Onvestigating a Complaint in the Workplace

Topic Title:  Investigating a Complaint in the Workplace

Background:  Years ago, when children complained of being sexually abused, they were disbelieved and ignored.  When, in the eighties professionals realized that many of these allegations were true.  Trying to protect children they coined the phrase:  “Children Don’t Lie, Or if they do, they don’t lie about this.”  Thus all complaints were accepted as true even if the allegation was that the abuse had happened more than ten years prior to the complaint. 

Fast forward to now.  Thanks to some of the people involved in the #Metoo Movement we are now demanding that if a woman (and sometimes a man) complains of having been sexually abused they are automatically believed.  It is considered bad form and intrusive to question the complaining person. 

When doing evaluations of these allegations in the business world, we are told, over and over again that the complaining woman (and sometimes a man) is promised confidentiality and the alleged perpetrator has no right to face his accused.  Investigations if they are conducted at all  - are all too often conducted by a biased person who is looking only for evidence to support the complaint and the potential evidence to the contrary is ignored – or else that person is called a liar. 

Having “second opinioned” many of these poorly conducted investigations, I wrote the book:  Conducting Workplace Investigations: Designed Investigator.