Harassment at work

[tostaky]

Not about me - a colleague has made sexual harrassment claims against her boss. The boss has been suspended during the investigation.
Another senior person sent an invite for Christmas drinks to our group (we form a group despite working in different offices). Bothe the woman and the supervisor are invited.

AIBU to think they should not have invited the supervisor to the drinks? I know the investigation is still going on, and so he could be innocent or guilty.

What do you all think?

The suspended staff member should not have been invited

Is it possible the suspended person is just on an automatic group to send the invite to (like @ tech) and forgot to remove?

Or if they are supported by a PA, maybe she/he didn't know and went it without realising? It's most likely a mistake. Maybe have a quiet word.

I think it all depends on when the drinks are taking place? If it's in the next 2 weeks or so, then the suspended employee shouldn't be invited, purely because they will probably still be suspended, and attending would breach that suspension. If that's not clear to the suspended employee, then someone should make sure they understand that showing up to a work event while on suspension is a big no.

But if, for example, the drinks are taking place in the third week in December, in the run up to Christmas, then I don't think it's unreasonable to invite both employees. The investigation and suspension should ideally be over by that point, and the invite can be cancelled or confirmed depending on the outcome of the investigation.

At the moment, all you have is an accusation and a suspension pending investigation. The suspended employee could turn out to be innocent and shouldn't miss out on work events if they've done nothing wrong. They could be guilty and be moved from the team, or dismissed, in which case they would no longer be expecting to attend anyway. Or they're guilty, and the attendance of the drinks is dealt with as part of the next steps and appropriate behaviour in the future.