Another big corporation has collected the colloquial ‘FAIL’ tag after a recent blogger exposed poor living conditions in some oil rig sites in Alberta.

The result? The pictures hit the net, the dude gets the axe.

Seems like the typical response from a monster corporation–pretend you’re a big jerk and eliminate dissent by pretending it doesn’t exist.

Today’s marketplace actually responds in a different way. Honestly is highly regarded and is also rewarded. Don’t believe me? Remember how people felt when we found out BP tried lying about the size of the oil spill….?

Let’s assume this blogger doesn’t catch national attention, that he’ll just blow away, then I suppose Suncor gets away with their inadequate facilities.

But the point is this: the issue has been raised, it’s gaining momentum online, and it’s a relatively new issue (to the public issue that is).

Suncor could have done two things that would have turned a PR and HR nightmare into a boon of positive PR:

1) Acknowledged whatever issues there were in the camp and opted to fix the problems;

2) Hired Mike to become an inspector of the facilities.

Overnight you turn bad PR into good; unless of course Suncor isn’t interested in managing their brand image.

Moral of this story? Not every whistle blower needs the axe, in fact, they may become your biggest evangelist.