[harimau777]

Doesn't that boil down though to: "You may as well do the right thing because you are going to be punished either way."

Compared to the alternative of protecting the engineer, that seems like a rather dystopian way to encourage doing the right thing.

[emilecantin]

In a sense, yes. It's a choice between losing your job or your whole career.

However, because losing your whole career is such a horrifying prospect, companies are going to have a very hard time finding an engineer willing to break the rules. When you need an engineer to sign off on something, but no one is willing to, you might re-evaluate your stance.

It's the same as trying to find a lawyer willing to break the law, in a sense. As an engineer, you're beholden to the public first, and your employer second.