Company investigation

dozy:
I’m not worried about the investigation , I’m just more bothers how with all the evidence avaliable you’d get my name , and then why procedure or not you’d have a investigation if there is one
I’m baffled how it seems depot bloke pretty quickly realised it wasn’t me but bloke who I assumed first got notified by customer just by the sound of it took as gospel , and if you assume bg site sent my name through where did they get it from as I’ve never been on one of those sites

An “investigation” means whatever they want it to mean. I suspect it just means they want to have a sit-down meeting and a Q&A that is formally recorded.

They might have ended up with your name for a variety of reasons. Maybe someone has bungled the handling of the initial complaint and looked at the wrong paperwork to get your name, or maybe they looked at the right paperwork which contained the wrong information. Either way, it wouldn’t say much for your firm’s competence and repute in the eyes of the customer. Or maybe the customer misremembered or relayed the wrong registration number of the vehicle, whose irate driver went speeding off through a cloud of cigarette smoke without leaving his name. Or maybe the guilty driver simply knew your name, and gave yours instead of his own when asked for it.

It’s also worth remembering that many managers are cronies who are desirable to their superiors for their loyalty or obedience, not for their displays of leadership, initiative, or organisational competence, and so the managers who know you personally and who have no suspicions about you, may simply be doing as they are told - the fact that it’s all an inefficient charade is then besides the point for those managers, which is slavish compliance. Other managers are just bull ■■■■■■■■■ who will pretend to be your friend and say “oh yes we know it wasn’t you”, when really they have no strong opinion, don’t know your smoking habits, and whose default approach is to trust nothing they are told by their subordinates.

Or there might just be a genuine reason why they are being thorough and methodical about it - if they intend to dismiss or seriously reprimand the guilty driver without his admission or consent, then they need to ensure that they can show that he’s responsible and nobody else, and that they’ve completely and systematically exonerated other potential suspects who have fallen into the net for whatever reason (and recorded what those other suspects had to say about the allegations).

All in all, I’d relax, happy in the knowledge that somewhere between tacho records, planning sheets, PODs, gate passes, CCTV, your non-smoker status, and so on, there must be an overwhelming amount of evidence to exonerate you of any allegation they choose to put to you, but there’s probably nothing you can do to stop them having a sit-down meeting with you about it, as long as it’s paid time on the clock.