On 28 July 2016 Elizabeth Devine presented a paper to a national employment law conference held at the Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast on the topic of ‘Dealing with Workplace Complaints – How to Avoid Formal Investigations and Efficiently and Effectively Resolve Complaints’.  This paper responds to the increasing use of workplace investigations in recent years and discusses the limitations and unintended consequences that this trend has presented for employers and employees alike.  Chief among these limitations is the fact that investigations rarely if ever resolve the conflict and may, in fact, cause the conflict to escalate.  This paper reflects on the issues associated with workplace investigations through the lens of conflict management theory and practice and explains how an organisation may develop conflict competency, allowing it to adopt a flexible and case-specific approach to a particular conflict rather than a one size fits all approach.