DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK QUESTIONS OF HEARING OFFICER

   The representative should have no inhibitions about his role in the hearing. In his zeal to represent his fellow employee he is allowed a great deal of latitude.

   But the hearing officer is continually on trial! His dual capacity as protector of the company's interests and dispenser of justice is a precarious and vulnerable position indeed. How better can his impartiality and fairness be tested than under fire?

   In many investigations the hearing officer is an officer (such as Superintendent) who has authority to draft rules, interpret and enforce them. The hearing officer is not exempted from answering questions when they are pertinent to the investigation and directed to his knowledge of facts and issues.

   If you have prepared a series of interlocking questions, the impromptu answers by the hearing officer might leave the record such that he will not want the general officers to review it. It has been a device of some successful representatives to purposely foul up the record for this very reason.