Portrait of a Workplace Bully

August 2, 2016August 2, 2016 Carol Irwin

You may or may not be surprised to hear that bullying doesn’t just happen at the playground of the local public school or in a high school cafeteria. The act of bullying is seen everywhere – at schools, social gatherings and even in the work place.

In the workplace, bullying is defined as a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others that causes harm. It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, physical abuse and humiliation.

Some examples of workplace bullying include:

Spreading malicious rumours, gossip, or innuendo that is not true.
Excluding or isolating someone socially.
Intimidating a person.
Undermining or deliberately impeding a person’s work.
Physically abusing or threatening abuse.
Establishing impossible deadlines that will set up the individual to fail.
Withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information.
Making jokes that are ‘obviously offensive’ by spoken word or e-mail.
Intruding on a person’s privacy by pestering, spying or stalking.
Underwork – creating a feeling of uselessness.
Yelling or using profanity.
Belittling a person’s opinions.
Unwarranted (or undeserved) punishment.
Blocking applications for training, leave or promotion.
Tampering with a person’s personal belongings or work equipment.

Workplace Bullying Solutions

The solutions available to combat workplace bullying are plentiful, but the tactics used definitely depend on who the bully is. With most cases of workplace bullying, there are things that can be done to help the situation by all those involved from the staff level to management.

If the workplace bully is a manager or a people leader, the best solutions for an employee, outside of making a formal complaint to upper management, is to try to intervene and change the dynamics early on. For example, if you know your boss resorts to bullying under stress, try to minimize the stress factors. If the boss is having a bad day, reschedule unnecessary meetings until their mood is better. However, these solutions are temporary, getting to the root of the problem is key. After exhausting other solutions such as setting limits or speaking to your co-workers, the next logical step is to make a formal complaint.

As a manager who has to deal with a workplace bully, work with the parties involved to address the issue and come up with a solution that works for everyone. Speak privately to both parties. Ensure that the person who is being bullied does not retaliate and keeps a log of all incidents.

Management’s Role

While bullying is a form of aggression, the actions can be both obvious and subtle. It is important to note that bullying is usually considered to be a pattern of behaviour where one or more incidents will help show that bullying is taking place. As a leader in your organization be acutely aware of changes in dynamics or other factors that could mean a bullying situation is happening. Workplace bullying can quickly escalate if the behavior is not challenged. Identifying and managing a workplace bully early on, helps to lessen the impacts on the work environment. Failure to act by management on any known cases of workplace bullying could have a huge impact on staff morale, performance, sick leave and staff turnover.

Stop Office Noise from Ruining Your Day!

April 26, 2016 Carol Irwin

One of the top employee complaints about the workplace is office noise. Noise typically ranks in the number two spot behind complaints about the office temperature.

The trend in office design in the last decade has been the open concept office. Companies have ditched the cubicles, reduced square footage and replaced permanent walls with glass partitions or displays of art, fabric or plants. The open concept office is modern, collaborative and accommodates a mobile workforce that is no longer tied to a desk, city or even country.

At first glance the open concept office can look appealing. Large open space to move around. Windows with natural light to brighten the space. Meeting tables for gathering over morning coffee and team meetings. High energy hum of busy people all around you. In some workplaces, ping pong tables, comfy chairs, an espresso machine and even snacks for break times. It all sounds great, right?

The trouble is this environment is not ideal for some personalities or for certain types of work. Some people are also far more sensitive to loud noise. If you work in an open concept office you might describe the office noise level as similar to being in the middle of a parade or band practice!

There are lots of pros to having an open concept, but there are downsides too. Preference for open concept vs. closed office space depends a lot on a person’s personality, work style and the specific job.

Even for those who prefer the open concept office, noise is a real distraction. Noise distractions can come from many sources – first there is your co-workers talking and laughing, some much louder than others; then there is the normal bumps and bangs of opening and closing doors, cabinets and drawers; and there is also the beeping, buzzing, ringing, and clicking of office phones and equipment. In an open concept office, it can be very difficult to focus on your work, while trying not to listen to the meeting or phone conversation going on a few feet away.

There are a few things companies and employees can do to manage office noise:

Create dedicated spaces for quiet activities, such as an office or unused meeting room.
Increase the background noise by installing a white noise machine – this system emits a low level air flow sound that helps muffle speech and other distracting office sounds.
Ask staff to try using headphones to block out noise around them. The large over the ear type headphone is better than an earbud style.
Add sound absorbing materials such as plants to your space.
Increase flexibility to work from home for part of the workweek.
Assign a certain time of day as “quiet time” or an entire office area as the “quiet zone”.
Come up with a system that easily allows other people to know who is available to chat and who is busy – your own “do not disturb” sign at your computer.
Encourage staff to discuss noise distractions and come up with unique solutions.

Commuting Stress – Tips to Make Your Commute to Work Less Stressful

March 29, 2016 Carol Irwin

How to Enjoy Getting to and from Work and Reduce Stress Associated with Your Daily Commute

If you work in an urban area and commute daily you know the frustration of dealing with traffic delays, missed buses, crowded trains and commuting stress. A survey from the Angus Reid Institute reports almost 3 in 5 people (58%) in the Greater Toronto Area spend more than 30 minutes commuting to work. 12% of commuters spend more than one hour commuting to work each day.

Some people can alter their start and end times to avoid heavy traffic, others can opt to work from home occasionally, for others carpooling might be an option and some people might even consider riding their bike to work. However, for many people these are not viable options, so how can you improve your commute to work?

One of the reasons people find commuting so stressful and frustrating is the tendency to focus on the negative. People get angry about the bumper to bumper traffic, bad drivers, crowded trains, the late bus, and the time wasted commuting. One way to manage your commuting stress is to be prepared for slowdowns, delays, and the typical problems associated with your commute. These events should not take you by surprise. You know your commute will take you a certain amount of time, and on some days this time might even double, so be prepared to spend the time doing something positive.

Use your commuting time to engage in something you truly enjoy. This approach may just turn your commute from the time of day you dread to a time of relaxation. Your in car stereo or smart phone allows you to access a wide variety of media entertainment that can improve your commute. You might even find yourself sitting in your driveway listening to the end of a chapter from an interesting book.

Relaxing Ways to spend time Commuting to Work:

listen to music,
catch up on a favourite news podcast,
listen to a novel – if you enjoy reading and drive to work, listening to a book is a great way to spend time in your car – use your cd player or download a book to your smart phone
learn something new – listen to a non-fiction book, webinar, TED talk, Lynda.com training, or other on-line learning on your smart phone
call a friend or your mom and catch up
enjoy the relative quiet inside your car – mediate and engage in some deep breathing – eyes open please
plan your next vacation, party or day off in your head
use the record feature on your smart phone to “talk to yourself” – record your thoughts and observations, make a to do list, prepare for a meeting, rhyme, sing, or philosophize…

If you commute on public transit you have even more choice of relaxing activities:

read a book, magazine, newspaper
watch a movie, TV series, YouTube, music videos… make sure you use headphones so your media does not disturb people around you
catch up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or whatever social media you enjoy using
people watching can be fun
sleep – make sure you set an alarm and use the vibrate feature or headphones

You can manage your commuting stress by choosing to do something you enjoy. Plan ahead so you can turn the daily commuter grind into time well spent for yourself.

International Women’s Day – Gender Wage Gap in Canada

March 8, 2016 Carol Irwin 2 Comments

March 8 is International Women’s Day – A day to Celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and to Pledge to Take Action to Continue the Advance of Gender Parity.

Despite many advancements for women globally, the progress towards gender parity has slowed. The World Economic Forum has reported that gender parity may not be achieved until 2133.

In Canada, we are still struggling with the gender wage gap. Despite advancements since the 1960s, the wage gap has plateaued in recent years. Statistics Canada reports that women earn approximately 73 cents for every dollar earned by men. The gap is even greater for Indigenous women and women of colour.

The reasons for the wage gap are complex. In the past, education was cited as a major reason contributing to the disparity between men and women’s wages. This is no longer the case as the number of post secondary graduates are approximately equal for men and women. However, women still tend to work in occupations that traditionally have lower wages than men. For example, men dominate STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. Even in careers where women dominate, such as nursing, men still earn more on average. Another contributing factor to the wage gap relates to women leaving the workforce for childcare responsibilities. When women take time off for childcare they give up salary and growth potential, often at a critical time in their careers. In many organizations there is considerable secrecy around salaries which may contribute to the disparity. If women knew they were earning less than a colleague, they would be motivated to negotiate a salary increase.

What can your organization do to tackle this issue:

Review your wages and establish equality,
Consider a transparency policy for wages,
Support both men and women, who take time off for childcare responsibilities,
Implement mentorship programs that target men and women for leadership roles,
Encourage women to enter traditional male dominated fields by offering internships to new graduates.

To find out about International Women’s Day events happening in your community go to the International Women’s Day website.

Remote Work – 70% of Canadian Millennials Prefer to Work Remotely

January 12, 2016January 13, 2016 Carol Irwin

Is it Time for Your Business to Seriously Consider the Advantages of Offering Remote Work?

The workplace is changing and as a business you need to be aware of the current trends and make smart decisions about what your future workplace will look like. For many years, analysts have been preparing Canadian employers for the shifts in the population and there has been a lot of discussion about the different generations of workers: boomers, gen x, millennials, gen z… According to Statics Canada the overall Canadian workforce is shrinking which will make finding and retaining good employees more challenging in the future. The largest generational group in the Canadian workforce now are the Millennials, surpassing the baby boomers. The Millennials are influencing many changes in the Canadian workplace landscape.

Remote work is one of those big changes that your company may be considering in 2016.

Many jobs can be successfully performed remotely, at least a portion of the work week. Here are some key reasons to consider offering remote work at your workplace:

Attract and Retain Talent: To attract and retain the talent you are looking for you may want to consider offering remote work – 70% of Canadian Millennials would like to work remotely.
Widen the Talent Pool: Opportunity to hire the best employees, regardless of their geographic location.
Increase Productivity: Studies show that employees who work from home are more productive. More time to focus on individual assignments and less distractions may contribute to the increase in productivity.
Reduction in Absenteeism: Employees who work from home take fewer sick days. They also tend not to take time off for other personal reasons and choose to work around their personal schedule and appointments.
Happier Employees = Cost Savings: Employees who work from home tend to be happier. The ability to balance work and family life is one contributor to this factor. Happier employees are also more productive and take less time off work.
Healthier Employees = Cost Savings: Employees who work from home have the opportunity to maintain a healthier lifestyle and often do this by eating healthier at home and taking time out during the day for exercise. Healthier employees will save employers money in the long term by being more productive, taking less time off work and keeping benefit plan costs down.
Employee Loyalty and Retention: Employees who have the opportunity to work remotely will generally be very appreciative and value their work life balance, creating more employee loyalty in a time when most people do not stay more than 2 to 3 years at a job.
Potential Cost Savings : Cost saving opportunities may come from smaller office spaces, including reduction in rent, office equipment, supplies and utility costs. Other cost savings may come from reduced turnover of staff and increased productivity.

Medical Marijuana at Work

December 22, 2015December 22, 2015 Audra Sayn-Wittgenstein

The legalization of medical marijuana in Ontario and its use in public places is a sensational and confusing topic.

Business managers have lots of questions about how to handle medical marijuana at work. The rights of users of medical marijuana and the people who may be exposed to it in public places appear to be conflicting. Employers and business owners are fearful of breaching human rights as this new law doesn’t seem to consider everyone’s rights, putting the patient ahead of the general public.

Marijuana’s history as an illegal drug has made the legalization of medical marijuana very complex. People worry about exposure to marijuana smoke in public places and its effects on bystander health, safety and things like employment drug testing results. Employers worry about how to handle the risks of medical marijuana in the workplace. Though the legislation is now enacted, the government has acknowledged that there are issues that still need to be figured out and changes may be made with regards to marijuana use in public places.

It is important to acknowledge the value of medical marijuana as a treatment similar to that of many other prescription drugs. Medical marijuana is prescribed by physicians to manage health conditions like nausea, vomiting, pain or muscle spasticity when other medications do not work. It is occasionally used in emergency situations to manage acute symptoms. Over time, other indications for marijuana prescriptions will be identified. Side-effects can include cognitive impairment to the user. Marijuana is considered useful but not a first choice treatment for symptom management. Marijuana is available in many different pharmaceutical and herbal forms. Patients can ingest it orally via tablets, food, teas, or juices; inhale it via sprays, smokeless vaporizers, or burn and smoke it (like cigarettes); apply it to skin with lotions, oils, balms and creams; or, place it under the tongue as drops of concentrated tincture. Each method works a bit differently but there are many options available for patients to take marijuana. Accessing it legally is highly regulated, similar to other controlled prescription drugs.

There are many safety controls that currently exist in our health care, business management and government systems to manage the issues related to the use of controlled drugs, like medical marijuana. Many prescription and non-prescription drugs are already used in employment settings. The current intense public interest about medically prescribed marijuana demands that health professionals and business managers work together with employees to comply with workplace policies and respect employee rights.

Employers need to be aware that:

Employees have the responsibility of notify the employer if they are taking prescription medication that may interfere with work duties. They do not necessarily have to disclose the medication name.
Employees using medical marijuana do not have the right to be impaired at work or work unsafely.
The legislation about public medical marijuana use indicates that business owners may override the right to use marijuana in their business settings if it conflicts with existing workplace policies and laws.
Employers can consult physicians regarding the employee’s functional abilities if there are concerns about worker impairment that may interfere with workplace safety. Physicians are qualified to measure the benefits and risks of this drug’s use. Business managers need to communicate clearly with health professionals regarding the hazards of safety-sensitive work activities so physicians can make informed recommendations regarding the patient’s job duties and work environment.
Employees with medical ailments have the right to accommodation at work. Accommodation decisions must consider issues related to patient, other employees and the employer needs.
Business policies worth reviewing include workplace safety procedures related to worker impairment and exposure to marijuana by other workers, medication use in the workplace, employment drug testing, and disability accommodation. Drug and alcohol policies should include references to prescription and non-prescription drugs and the employee’s responsibility to report impairment or medical treatments that may affect their ability to work safely. The consequences of non-reporting and discipline policies should also be re-examined.

Employers need to deal with this issue with compassion and common sense with the goal of maintaining workplace management and safety best practices and employee dignity. Review and minor modifications of existing policies may be all that is required.

One can expect the marijuana laws in Ontario will change over time as problems are identified and improvements are made. In the mean while, employers can demonstrate due diligence related to medical marijuana use at work by keeping up to date regarding the legislation, regularly reviewing business policies and striving towards safe and effective work practices that respect all employees in the workplace.