I don't know about parent, but I did notice that! I saw it clearly written there. I read it and understood it. I understand that the person who wrote it believes it is sufficient to cover all relevant needs.
I would posit that this person may not be familiar with the importance of collecting evidence against possible future needs. An IT manager's testimony from memory, no matter how perfect, is not as useful as evidence collected in a technological manner at the time of offense.
With that in mind, walking over and looking at the intern's screen might be considered by some to be less than a full replacement.
You're right! The log can be easily viewed or accessed later. This of course occasionally requires an annoying amount of screwing around with reactivating old accounts, resetting passwords, and so on. Irritating, but of course a price well worth paying for employee privacy.
With that said, is it perhaps possible that direct access is preferable for reasons other than sheer laziness? Chain of custody and provenance both come to mind as items that some enterprise users of Slack might find worthy of consideration in some circumstances. This is obviously not nearly as important as employee privacy, but still...
Reactivating accounts would only need to happen if the accuser had left immediately, which doesn't seem likely.
I think it is just that big companies have a way of doing things, are paying the bills, and employee privacy is close to last on their priority list—far behind CYA. They don't care that there is another potential solution.
A person leaving a company after filing a harassment complaint strikes me as very likely. I personally know people who have very precisely that. It's a very common scenario in large companies.
Having personally dealt with some of those companies and situations, I can tell you quite simply that people are definitely aware that there are other potential solutions. Such approaches are seen as not adequate for purpose. The reasons for this judgment are not merely arbitrary or capricious. They are broadly quite sound and reasonable, and I touched on them above in an effort to give you an opportunity to grow in your understanding of those you disagree with.
And yes, as you say, companies are far more interested in limiting liability than they are in employee privacy on company-controlled systems. It's not, as some might suggest, that employee privacy is not valued. It's a question of priorities, and companies tend to place being able to defend themselves and control their risks adequately over an employee's right to leverage their privacy and incur liability for the company.
Though I understand why some might prefer to dismiss the above and think of it as just another example of big, stupid, corporate laziness and refusing to consider alternatives.
Here's where you made a detour, agreeing and disagreeing with a side order of condescension.
A significant portion of folks stick around for a long time in a poor situation as it isn't so easy leave a job at a moment's notice. For those that don't there is the simple matter of not deleting everything. Nothing is actually deleted any more anyway. Brave new world.
Big, stupid, and corporate are synonyms, government too. It goes with the territory of any large group of humans. As they grow they get dumber and further out of touch until they are overturned by a smaller, nimbler version where the process is repeated in Innovator's Dilemma fashion.
I would posit that this person may not be familiar with the importance of collecting evidence against possible future needs. An IT manager's testimony from memory, no matter how perfect, is not as useful as evidence collected in a technological manner at the time of offense.
With that in mind, walking over and looking at the intern's screen might be considered by some to be less than a full replacement.