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Good to know

9/29/2015

As you may have heard by now, there is an election coming up! And despite your weariness with the phone calls, the idiotic ads and the door to door campaigning, as an employer, you have one more thing to handle. Yes, you do have to let your employees go and vote. And no, you cannot dock their pay. However, as an employer, your obligation is to provide all your employees with 3 consecutive hours off to vote. Given most polls are open at least 12 hours on election day, it is certainly possible to work around this.

Don't risk the $2,000 fine by failing to provide this 3 hour window to your employees. In fact, the $2,000 fine might be preferable to the 3 months of jail time that could be a consequence of interfering with the Canada Elections Act.

And finally...go out and vote yourself...exercise your Constitutional right!

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Workplace Bullying...Why You Should Care

12/17/2014

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We have all been made aware of workplace bullying in the past few years. There have been changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act to address this situation; employees have been awarded enormous damages due to workplace bullying (Boucher vs. Walmart Canada); businesses are popping up to address the new concerns that come along with workplace bullying (external investigators, training providers etc). And yet, it still happens.

Is it because there is a fundamental misunderstanding between what a manager believes is constructive criticism and what an employee feels is bullying? It is NOT bullying for a manager to correct or provide feedback or otherwise manage poor performance or behavior issues. As an HR professional, we often have to address this issue. Certainly, some managers could use some fine tuning in how they deal with performance issues, especially repeated issues that cause increased frustration for the manager or supervisor, but it does not follow that it is harassment or bullying. This is a fine distinction and can be a “he said/she said” type of situation.

There are plenty of websites that lay out in specific detail what constitutes bullying but the common theme amongst the definition is that it is sustained and repeated. A one time loss of control on someone’s part is not bullying, although depending on the severity of the loss of control, it certainly could be unlawful. In fact, even if the behavior is bullying, it is possible that the alleged bully does not have malicious intent, they could be frustrated, overworked, or just not that tuned into the perception they are projecting.

Regardless, bullying takes its toll on a business. Absenteeism, poor behavior, sick leave expenses, benefit claims, turnover, all will impact the bottom line. This is why businesses should care. Train managers on how to appropriately discipline employees, train everyone on what is bullying and what is not acceptable in your workplace. As business owners, take a look at the culture that you have…is it abusive, and contributing to a bullying environment? If so, get real about the impact on your bottom line, not to mention what the word on the street is about your business. Maybe you don’t care, but enough people out there do, and it will come back to haunt you. Just look at Walmart – a claim of bullying against them netted an award to the employee to the tune of $1,450,000.00, this has since been dropped to $410,000 appeal, but really, what company wants to incur a completely unnecessary expense just because a supervisor or manager promotes a bullying environment.

Apart from being wrong, it also makes no business sense.

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A bit late to the kicking post - Weighing in on Ghomesi

12/9/2014

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Dear God, what a Human Resources nightmare! It has been a couple of months since this story broke and I have been refraining from commenting as I feared I could not be objective. Immediately following the news that Ghomeshi had been fired, one was inclined to feel a bit sorry for the poor old terminated, if somewhat pervy sod. Big bad CBC had struck again. Then more news came out that Ghomeshi was actually a predator and abuser, but still, that seemed at best a moral issue, at worst, a criminal one…again not something one would expect an employer to weigh in on. And now, an outpouring of women, interviews with key players, charges that all seem to point this being quite the debacle. And I feel I can now be objective…all players in this pile of dung need a kick in the head:

Ghomeshi – obviously. I do not need to go into more detail as to why.

The CBC – their mishandling of the rumours, informal complaints and formal complaints is stunning. I have watched the Fifth Estate program on the issue and while worth a watch, it smacks of a cover up job. Someone is going down for this, we just have to wait and see who.

The Union – the latest to come out is that they have issued a statement to their members. If the reports I have read are true, one of the women went to the union regarding the harassment she faced, and the union also failed to do anything about it. It seems the union is now indignant about an investigation that surely should have begun the minute THEY had word of a complaint.

I do wonder what I would have done had I been in the Human Resources department at CBC. Would I have had the courage to stand up to the CBC and the union? I like to think I would have, but it is quite possible I would have just gone along with what seemed to be the culture – “Protect the Stars”. I would love to talk to an employee in the HR department at CBC, just to find out how truly deep this went, how much they knew and what the instructions to them were. I hope the investigation yields some of these answers. I am following this story with avid interest, but I worry at how long this will all take. Will we forget about all of this by the time a report comes out? And will anything change?

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Privacy over life and limb, Part 2

3/26/2014

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Back in June, I wrote a blog about a ruling regarding random drug and alcohol testing. This issue has reared its head again, as there was a ruling today during arbitration regarding Suncor and their application to apply random drug and alcohol testing to their employees.

More information can be found in this CBC news article.

I will be following this closely, and am interested in other people's thoughts and opinions on what seems to be an issue keeps popping up.

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Good to know

Workplace Bullying...Why You Should Care

A bit late to the kicking post - Weighing in on Ghomesi

Privacy over life and limb, Part 2

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