What do I do when there is no one to interview during a workplace investigation?
What do you do if you have an investigation but there is no one to interview? This can come up because there was nobody around or because our witness made themselves unavailable. Those are really hard. So acknowledge to yourself that you got a doozy of a case and then get to work meeting your […]
What do I do if an interviewee is not answering questions during a workplace investigation?
What do you do if someone is not answering your questions? This can be really frustrating and people can inadvertently avoid answering questions, either because they’re nervous or because they don’t have the information that you’re after anyway, and so they’re just trying to be helpful. But at the end of the day, sometimes people […]
What do I do if there is no company policy related to the matter you are investigating during a workplace investigation?
What do you do if there’s no policy related to the issue that you’re investigating? People get caught up in this and it doesn’t really concern me one way or the other. If a client has hired me to investigate a thing, I’m going to go investigate that thing. Sometimes, particularly with smaller or newer […]
What do I do if I am an attorney investigator during a workplace investigation?
What do attorney investigators need to do? Attorney investigators need to give Upjohn warnings, at least. Upjohn is akin to corporate Miranda? So Miranda is, “You have the right to remain silent, ……..” Corporate Miranda is usually regarded as Upjohn because of the case that it stems from. Upjohn’s warnings let the person you are […]
What do I do if the interviewee has no memory of the incident during a workplace investigation?
What do you do if an interviewee doesn’t remember an important fact or event? Many of us don’t realize something is significant until later. You saw the witness, the accident, this detail, and you never knew that your experience would be the vital thing to report to an investigator. And so it’s normal and natural […]
What do I do if the reporting party doesn’t use any of the ‘magic’ words about discrimination during a workplace investigation?
What do you do if your reporting party does not use magic words? For example, they do not say things like “harassment,” “discrimination,” “hostile work environment,” or “disparate treatment”? Sometimes even the employer misunderstands that they do not need to investigate because their reporting party has not used magic words or misused them. The employer’s […]
