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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Checking for gaps: What I look for when I review evidence in workplace investigation reports

In my role as review counsel at Rubin Thomlinson LLP, I review the workplace investigation reports that are prepared by the firm’s investigators to ensure that they are legal defensible. Clients also ask that I do the same for reports that they have prepared internally.

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I’ve lost my report writing mojo! Now what?

How many of you can relate to that feeling of relief and maybe even joy when you are “oh so close” to completing a task. As a workplace investigator, I can definitely relate. In my experience, it is a great feeling knowing that I am close to placing a checkmark beside an investigation and moving that investigation file to the “closed” section of my files.

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Whistleblower series: What do workplace whistleblowers report?

In the last blog in this series, I wrote about the reporting channels that organizations may use to allow whistleblowers to report wrongdoing. In this blog, I’ve provided an overview of the types of wrongdoing that whistleblowers report. I’ve chosen this topic because many may be unfamiliar with what workplace whistleblowing actually “looks” like. While it is true that we at times hear about whistleblowing in the media, the cases we hear about may not be a good representation of the types of wrongdoing that workplace whistleblowers typically report.

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How an interview with an NBA great can help you write better workplace investigation reports

In my last blog, I wrote about the importance of plain language. I wanted to do one more blog on this because I came across a “real life” example that illustrates the point nicely. I’m definitely not one for sports analogies and stories. First, not everyone can understand or relate to them. Second, they bore me a little (especially any story that involves a detailed play-by-play). But for this blog, I had to make an exception…

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Workplace investigation reports: Why plain language is best

As a reviewer of workplace investigation reports, I try to encourage the use of plain language. By this, I mean that I try to make sure that a report can be easily understood by the people who read it. I admit that this is not always easy. I am a lawyer, after all, which means that I was trained to make everything sound more complicated than it really is.

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Fatal flaws: 10 mistakes that can sink your workplace investigation report

In my role as review counsel, I train others on how to write effective workplace investigation reports.  When I review reports, much of what I focus on is readability: how is the report going to sound to the reader? Is it easy to read? Is the reader going to get confused by the report’s organization? I think about this mythical reader a lot; probably too much in fact, and I bet my colleagues are tired of hearing me go on about it.

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