Workplace bullying deconstructed
As lawyers who conduct both workplace investigations and workplace assessments, we often hear from employees who have been the target of workplace bullying.
Category: Bystander Intervention
Respect at Work Training – why now?
We’ve been hearing much talk about the “Great Resignation” – specifically, between April and September 2021, more than 24 million American employees left their jobs, an all-time record. While the same hasn’t yet been seen in Canada, experts speculate that this may just be delayed…
The secure bystander: How psychological safety can impact bystander interventions
Do you remember that story about the emperor who ordered some new clothes from a pair of weavers? The new suit will be really special, said the weavers, invisible, in fact, to fools and the incompetent. When the emperor and his noblemen saw the weavers working on their empty looms, they had their doubts. Am I a fool? Are these guys for real? But, they did not dare to say anything.
Excerpt from City of Toronto Equity Symposium Keynote by Janice Rubin
During the last several months, many of you have probably found yourself waking up in the morning and thinking: who’s next? Which towering figure from the world of entertainment, art, politics, restaurants, media — you name it — will be toppled due to accusations of sexual harassment? I am an employment lawyer who has worked
Under reported but not unknown: More on motivating workplace bystanders
As the news brings daily revelations about workplace harassment, and in particular sexual harassment, we continue to think about additional tools employers and other institutions can leverage to combat the problem. At Rubin Thomlinson, we believe that one of the most invaluable and underutilized tools that employers have in their workplace harassment tool kits is
Employers shouldn’t stand-by if they don’t want their employees to, and other lessons from RT’s Workplace Bystander Survey
Although there is a lot of buzz around bystanders these days, most of this discussion relates to encouraging bystander interventions in order to curb sexual harassment and violence on university campuses. At Rubin Thomlinson, this has got us thinking: What about workplaces? Why isn’t anyone talking about bystanders in the context of workplaces? As the
Harnessing the power of the bystander: Consider the case of the Brampton firefighters
What makes a bystander tick? Why would someone who witnessed workplace harassment or discrimination, but who was not themself subject to it, complain? What would compel that person to intervene in an ongoing situation? What prompts someone to make an anonymous call to alert their employer of problematic workplace behaviour? A recent arbitral case, The
