Canadian HR Reporter

PM40065782 RO9496 October 5, 2015 INSIDE MOBILIZING CSR Apps can help get employees engaged in corporate social responsibility Boosting brands Employers are becoming more sophisticated with their brands page 2 Paying the pastor B.C. church pays $80,000 for wrongful dismissal page 5 Cult concerns Some employers go too far when it comes to culture page 8 page 12 The CANADIAN OUTPLACEMENT COMPANY Since 1981 CEO, mentor… and new mom How do mat leave expectations diff er for senior executive women? BY LIZ BERNIER YAHOO CEO Marissa Mayer made headlines around the world last month after announcing she plans to take two weeks of mater- nity leave when she has twins. e broad range of reactions to the announcement begged the question: How do expectations differ when it comes to senior leaders taking mat leave? It's a question that needs more discourse, said Alison Konrad, pro- fessor of organizational behaviour at the Ivey Business School at West- ern University in London, Ont. "In a way, it's the classic career double bind: If you don't take time off , if you don't take the full ma- ternity leave, then people judge you as a bad mother… but if you do take the full time off , then peo- ple judge you that you're not fully committed to your career, and so I'm not sure I can trust you with a senior leadership position." And with more younger wom- en becoming senior leaders, that double bind is intensifi ed, she said. "If you take the full maternity leave, then people criticize you for abandoning your post. You're not 'there for the company' when they need you, and that proves that women shouldn't have senior leadership positions. But if you don't take the full maternity leave Credit: Ruben Sprich (Reuters) Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at a World Economic Forum session in Davos in January. The leader caused a stir recently when she announced she planned to take two weeks' maternity leave with the birth of her twins. Workplace, interrupted Employers looking unprepared for disruptive technologies: Survey BY LIZ BERNIER WE'VE already seen how rapidly advancing technology is disrupt- ing the workplace of the 21st cen- tury. But more dramatic change is coming — and the pace of change is accelerating. Yet only one in 10 organizations, or 13 per cent, are highly prepared for this transformation, according to a Deloitte Canada survey of 700 business leaders. " at leaves 87 per cent that aren't fully prepared," said Terry Stuart, chief innovation officer at Deloitte Canada in Toronto. "We're concerned that the major- ity of Canadian companies are re- ally not prepared for the disruption that's coming, and it's coming fast." Twenty-three per cent of or- ganizations are "single-minded," meaning they are taking action in one area but are not prepared overall; 29 per cent are tentative and struggling in their eff orts; and 35 per cent are "wholly unpre- pared" and struggling, found the study. The disruptive technologies on the horizon — including ar- tificial intelligence, advanced robotics, advanced manufacturing, networks and collaborative con- nected platforms — are going to fundamentally change entire industries and businesses, said Stuart. So companies need to be think- ing about how they can become much more aware of the technolo- gies that are coming, he said. "How do they actually build a culture inside their organizations that allows them to adapt and EMPLOYERS > pg. 6 WE > pg. 10 $1-million lawsuit fi led against Starbucks Will employers be seeing more of these claims? BY SARAH DOBSON RECALLING the well-known 2012 case of Boucher v. Wal-Mart Canada Corp. — in which an em- ployee was initially awarded $1 million in punitive damages, later dropped to $100,000 — Starbucks Canada is facing a similar hurdle. Former barista Shannon Mishimagi's lawyer fi led a state- ment of claim against her former supervisor, Gurjaspreet Jolly, and the coff ee chain looking for gen- eral and special damages in the amount of $1 million and punitive and exemplary damages for an un- specifi ed amount. There are more and more of these cases, where an employee sues instead of seeking workers' compensation, and one of the reasons is people see infamous lawsuits or ones that grab head- lines, such as the Walmart one, said Daniel Bokenfohr, a lawyer at McLennan Ross in Edmonton. " e amount of damages that they can claim through a lawsuit is going to be typically greater than the types of benefi ts they could re- ceive through workers' compensa- tion," he said. "You can allege tort such as as- sault or battery… the courts are accepting claims such as the in- tentional infl iction of mental suf- fering, those sort of claims can be brought against co-workers and the courts are recognizing vicari- ous liability for employers when supervisors and managers engage in that sort of behaviour. "And in egregious cases, the courts are upholding aggravated damages, punitive damages and so forth, so that can be a much more attractive route for an em- ployee that feels that they've been severely mistreated." e good news for employers? It's fairly rare to see successful claims for aggravated and punitive damages of a signifi cant amount, said Bokenfohr. "It's still a fairly high standard that needs to be met in terms of establishing the type of reprehen- sible conduct that warrants puni- tive damages, and when it comes to aggravated damages, there's usually an expectation from the courts that the employee will be able to… demonstrate real mental suff ering, which usually involves medical expert evidence." Background In October 2014, Mishimagi claimed she was physically as- saulted, verbally abused and physi- cally threatened multiple times by the supervisor, including "threats to use various harmful substances in hazardous ways" and "use of IT'S > pg. 16

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