As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours, and in the last month, we’ve had a particularly dense deluge of “employee incidents” to deal with:
- The employee who took clients out for a meal and then decided to head to a nightclub, only to be turned away at the door because there was cocaine in his bag
- The head chef who pinned a 21-year-old waitress into a corner and told her, “If you give me a kiss, I’ll let you go”
- The house manager who got into a waitress’s car without permission and then proceeded to assault her
Yep, as I mentioned, it’s been busy.
All of the above incidents have a commonality: the style of response from the perpetrator when asked for their version of events:
- “I can’t remember anything at all about the incident” (it was two weeks ago!)
- “I don’t think that happened”
- “That’s not the way I remember it” (but then can’t actually give another version of events because they’re unable to lie under pressure)
And the pièce de résistance:
- “They’re only saying this because they’re out to get me” while, of course, unable to come up with a reason for this alleged skullduggery, presumably because any reason would only incriminate them further.
When it comes to investigating these types of issues, vague denials and convenient memory lapses are trumped by pinpoint, detail-rich accounts, and in my experience, the truth always lies in the latter too.
“I don’t remember” ISN’T a defence but rather an admission of guilt under pressure.
It’s time we stop excusing poor behaviour with shallow justifications and start holding individuals responsible for their actions.
P.S. Remember that the law on sexual harassment changes on 26 October 2024 – contact us for details of online training to keep your organisation safe!
