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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Maybe not that GIF: Digital blackface and other ways in which anti-Black racism may present in the workplace

Call it a job perk? As a workplace investigator, I not infrequently get questions from friends, family, people I’ve just met, about whether Situation XYZ may be an example of discrimination and/or harassment. A recent discussion about digital blackface led me to think of other possible examples of how anti-Black stereotypes and microaggressions can manifest in the modern workplace.

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Is disparity dishonesty? On the Dolly Parton challenge and credibility

Did you see the Dolly Parton Challenge meme that went viral in January 2020?
Initiated by American singer Dolly Parton, participants in the Challenge composite four photographs of themselves labelled, “LinkedIn”, “Facebook”, “Instagram”, and “Tinder”. The idea is that each photograph presents a version of the user that corresponds to a different professional, social, or romantic context. The humour in the meme lies in confessional self-awareness – a person can appear and act in one context in a way that might seem awkward or inappropriate in another.

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Taming Twitter: 5 ways to manage customer-driven harassment of employees on social media

For any modern, public-facing organization, a social media presence has come to feel less like a “nice feature” and more like an absolute “must-have” to stay competitive and relevant. In particular, today’s customers demand and, indeed, expect a social media platform where they can receive succinct, immediate, one-on-one support without having to interact with a

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Solicitation through social media

It is common practice in Ontario for employers to restrict a departing employee’s ability to solicit employer customers, suppliers, current employees, etc.  Although many such clauses specify particular actions that are prohibited, very few turn their mind to governing a departing employee’s actions on social media. As the Canadian courts have not yet ruled on

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Don’t like your “f**k a** job”? Tweeting about it is probably a bad idea

In the latest incident of an employee’s social media activity landing him/herself in hot water with an employer, media outlets reported earlier this week that a young woman in Texas was fired before her first day on the job, after allegedly tweeting the following: “Ew, I start this f**k a**job tomorrow.” The employee’s apparent disdain

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“F**k it – I quit!”: Perils of the YouTube-worthy resignation

Earlier this week, Charlo Greene, a reporter for KTVA News in Anchorage, Alaska, issued a dramatic “live-to-air” resignation that no doubt stunned viewers and her in-studio colleagues alike. Following a pre-taped report on the Alaska Cannabis Club (which, according to its Facebook page, “is a medical marijuana collective organized to serve patients throughout Alaska”), Ms.

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Does the application process of a potential employer make you want to projectile vomit? If so, keep it to yourself

On January 14, 2014, a Twitter user by the name of DJ PU$$ PU$$ made a critical error in judgment. While completing her application for admission to the HBA program at the Ivey Business School, she tweeted: “this ivey application makes me want to projectile vomit into the head of admission’s mouth”. Of course, the

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Tweet, Tweet! – “A little bird told me”: Employee dismissed after twitter post comes to employer’s attention

In the latest incident of an employee’s social media activity landing him/herself in hot water with an employer, media outlets reported last week that a Toronto-area mechanic was fired after allegedly tweeting the following: “Any dealers in Vaughan wanna make a 20sac chop?  Come to Keele/ Langstaff Mr. Lube, need a spliff or two to

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