Media Commentator
“One of our key sections within the Municipal Works department was in a state of continual conflict and dysfunction resulting in labour relation issues, safety complaints and claims of workplace harassment among key players. With the tools and suggestions that Blaine incorporated into our training, the group is now meeting regularly and the communication, trust and the work environment for the group has improved significantly. Grievances have been reduced and substantive issues are being discussed. The group is participating in a more collaborative and productive fashion. The changes have been very positive.”
TRENT DARK
City of Niagara Falls
Blaine Donais on cbc newsworld
By Toban Dyck
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.
By Parliamentary Reporter Alison Crawford
“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.
by blaine donais
What is Workplace Assessment? The world of work in Canada has undergone a fundamental transformation in the last few years. Increased regulatory attention has been paid to psychological health and safety in the workplace.
At the core of this regulatory strategy is the concept of “assessment.” The rise in popularity of assessment is based upon the fundamental proposition that behaviours do not happen in a vacuum – they are reinforced by structures and ideas in the workplace.
Here, we will place these assessment strategies on a spectrum from Reactive to Proactive approaches for securing psychological health and safety in the workplace. Finally, we will summarize with a helpful matrix about different assessment types and their purposes and methodologies.
By Dave McGinn
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.
By Sarah Boesveld
“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…
By Sarah Boesveld
“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.”
