Dear Leah,
I'm chief people officer dealing with the aftermath nobody prepared me for. Six months ago, we ran a thorough investigation into allegations against one of our senior managers.
The investigation cleared them completely with no case to answer. But their team has never recovered. Three people resigned immediately after the outcome was announced, citing "loss of faith in the process." The manager feels vindicated but also traumatised by the experience.
The remaining team members are quiet, compliant, and clearly don't trust anyone anymore.
Our staff survey results for that division are catastrophic. The investigation was textbook perfect from a legal perspective, but it's broken something fundamental. How do we rebuild trust when the process itself created the damage?
— Pyrrhic victory
Oh dear!
This is what happens when organisations treat investigations as the end point rather than the beginning of repair work.
DIAGNOSIS:
Your investigation process was so focused on establishing innocence or guilt that it forgot about the humans involved. Everyone who participated is carrying trauma: the accused manager, the team who raised concerns, and everyone who watched it unfold. Nobody won here.
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM:
Investigations are adversarial by nature. Someone makes allegations, someone defends themselves, people give evidence, a judgement is reached. It's a mini-trial, and trials create winners and losers, or in this case, just losers.
The cleared manager feels vindicated but violated. The team feels unheard and unsafe. Trust evaporated because the process prioritised facts over feelings.
THE PATH TO RESOLVING IT:
You need restorative work now. Bring in external specialists like us who understand post-investigation repair. Create space for people to voice what the experience was like for them, acknowledge the harm the process itself caused (separate from the allegations), and collaboratively define what this team needs to function again.
YOUR ROLE GOING FORWARDS:
Accept that "case closed" isn't outcome achieved: legal clearance doesn't equal operational recovery.
Build repair into your investigation protocol: allocate budget and time for relational recovery after formal processes.
Track the real costs: resignation, absence, productivity loss, and cultural damage are consequences you need to measure.
Be honest about process trauma: investigations are harmful even when necessary—acknowledge that reality.
