10 days ago, I set up my Aerogarden - an indoor herb garden where I’m growing (or trying to grow!) parsley, dill, thyme, basil, mint, and chives.

Within three days of planting, my basil plants sprouted, followed closely by dill, and parsley. They’re growing like weeds on the daily. Yesterday, my mint plant sprouted, 6 days after their plant siblings.

Mint wasn’t first. Mint wasn’t late. Mint wasn’t last (the thyme and chives still show no signs of sprouting)

Mint was planting roots beneath the soil. Mint was germinating. Mint was growing.

When you’re confronted by a (dis)respect issue at work, sometimes your instinct is To react quickly. To form an opinion quickly. To investigate quickly. To fix the problem quickly.

But when you act TOO quickly, you can get sloppy and make critical mistakes.

🌱You can fail to follow the policies or processes. 🌱You can act from a place of bias or assumption. 🌱You can miss key steps. 🌱You can fail to treat the parties fairly. 🌱You can break trust and confidence in the process.

When you’re conducting workplace investigations, ACT swiftly, but NOT at the expense of integrity, fairness, thoughtfulness, or thoroughness.

You can (and should) plan your investigation process before you jump into conducting it. Planning leads to successful investigations and successful outcomes.

You don’t have to be basil. You can be mint.

January 23, 2023

Saira Gangji is an independent licensed Workplace Investigator at hrology in Calgary, AB. She investigates allegations of discrimination and human rights, harassment, violence, and misconduct in the workplace. For more information about hrology and our process, see the work with me page.