Is there a word for a person who is not afraid to point out problems even if that means additional work for them?

Solution 1:

If you're just looking for an adjective to describe the sense of responsibility, then conscientious (as dodgy_coder mentioned in a comment) or diligent come to mind.

I have occasionally seen such folks referred to as "Good (Code) Citizens" (in the sense of good citizenship) or "Boy (or Girl) Scouts" (after the so-called Boy Scout Rule of Coding).

I would definitely avoid whistle-blower as it can have negative connotations and is more about informing someone else of problems rather than taking the responsibility to fix them yourself.

Solution 2:

I call this being Engaged and having Ownership in what they are working on.

I expect this behavior from my engineers as I feel it raises the overall quality and ensures they are making customer focused decisions about what to do with the product.

Whistle-blower is more about exposing corruption and other things that could ruin a business.

Solution 3:

I checked the tags for this particular question and saw that it's also a request for a phrase and not just a word.

So, I suggest the words "a person with/ of integrity."

Of course "professional integrity" means a lot of things to different people. But here's a definition I find similar to how I see it:

From Macmillan,

integrity

The quality of behaving according to the rules and standards of your job or profession.

Here are a couple other ideas I got from a source about professional ethics:

An old labor rallying cry says, ``A full day's work for a full day's pay." Every job has its pleasant and unpleasant aspects. But in accepting a job, we agree to perform all of its duties, not just the pleasant ones. (emphasis mine)

The physician's motto is, ``First, do no harm." This means that we must assure that any product or idea that we deliver is as correct as we can make it and has no unannounced defects... Our computer program may be used as a module in a drug delivery system in a hospital or in a guidance system in a passenger aircraft. We must be sure that if our work is used as we say it can be, that it will perform as intended. (emphasis mine)

Solution 4:

When someone pursues a problem diligently, over the objections or neglect of those controlling the issue, she or he is often referred to as a gadfly. Compact OED defines it as