Handling Investigations Of Harassment Or Discrimination By Poorly-Performing Employees

12/13/2025

A common trend among poor performing employees is to suddenly raise allegations of harassment or discrimination by lodging complaints with the HR department - at precisely the time he/she is being held accountable for poor performance or behavior.

Nevertheless, it is important to bear in mind that even though an employee’s complaint may not have any merit, the complaint must still be investigated.

Also, if the employee should suffer adverse treatment after having made a complaint, the conditions for a retaliation claim can be created. An example of this is a manager who radically changes an employee’s work schedule from dayshift with weekends off to—suddenly—midnight shift with Tuesday and Wednesdays off.

If this radical change is made shortly after this same employee made a complaint to HR (or another manager, EEOC, etc.), it quite possible that a causal connection could be made between the employee’s complaint and the employer’s adverse treatment of the employee.

If you are an investigator in receipt of a retaliation complaint, you must evaluate the facts regarding whether or not the change in shift, work assignments, etc. were connected to the complaint.

If it appears there is a strong causal connection, the greater the risk of retaliation. The investigative actions to take from that point will depend on the specific case; however, placing the alleged perpetrator (more than likely the manager) on paid administrative leave would be a wise course of action.

Additionally, it may also be wise to place the complainant on paid administrative leave until the matter can be more thoroughly investigated and leadership decisions can be made.