Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 18, 2015 22 INSIGHT OATH, WHAT OATH? BRENHAM, TEXAS — A veteri- narian found herself the target of considerable venom recently after she apparently killed a "wild" cat using a bow and arrow, according to the CBC. e Benham, Texas- based woman posted a photo of herself on Facebook holding a bow in her hands, with a dead cat hang- ing off the end of it. "My fi rst bow kill [cat emoji] lol," said the caption on Kristen Lindsey's profi le. " e only good feral tomcat is one with an arrow through it's (sic) head! Vet of the year award… gladly accept- ed." e post soon circulated on social media and eventually more than 35,000 people signed online petitions seeking to have the vet's li- cence removed. Lindsey was even- tually fi red from the Washington Animal clinic. "You hope it isn't true and then you fi nd out that it may be," said Bruce Buenger, co-owner. "So then you just have to do what's right." Local police are investigating the incident. NO TIME TO WAIT JAMES CITY COUNT, VA. — Not prepared to wait just a few more hours, a worker has been accused of stealing his own pay- cheque. Alexander Mortin is said to have broken into Lars Con- struction in James City Count, Va., where he worked as a labourer, and to have taken his pay just one day before payday, according to WKTR in Norfolk, Va. While the 25-year-old admitted to cashing his cheque, he said an employee gave him the pay one day early — even though his was the only one missing out of a stack of pay- cheques at the offi ce. "Why would I steal my own cheque? No, that wasn't me," said Mortin, from jail. When police arrested the man, they also found counterfeit money and drugs in his car. 'MUST LIKE CRAYFISH' TRISTAN DA CUNHA, IRE- LAND — ere's remote and then there's remote. Tristan da Cunha in Ireland is looking for an alco- hol counsellor. e only catch? It's the world's most remote inhab- ited island, according to Belfast Live. Tristan da Cunha is located 16,500 kilometres from Northern Ireland and has just 270 residents. " is job will be challenging and demanding as you will often be working on your own as the sole provider of counselling services on the island. Irregular or longer than usual working hours are to be expected," said the application form. e job will cover a six- month period and pays $32,000 to $60,000 along with free travel and accommodation. " ere are no restaurants. However, the availability of crayfi sh and excel- lent fresh fi sh make this a fi rst- class posting for those who enjoy cooking!" said the application. "A 'golf course', shared with grazing cows, although rarely used, pro- vides some relaxation." TOUGH LOVE IN TEXAS COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS — A professor at Texas A&M Uni- versity was decidedly unpopular recently when he said he was fail- ing his entire strategic manage- ment class, according to Reuters. Irwin Horwitz sent an email to the 30-some students saying he was fed up with online rumours about himself and academic dishonesty: "None of you, in my opinion, given the behaviour in this class, deserve to pass or graduate to become an Aggie, as you do not in any way em- body the honour that the university holds graduates should have within their personal character." But the university told a local TV station it was investigating and failing grades would not stand unless a student did not academically pass the class. W EIRD ORKPLACE THE Vol. 28 No. 9 – May 18, 2015 PUBLISHED BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2015 by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. CANADIAN HR REPORTER is published 21 times a year. 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Address changes and returns: Send changes and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Canadian HR Reporter One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ❑ From time to time, we make our subscriber list available to companies and organizations whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you do not want your name to be made available, please check here and return with your mailing label. CUSTOMER SERVICE Call: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5082 (Toronto) (877) 750-9041 (outside Toronto) Email: carswell.customerrelations@ thomsonreuters.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com CHRR reserves the right to edit for length and clarity. Todd Humber Editor's Notes HR, shed your cloaks of modesty National HR Awards to honour best practices in Canada Y ou're doing a great job and we want to honour you for it. at's why we are proud to unveil the National HR Awards, a pres- tigious annual award competition designed to honour the best in Canadian HR practices. In our fi rst year, we're hand- ing out awards in 11 special categories. Since 1987, Canadian HR Re- porter has had the privilege of covering the HR profession and we've watched it grow and mature signifi cantly over those decades. In 2015, we can unequivocally state that people are an organiza- tion's biggest asset and we want to honour the organizations that understand this. HR departments across the country are taking on increas- ingly strategic roles, driving hu- man capital strategies and helping their fi rms outperform competi- tors both nationally and around the world. ese awards are about sub- stance, not style. We are going to celebrate the winners in a special issue of Canadian HR Reporter on Sept. 21, in which we will tell the stories of the winners. We are also producing an exclusive series of videos with the winning organi- zations — it will be unparalleled, inspiring coverage of the best practices in the country. But we need your help to make it happen. We need you to shed your cloaks of modesty and shine a light on the work you do every day in your organizations. Don't be shy about bragging — some of the best stories we've heard over the years have come from HR practitioners who didn't think they were doing anything special. What seems routine to you could be groundbreaking to another organization. Nominations are open now. Visit www.nationalhrawards.com for more information, including a detailed look at the esteemed judging panel. We have lined up more than two dozen top experts who have helped us shape the cri- teria and graciously donated their time to help make these awards a success. Award categories e 11 categories for 2015 are: •Best Diversity Program •Best Recruitment Campaign •HR Challenge Award •Employment Lawyer of the Year (sponsored by Canadian Lawyer magazine) •Best Employee Communications Program •Best Corporate Training & De- velopment Program •Best Employee Engagement Pro- gram (sponsored by Venngo) •Best Corporate Social Responsi- bility Program •Best Recognition Program •Technology/Innovation Award •Healthy Workplaces Award. Nomination deadline e deadline for submitting your nomination is July 31, 2015. If you have any questions about the awards, please email me at todd. humber@thomsonreuters.com. Interested in sponsoring an award? If you're interested in sponsoring an award, please get in touch with one of our account executives. You can contact Stephen Hill at stephen.hill@thomsonreuters. com or (416) 558-9102 and Nich- olas Cholodny at nicholas.cholod- ny@thomsonreuters.com or (647) 537-4705. BOTTOMS UP LONDON, U.K. — Ever wondered what the favourite alcoholic drink is at the BBC? Well, now we know. Staff at the British Broadcasting Corporation most prefer beers, ales and cider, followed very closely by white wine, with the spend for each group averaging £15,000 pounds (C$27,453) per year, ac- cording to the Mirror. e bill for red wine sits at £10,000 (C$18,300) while sparkling wine £3,000 (C$5,500), rose wine £2,000 (C$3,600) and spirits (also £2,000) are near the bottom. When it comes to beer, Italy's Peroni is easily the most popular, with the BBC buying more than 5,500 bottles during the year, at a cost of about £12,000 (C$22,000). " e BBC has clear policies to ensure spend on hospitality is proportionate and they have been progressively tightened to ensure value for money," said a spokesperson. "Drinks may be purchased where there is an appropriate business purpose. For example, production teams may provide hospitality for program guests." Credit: Boule/Shutterstock "The components of the HR management system (processes, policies and procedures) at the CBC were likely appropriate in concept but there was inconsistent or negligent adherence to them. But that wasn't the problem, that was a symptom of the problem. If the system has been ignored, trivialized or abused, then the question that needs to be asked is 'Who allowed this to happen, who allowed management and non-management employees at the CBC to look the other way and not use the corporation's processes to forewarn and resolve this 'disrespectful workplace' behaviour and to protect CBC employees?' I suggest that the answer is management, specifically senior management, has allowed it to happen." — Robert Kent, commenting on Todd Humber's blog "Good on paper, toothless in reality" Join the conversation. Comment on any blog on www.hrreporter.com. READER COMMENTS Ever wondered what the favourite alcoholic drink is at the BBC? Well, now we know. Staff at the British Broadcasting Corporation most prefer beers, ales and cider, followed very closely by white wine, with the spend for each group averaging £15,000 pounds (C$27,453) per year, ac- . e bill for red wine sits at £10,000 (C$18,300) while sparkling wine £3,000 (C$5,500), rose wine £2,000 (C$3,600) and spirits (also £2,000) are near the bottom. When it comes to beer, Italy's Peroni is easily the most popular, with the BBC buying more than 5,500 bottles during the year, at a cost of about £12,000 (C$22,000). " e BBC has clear policies to ensure spend on hospitality is proportionate and they have been progressively tightened to ensure value for money," said a spokesperson. "Drinks may be purchased where there is an appropriate business purpose. For example,

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