Blog

The Bigger Issue behind the HydroOne Firing...

5/13/2015

The WWW is aflame with the recent firing of a HydroOne employee who showed himself to be a complete ass while on camera. For those of you who have not already seen or heard about the story, here is the link.

I have watched the video and read a few opinion pieces regarding this incident. Some are claiming that HydroOne got themselves a bunch of positive free publicity for firing this individual. Some feel that the punishment was too severe, others feel it was just about perfect.

I am not going to talk about whether or not this act of extremely poor judgement warranted public shaming and loss of a job but I am doing a deep dive into the issue of sexual harassment. How is it even possible in this day and age that women are going into their place of work, in this case a soccer game to do a legitimate job of reporting, and get harassed to this extent? It is vile. I actually am (almost) at a loss for words.

All employers have a duty to ensure that their employees are safe from harassment, sexual or otherwise. So my question is what the hell were CityTV and other networks doing about this issue? Clearly it is not a new phenomenon and these women reporters have been dealing with this for rather too long (well, dealing with it at ALL is entirely unacceptable). When did management know about this level of harassment and what did they do to protect their employees?

And what are all of these employers going to do about this now?

2 Comments

It is my blog and I will rant if I want to...

5/6/2015

0 Comments

Once again…as I do every year, I just finished filling out my Member Satisfaction survey for the HRPAO. For those not in the HR profession in Ontario, this is the Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario. I do not fill in this survey with happy, well done Association platitudes. Nope, every year, I complain about the same things. And yet, every year, shortly after filling out the survey and expressing my disappointment in the lack of support, the onerous professional development requirements, the lack of support for members…I reach into my wallet, grab my credit card and renew my membership for another year.

Every year, I swear…this will be the last year I will renew…I get no value out of the Association. And every year, I renew. Every.Single.Year. This year I will do so for the express purpose of saving hundreds of dollars on my Good Life membership.

Back in the day, when I was bright eyed and ambitious and eager to have letters after my name, I embraced the designation. I had the prerequisites; the university degree, the work experience, and so I studied hard, during a pre term labour scare in the hospital, I might add. After all this prep, and days before I went into labour for real, I sat in the exam room and wrote my exams. And I got my letters. I was proud. I had my employer print up new cards, it was an exciting and proud moment.

At some point, the HRPAO determined that one did not need a university degree and loosened the requirements to get the letters. This undermined the process that I and many others went through. Apparently I have different letters now…I am not entirely clear on why, but now I have to change my business cards again.

Every so often, I go on the website and think dear God, they have taken this concept of supporting HR professionals in Ontario and made it unnecessarily complicated and confusing. I think it is time to get back to basics with this Association, but I am not sure anyone knows what that is anymore.

0 Comments

Ouch, that hurts...HR is not all bad.

4/15/2014

0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal recently printed an article about the increasing number of companies choosing to do away with their HR department, and find new ways of dealing with such HR related issues as hiring, firing and compensation.

The moral of the story is sometimes the only thing worse than having an HR department is not having one. Naturally, I took offense to this…for a number of reasons.

First of all, I am going to take the controversial stance that a lot of companies probably do not need a full fledged HR department, but they do need access to HR expertise.

Secondly, the implication is that HR is a necessary evil at best and a completely useless expense at worst. So do away with your useless expense, only to realize that you did need that necessary evil. This is not very flattering.

Sigh...us HR types take this stuff personally, for the most part, we like what we do and we think what we do adds value. We do understand that not everyone gets as excited about a well thought out and relevant Performance Appraisal system as we do, and seeing a compensation strategy come together does not cause the intake of breath for others like it does for someone who truly believes a good compensation program is the stuff of gods. We get it, we really do...but good HR advice, guidance and direction is necessary in the majority of organizations.

Managers can and should handle a lot of what has traditionally been punted to the HR department. Managers are the best ones to deal with their employees, they do know them best. However, sometimes they need guidance, or advice or someone to bounce ideas off. And let’s not forget the amount of legislation that comes with having employees. There is middle ground; it is not an all or nothing proposition anymore. If your organization needs occasional HR guidance and advice, hey, that is what someone like me is here for.

Thanks to the Wall Street Journal for giving me an excuse to talk about HR Matters and alternative solutions to investing in a full time HR person or department.

0 Comments

The Bigger Issue behind the HydroOne Firing...

It is my blog and I will rant if I want to...

Ouch, that hurts...HR is not all bad.

Author

Categories