"You can't fire me, I'm blowing the whistle."
<...It may be that she had been given poor proficiency ratings, knew the axe was coming, and wanted to forestall it with whistle-blower protection.
Very interesting point. I wonder how often this has already happened. When exactly did the "whistleblower protection" legislation come about? How many famous whistleblowers were already in some kind of trouble before they started blowing the whistle?