I was recently invited to speak on an Advocates’ Society panel on the subject of privilege of investigation reports. As an investigator who conducts harassment investigations, it was a fascinating discussion because the reasons for attempting to secure privilege over investigation reports of other types were compelling. For organizations dealing with issues such as major
As an external investigator, I conduct investigations for various organizations using their policies and procedures as the basis for my process. Sometimes these organizations include within their policy a requirement that parties and witnesses be given the opportunity to review and sign off on my interview notes, or a statement that I have prepared based
In preparing for an upcoming course on bias, I have been thinking about the potential impacts that various biases might have on the respondent interview in a workplace investigation. While investigators often turn their minds to issues such as racial or cultural bias, as well as biases that might flow from a personal relationship, another
Occasionally I am asked to conduct investigations in remote parts of the country. Through discussions with the client, it is typically agreed that I will travel to one of their regional offices in order to conduct a number of the interviews in person. As I will only be making one trip, it is always important
“I feel the need, the need for speed.” For those of us raised in the 80s, this is the battle cry of Top Gun’s Maverick and Goose. But for many folks tasked with conducting internal workplace investigations, this quote may also call to mind the manager, lawyer, union leader, complainant or Board member that puts
Just last week, I wrote about the Miami Dolphins’ swift and effective response to offensive tweets posted by a player in response to the NFL’s draft of its first openly gay player, Michael Sam. Within a week, news of offensive and sexist e-mails written by Richard Scudamore, the Chief Executive of the Premier League, were
In a workplace investigation, it is not uncommon for complainants and potential witnesses to express concerns about job-related reprisals before speaking to the investigator. Recently, however, I had witnesses in two separate investigations tell me that they did not want to participate for fear of being sued by the respondent, with one witness specifically referencing
This week, approximately one million workers in France in the digital and consultancy sector won a legally-binding agreement protecting them from having to respond to email outside of working hours – that is before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m. There has been much talk since about the effect that limiting email outside of working
