How are civil rights investigations like folding a fitted bed sheet?
Does anyone actually know exactly how to fold a fitted bed sheet?
OK, maybe if you’re Martha Stewart you know how, but I sure don’t.
Sometimes conducting discrimination and harassment investigations can feel like folding a fitted bed sheet.
I don’t know about you but I’m not good at folding a fitted bed sheet. Are you the type of person who folds the fitted bed sheet first, because it’s not your favorite thing to do so you want to get it over with? Or do you leave it until last, because it’s not your favorite? Or maybe you’re the kind of person who folds things as you pick them up regardless of when you grab them or what they are?
There’s no great way to fold a fitted sheet. Sometimes conducting discrimination and harassment investigations can evoke similar feelings to folding that fitted bed sheet. It’s something that’s important and needs to be taken care of. If you leave it too long it’ll get wrinkly and bunched up, sometimes making the situation worse.
Investigations of civil rights issues are no different. If you leave the situation without handling it as soon as possible can allow the problem to become worse. Sometimes you prefer to not tackle these matters as quickly as you might some other things that you know how to do well or prefer how to do better.
But again, leaving it might cause further issues or allow the situation to become even worse. When you start to fold a fitted bed sheet you awkwardly pick it up, flip it around in your hands. You try to use your elbows to help you out and just feel awkward the whole time.
When you’re newer to conducting discrimination and harassment investigations, you can feel this way. Feeling awkward, not knowing what to say or what to do next. And that’s OK. Investigations aren’t necessarily a science, although some of it is procedural in nature. Investigations can be an art. You get better at these as you practice.
So the next time you find out about an issue of potential discrimination or harassment, remember there isn’t going to be a perfect way to handle it, but the best way includes handling it as soon as possible and following some specific steps.
Keep in mind that some of investigating discrimination and harassment is simply an art and you need to do your best, keeping the parties involved in mind and being as sensitive as possible to the nuances of the art of the investigation and the individuals that you’re trying to help.
