How do we investigate gaslighting? So gaslighting, to my knowledge, is not a crime anywhere, but the effects and the reasons for gaslighting somebody can be awful in the workplace, right? So gaslighting is the use of psychological means to make somebody doubt their own sanity. And if someone is
What do you do if you, as the investigator, get really embarrassed? Pull yourself together. You are there to be a neutral, unbiased, third party. And as such, you can’t be judgmental. And a lot of embarrassment comes from judgment. And so, your work is about appropriateness and inappropriateness in
What do you do if the person you’re interviewing is represented by an attorney? The answer is probably whatever your client wants you to do. So, if the client allows its employees to have legal representation in their interview that is up to that client and you need to handle
What do you do if the interviewee asks for a witness? As attorneys always say, it depends. If the interviewee is a member of a union, they have a right, according to the Supreme Court of the United States, to have a witness. And so they need to get a
What do you do if your interviewee does not participate in the investigation, or does not know what you are asking them? That’s kind of two different issues. So, if the person does not participate in the investigation, you need to, again, remind them that their employer expects them to
What do you do if an interviewee asks you about privilege for your investigation?A lot of investigations are done under privilege. I am not a litigator, I’m an investigator. So, I don’t pretend to be an expert in privilege and I know, across the country, perspectives on the way privilege
What do you do if intuition is the only reason you want to take some investigative steps? I think if you’re a young investigator, you need to check in with somebody else and check that intuition. This is because every move you make is expensive for your client. And so
What do you do if an interviewee is unresponsive, and I don’t mean like they’re no longer living, what if they won’t talk to you about setting up your interview, they’re ghosting you? Maybe you complete the interview with you and then they don’t follow up with the documents they
What do you do when someone hands you hundreds of hours of recordings from the workplace? First of all, you can’t ignore that information. If somebody provided you that evidence of their claim, you’ve got to absorb it and analyze it. But the way that we handle that most frequently
What do you do with hearsay and rumors? You collect them. I tell people quite often things like, “Why do you know that?” or, “Who told you that?” And they’ll tell me, “Oh, I heard it third hand,” or sometimes people will say, “Well, I do know something, but I
