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Comment by adeon | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like a "winning move" did not exist from the start for this poor fellow. Either your director fires you for speaking the truth or you possibly become accomplice in fraud. All you can do is cut your losses. If they go into that zoom meeting I hope they won't toe the company line. Getting fired, or losing the customer seems like the least worst option.

It's actually not clear to me if the director is also their boss. It's written as if they are but not spelled out anywhere I can see.

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The least losing move was probably to indicate that the “more political” statement provided by the boss seemed to be false, and ask for supporting information and/or to work together to find a defensibly true statement that was suitably politically acceptable.

Now, if the boss is committed to outright fraud, this is still going to be a problem, but it lets you separate out that case and puts you in the best armed position if you need to go above or around them in the org on the issue, and does as much as you can to avoid the firm committing fraud and to avoid yourself being an active participant if that happens.

> if you need to go above or around them in the org

In this case, the whole company has around 10 employees, so I assume there isn't much in the way of management. I understood "director" to be the big boss, maybe sharing his position with one other.

Or not lie and possibly not get fired? Surely better than lie and having the sword of Damocles hanging over his head for a long time, either because of part-taking in fraud or (indirect) blackmailing from the boss expecting more lies or other dishonest actions as a consequence.

The winning move is to go along but then call the local whistleblowers for that government entity.

Could be a winning move, but it's also common for whistleblowers to end up under some bus at some point. Turning against your director (and colleagues, etc.) will most certainly cost you your job. A lawsuit for disclosing secrets is also likely.

Cover your ass with clear paper trail. And even then, I would prefer losing the deal getting fired. Whistleblowing is really the last resort nuclear option, IMO.

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