Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR March 9, 2015 12 FeAtures 2015 ONTARIO LAWYER'S PHONE BOOK THE MOST COMPLETE DIRECTORY OF ONTARIO LAWYERS, LAW FIRMS, JUDGES AND COURTS With more than 1,400 pages of essential legal references, Ontario Lawyer's Phone Book is your best connection to legal services in Ontario. Subscribers can depend on the credibility, accuracy and currency of this directory year after year. More detail and a wider scope of legal contact information for Ontario than any other source: • Over 27,000 lawyers listed • Over 9,000 law firms and corporate offices listed • Fax and telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, office locations and postal codes CANADA LAW BOOK ® This text is the first of its kind – designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the topic and analysis of different policy approaches to green energy. Directed towards environmental law practitioners and those involved in the development of green energy policies, its perspective is Canadian yet, as the international shift towards renewable energy intensifies, our role on the global stage is illuminated. Canadian Green Energy Law and Policy launches at a time when a thorough knowledge of the subject matter is critical. This book offers essential practical guidance on the issues involved in getting these projects organized, approved and built, providing you with a comprehensive overview of the legal and policy frameworks involved – providing context from both sides of the inherent arguments. NEW PUBLICATION CANADIAN GREEN ENERGY LAW AND POLICY FRED D. CASS SPEARHEADING RESPONSIBLE ENERGY POLICY DEVELOPMENT ORDER # 804528 $120 Hardcover approx. 425 pages March 2012 978-0-88804-528-7 AVAILABLE RISK-FREE FOR 30 DAYS Order online at www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Shipping and handling are extra. Price subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. Visit carswell.com or call 1.800.387.5164 for a 30-day no-risk evaluation Perfectbound Published December each year On subscription $77 One time purchase $80 L88804-677 Multiple copy discounts available. Plus applicable taxes and shipping & handling. (prices subject to change without notice) COMPENSATION (416) 498-7800 ext. 1 www.resourcecorporation.com Compensation Surveys Incentive Programs Job Descriptions Job Evaluation Pay Equity Performance Appraisal Salary Administration Sales Compensation CONSULTING COnfliCt ManaGeMent Combatting social exclusion Feeling left out at work can have devastating effects on an employee By Monika JenSen B ullying in the workplace can take many forms. An individual can be sub- jected to tactics such as verbal and non-verbal abuse, psycho- logical and physical abuse, and humiliation. And then there's ostracism. Os- tracism is a sinister form of work- place bullying that causes both immediate and long-term psy- chological injury to an employee when he finds himself avoided, shunned, ignored or not invited to participate in team activities or social functions. In simplest terms, this form of bullying happens when an indi- vidual is persistently ignored by colleagues or supervisors. ese individuals may be barred from conversations, deprived of infor- mation essential to their job per- formance, left off email distribu- tion lists, spurned by colleagues during meetings or even not in- formed of meetings. In some instances, an individu- al may be actually removed from her work site and relocated to an area that is antagonistic, indiffer- ent or of low visibility. Unlike spoken or written abuse or physical bullying, ostracism is mostly unseen. e injured party has little to no evidence to docu- ment the unfairness or harass- ment at work, so it is very diffi- cult to make a case of ostracism because people may disregard or ignore the person's concerns. Complaints of ostracism often re- sult in the employee being labelled a "problem" or, worse, as paranoid or hysterical. And if the ostracism involves management, the situation can worsen. Ostracism is often used as a controlling technique — and often the person gets away with it. Today, it is referred to as social exclusion. is is a powerful tactic used to isolate and control an indi- vidual. Groups might socially ex- clude someone as a way of show- ing authority or power. Ostracism is often part of a re- lentless and progressive crusade to lessen the importance and presence of an individual in the workplace. is type of harass- ment is insidious, relentless and often done with the intent to ei- ther have the person removed from his position or driven out of the workplace. is behaviour becomes bru- tally hurtful and can affect an in- dividual's very core of self-worth. e self-esteem of the excluded employee takes a nosedive. e whole situation takes on a dom- ino effect, where the ostracized employee stops functioning as a part of the team and becomes un- receptive and suspicious towards his manager and colleagues. If the behaviour continues, the isolated person is likely to become a low-functioning, low-valued employee who may, understand- ably, be dismissed. Researchers have acknowl- edged other risk factors that can come into play, such as depres- sion and personality disorders, a promptness to rage and use of force, addiction to violent behav- iours, mistaking others' actions as intimidating, concern with protecting one's self-image, and engaging in compulsive or rigid actions. Coping techniques So what do you do when someone comes to you and says she is in this situation, or if you become aware of someone who is a victim of this behaviour? Knowing why the person is being dismissed or treated indif- ferently can provide some insight into a counter-move. ere may be a misunderstanding about in- tentions or meaning in the work- place. Even belonging to a differ- ent age group, culture or gender may motivate co-workers to leave a person out of their group activities. People cannot be forced to be- come friends with other staff but they should not go over the line, making threats, interfering with a co-worker's job or spreading rumours about others. On the other hand, it's also possible the employee is overly sensitive. The person being ostracized should be advised that pushing her way into a group will not make them necessarily more inclusive. It might, on the other hand, make the group more indignant. So if it's not meant to be, the person should focus on her job and block out the cynicism com- ing from the "in" crowd — if she uses her energy the right way, it may have a positive effect on her career over the negators. Monika Jensen is a principal at the Aviary Group in Toronto, a consul- tancy that works with organizations to overcome challenges of change and conflict. For more information, visit www.aviarygroup.ca. central nervous system so people would get side effects and some of these can be quite scary. ey can range from being irritable, diffi- culty sleeping, intense fatigue and so on to more serious things like persistent nightmares that leave you exhausted when you wake up, depression, severe depression. It can interfere with your thyroid gland, which you need for energy, and affects your mood and so on, so interferon scared a lot of people away from therapy." But with new oral therapies, there are fewer side effects and people can take just one pill once or twice a day for 12 or 24 weeks, he said, depending on the extent of the liver injury. "We're hearing of an enormous increase in potency and success; you're getting between 90 to 100 per cent success rates overall, par- ticularly in people who have mini- mal liver injury from hepatitis." ere's some variation depend- ing upon which particular subtype of virus a patient is infected with, but the bottom line is there's now excellent treatment for most pa- tients that will get rid of the virus completely, said Sherman. "e drugs are extremely well- tolerated and the only problem with them is the cost." Prices can range from $800 to $1,000 per pill with "the politics of health care" involved, said Seele. "It's all insane… e cost is hor- rendous and that's why we have to mobilize our communities to advocate… to the pharmaceutical companies to make these drugs available as well as to health-care providers to give the test and then make the drugs available, (and) our legislators to make the drug available and affordable. "Employers can mandate that their employees get tested for hepatitis C and… if they are posi- tive, provide the treatment as a part of their health-care plan." Now that there's more competi- tion on the market, with the three main companies supplying a drug being Gilead, AbbVie and Janssen, it's likely one will be on formular- ies later this year, said Hosein. "We are confident that one of these leading regimens will be on the list of regimens that are subsidized for use or are… on the lists of medications that are ap- proved by insurance companies and by provincial and territorial agencies." Right now, the Canadian re- gions are negotiating prices with the drug companies, he said. "I'm hopeful (pharmaceutical companies) will do the right thing and be good corporate citizens and put forward a price that's fair to the system. I mean, economic growth in Canada is not very good right now and our provin- cial and territorial formularies are strapped for cash so we need something reasonable from the companies." A lot of private health-care plans don't cover the host, said Hosein, and even if they do, they make patients "jump through all these hoops," he said. "I really wish the private plans would also negotiate more aggres- sively than they have in the past, because it's to their advantage to get the drug listed because your patient who has a chronic illness can now be cured, in most cases, in 12 weeks, with all oral therapy. ey will need a minimal amount of time off work, if any… and when they're cured, then you don't have to worry about all these other hos- pitalizations that come if you don't treat hepatitis that end up costing everybody a lot of money." Pill can cure hep C in 12 weeks hepAtitis c < pg. 11

• Cover