Giving Reasons That Survive Being Read Later
What a decision letter has to explain — what was found, on what evidence, what the person said, why it did not change the outcome.
A decision letter has to answer four questions: what was found, on what evidence, what the person said about it, and why that did not change the outcome. A letter that states the conclusion and the effective date answers none of them, and it is the version most organisations send.
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The letter is also the document that gets read most carefully by everyone who comes afterwards — an appeal hearer, an adviser, sometimes a tribunal, often the person themselves several times. It is worth an hour.
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The four questions, in order
What was found means the specific findings, allegation by allegation, each with an outcome. Upheld, not upheld, or upheld in part, with what part.
On what evidence means naming it: the witness account, the system record, the person's own admission. "Having considered all the evidence" names nothing and is the phrase most likely to be quoted back.
What the person said means their actual case, summarised fairly, including the parts that were inconvenient. A letter that does not mention the explanation the person gave reads as though nobody listened to it.
Why it did not change the outcome is the part that is genuinely difficult and genuinely necessary. It is also where mitigation belongs.
Phrases that give nothing away
| What the letter says | What it actually tells anyone |
|---|---|
| "Having considered all the evidence" | Nothing about which evidence mattered |
| "The allegations were upheld" | Nothing about which, or in what part |
| "Your explanation was noted" | That it was heard and not engaged with |
| "This is a serious matter" | A characterisation, not a reason |
| "We had no alternative" | That alternatives were not considered |
Each of these appears in template letters because it is safe to write. Each of them, read later, is evidence that the thinking either did not happen or cannot be shown.
Sanction, and why this one
Where there is a range of outcomes, say why this one. Length of service, previous record, the effect on trust, consistency with how other cases have been handled, whether anything short of dismissal was considered and why it was rejected.
That last clause does a great deal of work. An organisation that considered a final warning and explains why it was not enough is in a different position from one whose letter suggests dismissal was the only thing on the table.
Consistency with other cases
If somebody else did something similar and kept their job, that will come up. The time to think about it is while writing the letter, not when it is raised on appeal.
Sometimes there is a clear distinction — different role, different level of responsibility, different record, something that has changed since. Sometimes the honest answer is that the earlier case was handled badly, which is awkward but survivable if it is understood internally before anybody asks.
What not to put in
Do not characterise the person. Do not include matters that were never put to them. Do not refer to things that happened after the hearing. Do not explain how difficult the decision was for the organisation, which is not information the person needs and reads badly.
And do not write the letter before the hearing. A document whose properties show it was created two days before the meeting is a problem no amount of careful drafting can fix.
Who writes it
The letter should be written by the person who took the decision, not by whoever is fastest at drafting. A decision letter composed by an adviser and signed by a manager who would describe the reasoning differently is a document that falls apart the first time its author is asked about it.
Help with structure and language is fine and usually necessary. What cannot be delegated is the reasoning, because the reasoning is the decision. A practical test: the signatory should be able to explain, without the letter in front of them, why the outcome is what it is.
The practical parts
The letter should also carry the dates and facts the person needs: the effective date of termination, whether notice is worked or paid, when the final payment will be made, what has to be returned, and how to appeal — to whom, by when, and in what form.
Those details are what turns a decision into something the person can act on. Leaving them out generates a second round of correspondence at exactly the moment nobody wants one, and it is the part of the letter that costs nothing to get right.