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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Rudeness is not a Russian personality trait

When I’m conducting training sessions on human rights and respect at work, I predictably talk about how people can be found liable for breaching the Human Rights Code even if they didn’t intend to offend.  Someone will usually then ask whether that means that anyone can complain about behaviour that they find offensive, even if

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On the first day of Christmas…

If, like me, you estimate that you’ve heard this holiday tune about a million times, then you have probably wondered on more than one occasion, what kind of gifts are these?  A partridge?  I don’t care that it comes with a pear tree. Hens? Geese? I mean, other than the five golden rings (to which

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More isn’t always better: What can happen when employers receive too much medical information

In a case reported by the CBC last week, a Yellowknife woman said that she was distraught after a detailed report about her mental health was released to her employer.  The woman has a mental illness and agreed to a psychiatric assessment because she was seeking various workplace accommodations.  She says that she never agreed

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Expect the unexpected: Employees (and Rob Ford) on sick leave

I spent much of this past weekend poring over the news associated with Rob Ford’s departure from the Toronto mayoral race due to ill health. Despite feeling sympathy for Mr. Ford and wishing him a speedy recovery, there were voters and columnists who spoke of their disappointment at being deprived of the opportunity to cast

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TIFF: Life imitating art?

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a TIFF Premiere this past weekend for the film “Welcome to Me”.  In case you’re not familiar with the film, it tells the story of a woman, Alice, who suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder and wins $86 million in the lottery. The film focuses on the

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The “boomerang employee” – Think before re-hiring the “comeback kid”

This past weekend, I was fascinated to read Leah Eichler’s story in the Globe and Mail about “Boomerang Employees.”  Having never heard the term, I was interested to learn that it refers to an employee who leaves an organization only to later return to that same organization for a second term of employment, presumably after

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I’ve won the lottery!

Ok, not literally.  But if you have kids who have gone to overnight camp, you know what I mean – it’s like being at adult camp.  And this year, my kids decided that they wanted to go for the whole summer!  When I share this with people and see the corresponding looks on their faces,

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“Help! The World Cup is turning my employees into crazy people!”

If you’ve seen photographs or video footage of the home town crowds watching World Cup games in this tournament so far, then you might be asking yourself, “Don’t these people have jobs?” The fact is, many of them do and at least some of them are likely skipping out on those jobs in order to

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