How To Get Closure in Life, Love and Business

Closure, as a subject, may seem to be an excessively wide-ranging topic to cover in a short period of time, and it is – but we’re going to focus in on the bare essentials and explore what happens when people don’t get the closure they need.

This article stems from a missing persons case we undertook earlier in the year, where a 42-year-old bookkeeper decided not to show up for work one day.

It happens all the time – more often than some might expect – people take on jobs that they essentially don’t want to do and, without any warning, they simply up and leave. Needless to say, this puts employers in a difficult position as they need to scramble to fill the role and cover the workloads that that employee now won’t be doing.

The same can be said for people in long-term, committed relationships, in situations where their partners disappear without so much as a “goodbye,” never to be heard from again.

Where and whenever emotions are involved, people are quick to reach out for help, whether it’s in tracking down the person or seeking psychological and emotional support from friends and family.

The opposite tends to be true in business, in that when employees ditch out, especially in shorter-term roles, employers would tend to move on and focus on the issues they face in the workplace (the foremost may well be covering for the person that left).

In the majority of cases that we’ve handled, we’ve come to learn that one of the most important pieces of information our clients look out for, aside from the person’s wellbeing and location, is why they decided to leave. What drove them to simply drop everything and move off?

The reasons are endless, but statistically there are a few that appear more often than others and it’s amazing that no matter how simple, shallow, contrived, selfish, immature or complicated a person’s reasons may be to have left, the people that they left behind often feel a major sense of relief once they understand why they did.

Employers specifically, especially those with a focus on team-building, can benefit from hearing their employee’s complaints or suggestions and, if a member of staff just vanishes, it can be a sure sign that something in their company has gone wrong. This uncertainty can result in companies making silly mistakes to compensate; like becoming overprotective or distrustful, for example. Telling the firm why you’re leaving could end up benefiting other staff members after you leave, because the company makes a change based on your feedback.

As such, closure is an essential sentiment to take into consideration if you ever find yourself reminiscing, wondering, worrying or dreaming of the people (or things) that have gone missing. Depression, anxiety, jealousy, paranoia and monophobia are all classic symptoms displayed by people who’ve lost things, pets or people in their lives that have mattered to them, but don’t understand why.

In our bookkeeper’s case, after locating the individual in another state two weeks into the investigation, he confirmed that he’d not wished to be found as he’d set himself up for an form of “early retirement;” something that was brought on by a lack of care and consideration for him at his work. We were hired by the client to find Larry, the missing bookkeeper, because he’d decided to leave at a pivotal point during an audit that the company was going through and, at the same time, he was the only person in the company to have access to a range of financially sensitive information, kept in an encrypted, password-protected folder on one of the company’s computers. With that, we were tasked with recovering the individual, failing which the password to the folder would suffice.

Larry told us that he’d left the company unannounced as he’d asked to take a leave on absence for several months, yet his managers insisted that it wasn’t the appropriate time; all whilst loading him up with more work; more hours on the clock with no additional pay or bonuses to speak of. Larry had simply had enough and, with his $40,000 is savings, he decided to start his own consultancy and work at his leisure.

Larry was kind enough to divulge the password to the company, thereby giving them the closure they needed, despite the news as to why Larry left in the first place.

So, what is closure, exactly?

Closure is technically defined as being “an act or process of closing something, especially an institution, thoroughfare, or frontier, or of being closed” but in regards to this article, closure is defined as “gaining an insight into the reasons behind a given person or entity’s actions,” because that is what the vast majority of clients involved in missing persons or skip-tracing cases ultimately seek.

What’s the best way to get it?

Depending on the circumstances surrounding your case, you might think it’s a bad idea to contact the subject – but that’s not always true. So long as you don’t convey any sense of anger; anxiety; depression; desperation; dependence or; fear for or towards the person you’re trying to communicate with, you’re less likely to make them feel evasive. Calling multiple times and sending message after message is only likely to push them further away; instead send a single message that explains logically why you are reaching out to the person; that you might understand why they left but that you’d really appreciate them taking the time to talk to you about it, whenever they’re ready to do so, and; offer a vote of confidence in the fact that you’re there to support them in their decisions.

If that fails and you’re growing increasingly concerned over a person’s wellbeing, or the wellbeing of crucial information that they hold, then it might be wise to invest in a professional skip-tracing and location service.

If you are the person that’s gone missing, you might consider letting at least one other person know that you’re alive and well – you’d be surprised how much easier you might end up making some people’s lives with just a few words in a text message. If you hold valuable information or something that a company holds dear, consider taking the time to return it or organise a means to do so because, while you might be trying to send a message, or hope that what you’ve done will somehow have an impact on your boss, you may not have taken into consideration that your actions may also have had an effect on your colleagues. Increased workloads to compensate for your absence, lay-offs because the company can’t sustain a certain service that you were responsible for… and the list goes on.

Precise Investigation has provided hundreds of clients across Australia with effective and reliable skip-tracing services over the last thirty years and we’re more than capable of delivering the same successful results to people and companies in sensitive or difficult positions today.

Give our offices a call on 1300 856 011 and we’ll be more than happy to guide you through the process of arranging your very own investigation and answer any questions you might have.

You can always reach out to us using our online contact form or by sending an email to contactus@preciseinvestigation.com.

We wish you the best and hope your efforts in finding the people and important assets in your life prove sufficient to locate them or at the very least, get the closure you need.

The Precise Investigation Team

Please note: All names, locations and identifying characteristics of those described in this article have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.

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