Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER April 7, 2014 April 7, 2014 8 NEWS NEWS COMPENSATION (416) 498-7800 ext. 141 www.resourcecorporation.com Compensation Surveys Incentive Programs Job Descriptions Job Evaluation Pay Equity Performance Appraisal Salary Administration Sales Compensation CONSULTING However, we tend to focus only on that individual target and we don't look at all the other people who were there as well." Post-traumatic stress Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a major concern, aff ect- ing both victims and witnesses, said French. But it's not always a black-and-white diagnosis. "PTSD is not categorical all the time. It's dimensional, meaning that one can have various ele- ments of the diagnosis of post- traumatic stress disorder," he said. "Someone may not have the diagnosis but may have elements of (PTSD)." Some of those elements might be quite striking — but others may not be so outwardly obvious, according to Hannah Rockman, clinical supervisor at the Trauma Centre, based in Sharon, Ont. "(It can involve) social with- drawal, inability to focus, making more mistakes, drinking, calling in sick much more often than usual, avoidance — sort of coming in, sitting in your corner, not going out for lunch with the people they usually go out for lunch with, like a social isolation — depression, panic attacks. But sometimes those are things you cannot see from the outside," she said. And it's important to be aware the symptoms may not develop immediately, said French. " is kind of acute impact may not always happen at the time. For example, the individual might be the subject of an assault and then comes back to work right away. And the impact doesn't hit them until a week later or two weeks lat- er — and sometimes even longer." A key thing to look out for is changes in a worker's behaviour or personality, said Kevin Kelloway, Canada research chair in occupa- tional health psychology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. "People experiencing PTSD will often go through very marked behavioural changes. (Maybe) they used to be really good and produce reports on time and now they seem sort of scattered, they're not getting stuff done. ey may used to be really outgo- ing and now they're sort of with- drawn — things like that," he said. "It's just being sensitive to those changes in people's behaviour." Often, employees may be afraid to return to work at all, said Kelloway. " ere's the stress of this really catastrophic event and there's an ongoing fear that what happened once can happen again." ey begin to have the feeling that nowhere is safe — even work, said Rockman. "People start to feel out of con- trol. e one place they thought they could do their job, they have a safe place… suddenly, that place becomes somewhere that is in a sense a threat to them." What if? In French's experience, one of the most diffi cult aspects of the after- math comes in the form of two little words: "What if?" "A lot of questions come up in (people's) minds like 'What if I didn't do this? What if I didn't go to work that day?'" he said. "Quite often for victims in those cases, the fl ashbacks, the self-doubts come in: 'What if I had been there earlier? Could I have done something?' People often have great regrets because they could've done more but they didn't. So a lot of self-recrimina- tion happens for people." ere's also the issue of assign- ing blame toward others for miss- ing warning signs that shouldn't have gone unnoticed. "With incidents like this — for instance, after the Edmonton tragedy that just happened — ev- eryone comes out of the wood- work and says, 'Well, there were signs,'" he said. "Quite often individuals… may start to blame others for not pick- ing this up or not doing some- thing earlier. So that's one thing that often gets overlooked that causes tremendous diffi culty in the organization." And for those who did notice warning signs but failed to fl ag them, coping with the aftermath will likely be even more diffi cult, said French. " ere is a special class of indi- viduals who are bystanders (which is) those people who were aware that there was the potential for the assault," he said, citing the 1999 OC Transpo shooting in Ottawa that left fi ve people dead, includ- ing the shooter, and two others injured. In that case, a co-worker had some insight into the shoot- er's plans but did not take it seri- ously. at co-worker committed suicide a few months later. " ere can be a greater price to pay for those individuals who felt they could have done something more," said French. at's why it is so critical for employers to review their proce- dures around workplace threats, said Kelloway. "It's almost like in the public schools around bomb threats: You just treat every one as if it's absolutely deadly serious. You're going to overreact 99 times out of 100." Employer accommodations So what can employers do to support employees after a violent incident and, when they're ready, to help ease their transition back to work? In the immediate aftermath, of- fering some form of debriefi ng to everyone who has been aff ected is crucial, said French. " at debrief is critically im- portant. And even though people may say, 'I'm fi ne, I'm OK,' it's im- portant that people understand what the organization is doing to mitigate any future risk. But it's also critically important to pro- vide people with an opportunity, when they want, to discuss their particular reaction or to at least know what some of the signs and symptoms might be in the future," he said. "Some employers don't want to do that because they're afraid that if they talk about it, people might get more upset and they won't come back to work, when actually the (opposite) is true. If it's done skillfully, it's not an invitation for people to stay off work but it is an opportunity to make sure people are a little bit more educated as to what to expect." Organizations should have a comprehensive policy in place for dealing with a violent incident — particularly organizations that work with the public, where the risk of violence is greater, said Kelloway. " e other thing organizations should be doing is — because of this heightened level of fear that people experience — to be re- viewing your security procedures and maybe beefi ng them up… and even if that results in no change, I think you need to go through that to signal to your employees that ' is actually concerns us, we care about this and we're trying to make this as safe as possible,"' he said. Upgraded security can help employees feel more comfortable about returning to work. "If I know that we used to work in an environment that was open to the public but something tragic happened, and now we have a se- cured entry — we have a swipe card or something and only au- thorized people can get in — that's going to help relieve some of the anxieties for people," said Kelloway. But some employees may still have diffi culty returning to the scene of the crime. "Sometimes, people are not able to come back to the place where the incident happened, and then it becomes a question for the employer of accommodation — especially if they have a bona fide psychiatric diagnosis such as PTSD — it becomes a human rights issue at the same time," said French. "What are the accommoda- tions this person may need? Will they need to work in a totally dif- ferent area of the company? Will they need to work in a diff erent capacity? Will there be a slow in- tegration back into their job?" ere's no ideal timeline and everyone will respond diff erently to the after-eff ects of the trauma, said French. "Sometimes what happens is employers get very frustrated, saying, 'Well, Frank came in im- mediately after — why can't you, Joe?' And you can't do that. It's ap- ples and oranges. You have no idea how Joe is functioning," he said. " is is where EAPs can be very valuable and you can bring them in at that particular point in time so that they can monitor and they can assist those individuals who are having a harder time coming back in." VIOLENCE < pg. 1 Review procedures Review procedures Credit: Reuters Mourners walk past a memorial for slain bus workers at the Corel Center in Kanata, Ont., in April 1999. Thousands attended the service in memory of four employees who were shot and killed by a co-worker at an Ottawa bus depot. of time that someone can be an unpaid intern should be limited by law, that once employers 'try out' the new employee, they are forced to hire them into a paid position… that would make the agreement mutually benefi cial." Changing the law In December, Ontario's minis- ter of labour tabled the Stronger Workplaces for a Stronger Econ- omy Act, which would amend existing statues to incorporate better protections for unpaid and precarious workers. e bill in- cludes an amendment to the Oc- cupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) that would change the defi nition of "worker" to include interns and co-op students. Fifty-nine per cent of respon- dents agreed the Ontario govern- ment should change the existing laws on unpaid internships, while one-quarter were unsure and 16 per cent said the legislation should stay the same. Current workplace legislation only covers employees and an intern is not considered an em- ployee, said Sutherland. "Unless there is a solid agree- ment between the academic in- stitution and the employer, the students risk being treated un- fairly without a recourse mecha- nism. Especially for schools who do not properly oversee their stu- dent's internship activities, there should be a governmental decree that outlines minimum standards for the vulnerable." Students are susceptible to be- ing taken advantage of because they want to do anything they can to get work-related experience, said Baily. "We've got to be very careful and have all of the controls in place," she said. "Certainly some legislation is required because… there needs to be some clarity on (workplace safety) insurance and there needs to be clarity on rea- sonable compensation." It makes sense to create some basic standards, said Breakey. However, interns should not be eligible for the full stature of a full- time employee, with benefi ts, for example, he said. "If they make the legislation equal to an employee, that's go- ing too far to the other side, it'll defl ect people from maybe tak- ing on interns, so I think there's a middle ground where they at least get a reasonable compensation for their expenses." ere needs to be a careful bal- ance, said one respondent. "Setting too onerous a policy on unpaid internships can create a disincentive to using what could be an avenue to allow new people and new ideas into an organiza- tion. Conversely, over-reliance on unpaid internships structurally disadvantages certain groups over others and can potentially create two-tiered labour markets." Is greater protection needed? Is greater protection needed? INTERNSHIPS < pg. 2

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