Harassment Investigation Challenge: Who is Telling the Truth?
By Dan Gephart, September 29, 2020
If you’re a regular reader of Barbara Haga’s articles in our monthly newsletter (and if you’re not, what’s wrong with you?), you may have noticed a common thread weaved within her last two articles.
Sometimes, federal employees lie.
Earlier this month, Barbara told the tale of an FAA civil engineer who was asked point blank if she used her work computer “for unofficial personal reasons while on duty for any reason.” Her reply was a simple “no.” Unfortunately for the engineer, the agency had already compiled an Internet history of the computer in question and found more than 33,968 nonwork-related transactions on sites, such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. Further investigation revealed that the employee was actually running her Etsy business from her work computer.
A month earlier, Barbara wrote about an employee who denied sending inappropriate text messages, many of a racist nature, on her phone by replying “I do not admit to the validity of these messages.”
In both of these cases, the agency had one thing going for it – a lot of evidence.
But when you’re doing investigation of hostile work environment harassment, sometimes there isn’t much evidence, so you end up with the classic he said/she said situation. How do you determine credibility, especially when there is so much raw emotion involved? And how do you do it during a pandemic, when the interviews are being done remotely?
Next week, October 6-8, 2020, FELTG will present the virtual training Conducting Effective Harassment Investigations. On the third and final day of the seminar, FELTG instructor Meghan Droste will cover everything from interviews to writing the report, including a module on determining credibility.
First off, the EEOC has recognized that being able to see a witness is crucial to gauging credibility, so be sure that you have a reliable webcast platform like Zoom or Skype. Although you’re no longer in the same room, you should still be able to read demeanor and body language.
Here’s what you do: Start with easy questions. Monitor how the employee moves, including facial expressions. This sets a baseline for how the interviewee will react when telling the truth. Then start to toss in tougher questions. Look for a difference in reactions. Has the employee’s pitch or speech rate changed? What about eye contact? Are they fidgeting at all? Are their answers limiting details or are they adding more? Are they answering your questions with the same amount of certainty?
You can learn a lot from body language. Or, you may learn very little, because body language is a highly-contested area of credibility findings. Therefore, you can’t rely on just body language to make a determination. There are several other ways that truth, or more accurately, lies can be revealed.
Consider the following:
- Detail. How specific was the witness’s testimony? Did the witness deny the allegations in detail or just generally? Did anyone leave out important or obvious information during the interview?
- Corroboration/Conflict. Are the conflicts over minor or significant issues? Does the witness’s testimony contradict other testimony? Was the witness’s story consistent through the testimony or did it change on a second telling?
- Plausibility. Which story make the most sense? Are the details in the testimony realistic?
- Motive. Does the employee have a motive to lie about, exaggerate, or deny the incident? Do any of the witnesses have special loyalty to or a grudge against anyone involved in the incident?
- Past record. Have there been any prior incidents between the complaining and accused employee? Does the accused have a history of this type of misconduct?
- Demeanor. Was anybody’s reaction unusual, as compared to their typical demeanor?
Again, you can’t rely on any one of these factors when determining credibility. But taken as a whole, you should be able to develop some sense of who is telling the truth. [email protected]