Enron Environment: As Enron was crumpling and before Sherron Watkins resigned, there were no physical retaliations by those colleagues still around her. However, a source close to her, told the LA Times that Watkins was made to feel "an outcast." She came to work but there were no real assignments for her other than a pile of make-work projects. Her boss confiscated her hard drive, and demoted her 33 floors from her mahogany executive suite to a scrappy office with an unsteady metal desk. The atmosphere had grown so gloomy that she called office security for advice on self-defense. Enron's chief financial officer Andrew Fastow sought her dismissal after hearing about her warnings.

The Media: In the media, she’s portrayed as a whistle-blower; although other contended that she never really blew a whistle. A whistle-blower would have written that letter to a major media outlet or to congress or to the Securities and Exchange Commission directly but that was not the case.  The shriek of Ms. Watkins' letter didn't reach public ears until five months after she wrote it, and even in August 2001, concerns like hers seem to have been old news in corner offices, and probably some cubicles, at both companies. Others asserted that she wrote the letter purely to cover herself, to protect her resume’ when the inevitable happened.

Life after Enron: Although her future looked shaky, She started a consulting firm to advise company boards on governance and ethics. Whether CEOs will do business or trust her with their activities remains to be seen. Ms. Watkins has adapted to her current status unlike the FBI's Coleen Rowley and WorldCom's Cynthia Cooper, she does not shy away from describing herself as a whistle-blower or suggesting that her gender may have played a role in her decision to act. She alone has been flirting with celebrity, earning up to $25,000 on the speaking circuit and sharing a $500,000 advance to co-author a book.

Given the frequent occurrence of recent corporate misconduct, whistle-blowing incidents have been on the rise. This trend is likely to be boosted by the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which for the first time, accords legal protections to whistleblowers in publicly traded companies. This means organizations will have to institute cautious policies to allow employees to bring unethical and illegal practices to the forefront. Companies will have to train managers and executives on how to encourage openness. Putting processes in place will not be quick, but it is certainly necessary given the increased public scrutiny of corporate behavior.

Reference:
Boatright, John R. (2003). “Ethics and The Conduct of Business.” Upper Saddle River:
                  Prentice Hall

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A18876-2002Jul29?language=printer

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2002/poywatkins.html

http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/2002/04.html