The National, CBC
Media / Opinion / Pundit Selections
“When employers police your private life,” MacLean’s National Magazine
By Toban Dyck, 25 October 2012
Michael Brutsch, a Texan who worked in financial services, and Justin Hutchings, a former Mr. Big and Tall employee from Ontario, have both been fired recently for messages they posted online, on their own time.
The cases of Brutsch (Reddit username: Violentacrez), who shared pictures of scantily clad, underage girls and images of women getting beaten on various forums called subreddits, and Hutchings, who posted a negative comment on Amanda Todd’s tribute page on Facebook, have raised tough questions over the extent to which HR departments may be called on to police employee behavior in the age of social media.
“Some Mounties Cool to Workplace Probe,” CBC News
By Parliamentary Reporter Alison Crawford, 19 August 2010
“Some Mounties are unhappy with a probe into the workplace environment of the RCMP, an assessment sparked by complaints over the management style of the force’s top boss…
Blaine Donais, president of the Workplace Fairness Institute in Toronto, said it’s important that people feel secure enough to open up during such investigations.
“You have to have a process that makes people feel comfortable coming forward. If your process is discouraging people from coming forward, then you’ve got a problem,” he said.
“Office Blonde Jokes No Laughing Matter,” Globe and Mail
By Dave McGinn, November 2009
Have you heard the one about the boss who liked to make blonde jokes? He’s being sued.
As a discrimination lawsuit a Canadian has brought against her former boss in Britain shows, fair-haired women don’t always fare so well at work, where they are constantly battling the stereotype that they are ditzy…
“There is a certain societal prejudice in North America related to the ‘dumb blonde’ label. It evokes images that really are quite unfair,” says Blaine Donais, founder and president of the Workplace Fairness Institute in Toronto.
“Taking a Bullet for the Team,” Globe and Mail
By Sarah Boesveld, January 2009
“When the mass layoffs started at Chrysler last November, Myra Sawicki didn’t like the look of her colleague. Normally chatty and engaging, information technology analyst Brian Barlow was sickly pale and silent. It’s no wonder. He’d received his layoff notice a few days before, and his wife lost her job the day after…
“Merry Christmas, you’re working,” Globe and Mail
By Sarah Boesveld, December 2008
“For the third year in a row, Lyndsay Morrison won’t be eating turkey dinner or gathering round the tree on Christmas Day. Instead, she will be sitting at a desk, writing script for The Weather Network so Christmas travellers are wise to dangers such as snow squalls and freezing rain.”
