The Three Most Powerful Words in an Employment Investigation: "Tell Me About..."
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Taking a statement from an employee in a workplace investigation is an acquired skill, most investigators don’t have sufficient opportunity to practice or perfect. At this point in my career, I have represented clients in over 1,500 workplace investigations, from both sides of the table. I previously represented employees and now exclusively represent employers. I have come to the conclusion there are three words which can cause employees to drip sweat, and can strike fear in most union representatives. Those three words are; “Tell me about…” as in “Tell me about the pornographic sites found in your computer history;” “Tell me about why you were late for work;” “Tell me about the car accident with the company truck;” or “Tell me about the conversation you had with ...”
Asking an open-ended question invites the employee to provide a narrative response, likely to be broad in scope, and extremely helpful to the investigator. If asked as the very first question in the statement, it can provide an opportunity for the investigator to observe the demeanor of the employee, assess the employee’s comfort level with the process, and perhaps help in developing opinions about truth and veracity. Those three powerful words are extremely difficult for a union representative, because they make it difficult to predict what the employee will say in response, and they make it harder for the union to interfere with the statement.
Several weeks ago I presented a three hour course on investigations called, “How to Take the Best Internal Affairs Statement of Your Career,” and shared these three most powerful words. I advised all those attending the class, that if they remembered one thing from the class, they should remember the three powerful words, “Tell me about…” The quality of responses and the volume of information obtained from the employee being questioned will be greatly enhanced, resulting in a more complete investigative statement.
For those wondering, the next question to ask after, “Tell me about,” is either, “Anything else?” or “What happened next?” Short prompting questions at this point will keep the employee talking, and provide even more valuable information to the investigator.
