Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER April 21, 2014 April 21, 2014 22 22 INSIGHT INSIGHT WORST RESUMÉ EVER? DALLAS — Resumés come with a lot of different attachments. Samples of work are common; so too are headshots. But Texas Workforce Solutions, a state-run employment agency, recently got a very unwelcome attachment ac- companying a job application — a picture of the jobseeker's genitals. e employee who received the email promptly called police, who ticketed the man for "obscene dis- play or distribution," according to the Dallas Observer. Demarquis Black, a spokesperson for the Dal- las police, said from what he can tell from the police report, the ap- plicant remains unemployed — "I think I know why he can't fi nd a job," he said. WHAT'S REALLY IN THAT COFFEE? VANCOUVER — Tim Hortons is fi ghting a request to hand over thousands of internal documents, including recipes, in a British Co- lumbia human rights complaint, according to the Globe and Mail. e case involves four Mexican workers who came to Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and have alleged discrimination. A human rights tribunal ordered the restaurant to hand over its operating manual, which includes information on training, signage and making cof- fee — along with hundreds of reci- pes. But a lawyer for the restaurant said he is confi dent an agreement can be reached where the relevant documents are shared but the reci- pes themselves are kept secret. LOST LUGGAGE, CRUEL WORDS HOUSTON — A couple fresh back from a Hawaiian vacation got a very unwelcome note attached to their luggage that was lost by American Airlines. Attached was a receipt with instructions on how to reach them: "Please text. Deaf and dumb," it read. e passen- gers, Angela Huckaby and James Moehle, are both deaf. e airline apologized, saying, "It was clearly a poor choice of words. We're confi dent there was no ill will but we'll be looking into this further and will be following up with our team members." Kay Moehle, James' mother, said: "It was just outrageous and cruel and unnec- essary… the dumb one is the one who wrote the note." 'HEY BOSS, LEARN TO BE ON TIME' GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. — A Brit- ish Petrol (BP) gas station worker in Michigan, fed up with his boss not showing up on time, taped a note to the door, locked up and went home. Joe Blumm made the decision to leave after his boss was more than an hour late for her shift. "Hey boss, learn to be on time or at least communicate when you are go- ing to be late," the note read. "+1 hour with no phone call is unaccept- able. As you can see, the doors are locked. I went home. Fire me if you must but realize I walked out due to YOUR negligence." In an interview with WXMI televi- sion, Blumm said: "I had it. I had enough of that unprofessional atmosphere and having to deal with that tardiness and have it come down on me. I know that I've struck a chord with a lot of disgruntled, low-paid employees who get the short end of the stick." Blumm was fi red. e manager told FOX 17 television she was running late because she didn't hear her alarm clock go off . W EIRD ORKPLACE THE BEST RESUMÉ EVER? CHICAGO — A 20-year-old university student hoping to land an O internship at an advertising agency has come up with a creative resumé — she made a LEGO version of herself. "I wanted a fun way to stand out to agencies and get my resumé out of the trash can," said "Leah" in a post on Reddit. She designed a miniature version of herself in her interview suit and created custom instructions that highlight her skills. en, she put it in a box she created — custom- izing the boxes using the colours of the two agencies she wants to intern at — and sent it off . "While this LEGO kit is a fun way to (hopefully) get a call back from a recruiter or HR employee, the interview is where you get the job," she wrote. Vol. 27 No. 8 – April 21, 2014 PUBLISHED BY PUBLISHED BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2014 by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER is published 22 times a year. 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Todd Humber Editor's Notes Few mourn death Few mourn death of unpaid internships of unpaid internships e bright light of publicity has been cast on the practice of unpaid internships — and it's withering and dying from the exposure. Ontario, in particular, has been cracking down on the practice and that has led to a host of high- profi le magazines cancelling un- paid intern programs — including the Walrus, Flare, Chatelaine and Toronto Life. Some of the magazines paid the interns nothing while others gave them a monthly stipend — for example, Chatelaine paid $400, which worked out to about $2.50 per hour — that was well below minimum wage. Magazines certainly aren't the only offenders, they're just in the crackdown crosshairs at the moment. Legislation around unpaid in- ternships varies slightly across Canada, depending on the juris- diction, but there's a good legal — and if not legal, certainly a moral — rule of thumb to apply: If the worker is doing work that would otherwise be paid, then that per- son should be paid. Unless, of course, the intern is doing that work as part of an edu- cational curriculum. Rogers, the biggest magazine publisher in the country, has offi cially ended its unpaid intern program for all its magazines — but will still take on students. ere is usually an exemption for interning students in employ- ment standards legislation, and that exemption needs to continue. Student placements are a critical part of the learning process for many professions. Placements get them out of the classroom and into the "real world," giving them a chance to apply all the theoretical concepts they have been taught and see how seasoned profession- als actually operate. My journalism career began with an eight-week placement at the Sentinel-Review, a daily news- paper in Woodstock, Ont. (I had hoped to complete my placement at my hometown Windsor Star but the union refused to allow an unpaid placement of longer than two weeks — that's a column for another day.) e placement was a mandatory part of my journal- ism degree. It turned into a full-time job — complete with a paycheque — and I eventually moved to diff erent newspapers across the province before arriving at the doors of Canadian HR Reporter. But without that placement, it would have been much harder to kickstart my career — so I'm thankful for the opportunity I had in Woodstock. Some people, particularly the students themselves, have argued that even these educational place- ments should be paid. But that's where employers and legislators need to draw the line and say no, these placements do not have to be paid. If an employer has the budget to off er the student money, great. But it can't be mandatory, and here's why: Taking on a student in- tern is kind of a pain, particularly if you do it the right way. My placement at the Sentinel- Review didn't consist of me run- ning around and getting coff ee. I was tagging along with report- ers and photographers, and I was learning the fi ne points of news- paper layout and design. I was covering city council meetings, I was handling general assignments and writing stories. And the entire time this was happening, staff — from reporters to the city editor to the managing editor — were taking the time to coach me, read my work and suggest ways to improve it. e staff spent a lot of their valuable time working with me one-on-one. at alone was quite an investment by the employer. To ask for pay on top of that would have made the situation untenable — the paper didn't have a budget for that and it would have had to turn down my request for a placement. I would have lost the opportunity. at same scenario is repeat- ed tens of thousands of times across the country ever year and has helped launch the careers of countless professionals. If all the placements had to be paid, then many employers would simply decline to take on students — not a good situation for anyone involved. Beyond a handful of employ- ers that enjoyed the fruits of free labour, few will shed a tear at the passing of the unpaid intern. But let's use it as a reminder of the ben- efi ts of proper intern programs for students and take a good look at our businesses to see if we can fi nd the time to take on a student to help kickstart the careers of the next generation of professionals. "Great overview of the Focus 2040 closing ceremonies. The intrigu- ing part is that multiple study disciplines participated in the student competition/event, which further reinforced to me the point about "brand." It is not so much what you know but how you are perceived by peers and other important relationships when applying what you know. We will always be social beings and will likely not evolve too much from that natural reality." (For more on the Focus 2040 stu- dent competition, see page 3.) — Brian Hughes, commenting on Todd Humber's blog "The working world of 2040." Join the conversation online. Comment freely on any blog on www.hrreporter.com. READER COMMENTS

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