HR Investigations Pay Dividends: A Healthier Workplace And Protection In Court

Many HR professionals spend a significant amount of time investigating employee complaints and, depending on the outcome of these investigations, implementing corrective measures to halt and prevent bad behavior in the workplace. Some within an organization (usually not the HR folks!) sometimes doubt whether the time and energy spent on HR investigations are worthwhile. As one exasperated corporate VP once said to me, "If he's going to sue us, he's going to sue us, why do we have to investigate everything?"

But as HR professionals, we know that properly-conducted HR investigations are valuable ... and a recent decision by a federal appeals court in Illinois highlights the value of conducting prompt, effective and fair workplace investigations, and taking action when warranted by the evidence: Ford v. Marion County (IL) Sheriff's Office, No. 18-3217 (7th Cir. 2019).

The plaintiff, in this case, Brigid Ford, was a deputy sheriff until she suffered a serious hand injury during an on-duty car crash. After allowing the plaintiff to work as a deputy in a light-duty capacity for about a year, the Sheriff's Office told her she would have to transfer to a permanent position suitable to her physical limitations or be terminated. She accepted a position as a civilian jail clerk but later sued the Sheriff's Office, alleging, among other things, that co-workers harassed her because she was disabled.

At trial, to support the harassment allegation, the plaintiff pointed to three years of clashes with co-workers at the county jail. The plaintiff claimed that one co-worker, CL, behaved like an unhelpful, insensitive bully towards her, mocking her workstation accommodations, adjusting her chair into uncomfortable positions, and disrupting work with loud conversations. The plaintiff claims that another co-worker, EW, left work early and improperly took documents home. After the plaintiff made complaints about CL and EW, the Sheriff's Office transferred both of them away from the office where the plaintiff worked. Another co-worker, VH, was then transferred into the office. The plaintiff immediately began to have conflicts with VH too, and following an investigation, the Sheriff's Office transferred VH as well.

The trial court granted pre-trial summary judgment to the Sheriff's Office on some claims and others were tried to a jury, which found for the Sheriff's Office and against the plaintiff. The plaintiff appealed.

Before turning to the merits of the...