Once you have done all the scoping out and refining of allegations you can before starting your investigation, there will come the point where you have to raise the allegations made with the people they are made against.
If the allegations are false, those people will be very angry. If they are true, they will be angrier still. As a minimum, they foresee hours they don’t have being hoovered into an investigation they don’t want into conduct they didn’t commit with who knows what acrid taint of smoke without fire clinging to their reputation thereafter. At worst, it is career-threatening stuff with their job, their home, their marriage, etc. all at stake.
People who are very angry do foolish things in response, whether it is an aggressive verbal attack on the complainant, to his face or behind his back, withdrawing from all unnecessary communications with him into a sullen and resentful silence or what is usually the very least sensible way of reacting, i.e. some form of counter-grievance. It is hard not to sympathise – one way or the other, an allegation to your employer that you have committed a criminal act or breached some legal obligation or have discriminated or sought to cover up wrong doing is personally and professionally pretty challenging. Not letting such an allegation affect your workplace behaviour towards that individual in any way can feel like the hardest thing in the world.
But challenging or not, and however hyperbolic or provocative...
A system designed to let social media users police misinformation is struggling to keep pace with false claims circulating ahead of the US midterm elections. An analysis by NewsGuard found that X’...