Hi, how are you?
I was wondering if it is common practice or appropriate for an investigator to meet with developed references as a group. The reason i ask, is because the ones they met with were all ppl that i had negative encounters with and since was a group meeting, it is clear they would feed off their negativity.
Thanks in advance
I’m not sure how more than one person could even be interviewed at a time? Were the people being interviewed all waiting together and being brought in 1 by 1?
Oof…that is an odd way to seek efficiency.
My understanding is that they were in the same room together.
The worst possible ppl to interview about me at that.
I’ve heard of an investigator asking a subject to line up a few people to be available at a certain time to be interviewed, but always one at a time.
Were these coworkers or something? I find it difficult to see why an investigator would not only develop so many references but then have them all sit down together.
So you kind of know whatever this “common knowledge” of some behavior is, correct? It is still odd to interview folks together IMHO, but maybe the BI person knows he has a cache of negative info and just wnats three confirmations. I would expect folks to be reluctant to talk in front of others. So I see no added value in the group discussion.
I know what was told to me by investigator but there is noway all 3 of them would know about the issue in question if they were not in the room together.
Again, is till don’t know that is the case or that they all do, i just have a strong feeling that is what happened.
I have already asked for my investigation so that i can be ready just incase i get an SOR. The only reason i am even worried about it, is because one of the ppl they interview was more than hostile towards me and had had many EEO complains against them for a variety of reasons but most commonly, racial.
Yes, they were coworkers. Actually, one of them was a person i had told the initial investigator who had met with me would be “hostile” towards me.
The investigation went smoothly with no issues up until they met with with these ppl who i don’t have any personal interaction with or spent much time around other than work.
Workplace references matter but if it’s just one workplace it won’t ruin your chances at a clearance. Especially if you can explain it. Sounds like he wanted to save time at your work and just get them all at once.
No, we dont interview in groups. Are you 100% positive everyone was interviewed in a one interview group setting? Would be very, very odd.
I have lined up coworkers one after another and if you tell me one of them will be hostile toward you, I’m interviewing them first.
Agree with Fed-inv. It is something that is not done especially to that extent of having 3 in a interview.
It’s definitely fishy if all the people were interviewed at once, rather than back to back. I don’t even see how it could be reported properly unless the investigator asked each person the same questions individually, but at that point it wouldn’t make sense to have them in a group.
Group interviews, which thankfully I have only had very few over the last 20 years, turns into a he said/she said report.
Normally my “group” interviews were from neighbors or ex-spouses having someone sit in with them. I learned a long time ago to be upfront and ask for one spokesperson, then remind the non-spokesperson that helping is cheating. At the end, I always ask the non-spokesperson if there were significant errors or missing issues in the interview – I have never had anyone say yes.
As for the group interview where the investigator “spills” your secrets – that is not how an interview is conducted. We don’t tell folks anything but our names and the privacy act with perhaps a mild humor story to put them at ease.
I suspect that your coworkers know more about you than you realize. This is often the case when I do interviews.
Thanks for responses everyone. Hope everyone had good Tgiv.
No, i am not 100% sure so far, just from what i was told 2nd hand it seems to be the case. I will know more here shortly when i get the paperwork on investigation.