant.'' Nearly 100 People in Survey
Mr. Soeken and his wife, a faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, spent more than a year gathering information about the experiences of nearly 100 people who reported faults in the government and in the private sector. The couple made their findings available to The New York Times.
Their study shatters a perception of whistle blowers as misfits. The average whistle blower in the survey was a 47-year-old family man who was employed seven years before exposing wrongdoing. Most were driven by conscience.
As a group, the whistle blowers were moderately religious. They tended to assume that the best could be achieved by following universal moral codes, which guided their judgments.
The Soekens, using names they obtained from groups that provide legal and other aid to whistle blowers, mailed 233 detailed questionnaires to people who had exposed wrongdoing or faults. Ninety, or 40 percent, responded. Sixty percent of those who replied had been Federal workers when they blew the whistle and the rest had been in the private sector. Seventy-three percent were male.
After exposing misdeeds, all those in the private sector reported they were dismissed. Because of Civil Service adminisrative appeals, it is more difficult to dismiss Government workers, but 51 percent of these whistle blowers reported they were no longer with the same agency. Financial Burdens Cited
One out of every five of those in the survey reported they were without a job, and 25 percent mentioned increased financial burdens on the family as the most negative result of their action.
Fifty-four percent of the whistle blowers said they were harassed by peers at work. Mrs. Soeken said, ''We got replies like 'People made fun of me,' or 'People who I thought were my best friends stopped associating with me.' ''
Eighty-two percent of the Federal whistle blowers said they were harassed by their superiors. The harassment reported included reduced responsibilities, close monitoring of their activities and telephone calls and performance evaluations that grew progressively worse.
The Soekens promised confidentiality to the respondents but made available some of their comments. 'I Went Through Hell'
A truck driver for a food chain said: ''I went through hell emotionally. The insults from management and fellow workers were extreme. It made me a colder, callused person, and yes, I would do it again.''
A Government worker said, ''Don't do it unless you're willing to spend many years, ruin your career and sacrifice your personal life.''
But an engineer in private industry replied more positively: ''Do what is right. Lost income can be replaced. Lost self-esteem is more difficult to retrieve.''
Another Federal employee confided, ''Finding honesty within myself was more powerful than I expected.''
The whistle-blowing experience took a high toll in physical and emotional health, the survey showed. Eighty percent reported physical deterioration, with loss of sleep and added weight as the most common symptoms. Eighty-six percent reported negative emotional consequences, including feelings of depression, powerlessness, isolation, anxiety and anger. Anonymity Is Advised
Mr. Soeken, who has a doctorate in human development and has counseled more than 100 whistle blowers, said the best way to point the finger at an abuse was to prepare an outline of wrongdoing with supporting documents and give it anonymously to the press or someone in authority.
He said the primary reason why there is so much retaliation against known whistle blowers was that it is associated with cultural taboos against tattling. Another factor that brought retaliation was the fear of economic loss that the whistle blower's actions might bring, the survey found.
Mr. Soeken said there are seven stages of life for the whistle blower: discovery of the abuse; reflection on what action to take; confrontation with superiors; retaliation; the long haul of legal or other action involved; termination of the case, and going on to a new life.
''The last stage is the most difficult to reach,'' he said, ''and most nof them don't reach it.''