NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The boss tells you to do something. You do it. The boss turns out to be very, very wrong. Who pays?

Yeah, you guessed it.

The pecking order of the workplace is something to keep in mind as we watch various companies do the corporate mea culpa.

Take the case of Kim Gibbons. She's a former employee of Federated Investors, one of the various mutual fund companies ensnared in the market timing and late-trading scandals of the last couple of years. Federated paid more than $72 million earlier this week to settle with the feds and New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer.

Gibbons is a little bitter about that settlement. You see, she lost her job as a result of that scandal. And while the company can pay a fine and move on, she's out of the business forever.

"My personal perspective is that they screwed me over and ruined my career," she told me.

She was a customer service rep carrying out mutual fund trades for institutional clients after the official cutoff time. And letting clients move in and out of funds without regard for the churn in transaction costs that adds to a fund's expenses. All things that she claims her bosses sanctioned and even encouraged.

"The fact is it just happened. They knew it. I was just doing what I was told. The 4 o'clock cutoff time meant nothing."

Some executives have the experience, power and paycheck to make waves if they think something is awry in their company. But a $30,000 a year employee who lives and dies by the boss' review usually doesn't have such clout. So Gibbons did what she thought was expected of her.

Then the investigators came a-calling. And Federated cleaned up its act. And suddenly what was common practice before was unacceptable.

And so Gibbons says she found herself out the door for making a late trade worth about $80. Intended or not, she was a good example about how serious Federated was about its new religion. She sued for wrongful termination and got $5,000. But her securities license also got tagged. Now she works in the chemical industry ... not liking it very much.

For its part, a Federated spokesman said the company doesn't comment on specific employee issues.

Was Gibbons faultless? Probably not. She admits she knew various trades were iffy. And many would argue that a licensed securities professional should know what's right and what's wrong and when to say "no."

But how does a $30K clerk tell the boss that they shouldn't let the lucrative client play? How do you tell if a company's ethics rap is for real, or window dressing? And if you jump over the boss' head, will the company listen? I have a feeling that most companies wouldn't ... unless Mr. Spitzer is knocking at the door.

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Allen Wastler is Managing Editor of CNNMoney.com and appears on CNN's "In the Money." He can be emailed at wastlerswanderings@turner.com.