Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER November 2, 2015 18 INSIGHT OVERHEAD HAZING C HIN A — Female f light attendants in China face some tough conditions. There are height requirements and weight restrictions , and some are expected to have the strength of a martial artist, according to the Washington Post. But one hazing ritual came to light recently that garnered considerable attention. We chat , a p opular so cial networking app in China, released photos of female fl ight attendants from Kunming Airlines lying uncomfortably in overhead bins. e initiation ritual apparently marks the employees' fi rst 30 to 50 hours of fl ight service. e airline apologized for the incident, saying it did not condone the tradition, and vowed to discipline the workers involved while putting an end to their conduct. But the Wechat post claimed Kunming Airlines has long known about the ritual as female fl ight attendants had previously voiced their grievances to management, without recourse. PUNISHING PACE ZHENGZHOU — It's not just the fl ight attendants in China who are having a tough time of it — sales- people also suff er. Employees at one company who failed to hit sales targets were forced to crawl on all fours in public, according to News. com. Photos of a group of 10 work- ers crawling on a wooden walkway around Ruyi Lake in Zhengzhou were posted to popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo. Re- ports said the company even sent an extra employee to supervise the punishment and make sure it was carried out properly. Some employ- ees were said to have suff ered cuts to their knees and feet. Commenta- tors used words like "torture" and "human rights abuse" in describ- ing the treatment, with one asking: "How can the company expect to gain employee commitment with policies like this?" NICE WEATHER FOR A BOMBING MOSCOW — One TV weather reporter broke with tradition re- cently when she informed viewers that Russian president Vladimir Putin had chosen perfect weather for his bombing campaign in Syria. Ekaterina Grigorova used a three- minute time slot on Rossiya 24 to say conditions were "ideal for performing combat fl ights," ac- cording to the Daily Mail. Stand- ing in front of a screen showing a Russian fi ghter jet, she said Octo- ber is a good month for fl ying in Syria. " e average wind speed is two to four metres per second and only once in the month might the wind go as strong as 15 metres per second." Grigorova went on to talk about expected temperatures, rain fall and cloud formations. "'It looks like only dust storms may make harder the assignments of the Russia air force. Dust in the air can dissolve the laser beams which are used by some targeting systems." TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT NEWPORT, KY. — Everyone can get wrapped up in their work, but one store owner found himself overly constricted recently when a snake tightly coiled itself around him. Terry Wilkins was tangled up with a six-metre python weighing up to 57 kg at the Captive Born Reptiles store in Newport, Ky., ac- cording to Reuters. Apparently he had been cleaning the snake's cage when it clamped onto his arm, and when a woman returned from get- ting hot water to make the python release him, Wilkins was chok- ing. "When offi cers arrived on the scene, they located the victim who was total(ly) unconscious with a large snake wrapped around his head and neck," said a Newport po- lice report. e offi cers grabbed the snake by the head and unwrapped it from Wilkins, who began to breathe as rescue squad work- ers arrived. Wilkins was treated at hospital with nearly two dozen stitches to his arm — the snake was unharmed. W EIRD ORKPLACE THE Vol. 28 No. 18 – November 2, 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. Publications Mail – Agreement # 40065782 Registration # 9496 – ISSN 0838-228X Director, Carswell Media: Karen Lorimer - (416) 649-9411 karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com Publisher: (on leave) John Hobel - (416) 298-5197 john.hobel@thomsonreuters.com EDITORIAL Associate Publisher/Managing Editor: Todd Humber - (416) 298-5196 todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com Lead Editor: Sarah Dobson - (416) 649-7896 sarah.dobson@thomsonreuters.com News Editor: Liz Bernier - (416) 649-7837 liz.bernier@thomsonreuters.com Employment Law Editor: Jeffrey R. 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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 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 Aging gracefully? That's for suckers Studies show cosmetic surgery could give your career a boost I 'm not getting any younger. I'm no spring chicken – something the odd (maybe more than odd) grey hair on my head will attest to, along with the fact I've been with the same employer for more than 17 years now. (A fact that always makes millennials gasp in horror.) Fine. I'll come clean. I just turned 43, which sounds so ancient to type. It's an age when you're not quite old, but you're defi nitely not young anymore. Comedian Louis C.K. looks at your 40s this way: "Nobody spends their holidays delivering hot meals to 40-year- olds," he said. "And you're not young enough for anybody to ever be proud of you or impressed. It's just like do your job... nobody cares. at's what you're supposed to do." ough I've turned that corner and am past the halfway point to 80, the standard life expectancy for a Canadian male, I've never re- motely contemplated plastic sur- gery — which is the focus of the pg. 2 story in this issue. I haven't even reached for a bottle of Just for Men. My plan has always been to age gracefully, embracing it rather than fi ghting it. Because no matter how smooth your skin is today, it's going to get wrinkled tomorrow. e bottom line is we all get old. My opinion surrounding pro- cedures may be tainted by the fact that when I think plastic surgery, I usually think train wreck. Some- thing akin to Michael Jackson or Joan Rivers, where it's just so obvi- ous excessive work has been done and the results aren't pleasant. But that's the extreme, of course. Usually, it's just a little nip here, a little tuck there. What's fascinating is the current trend, as outlined by news editor Liz Bernier, is being driven a lot by demographic changes in the workplace. e end of mandatory retire- ment has meant many Canadians are working longer. And in youth- dominated industries, such as technology, some older workers feel the urge to look younger to compete. Workers in their 60s are look- ing to shave off a couple of years so perhaps they don't feel like they stick out like a sore thumb in an offi ce dominated by 20- and 30-somethings. ere may be more to the story than just personal vanity, because a blind study using before and af- ter pictures of patients who had undergone procedures found something rather startling. Workers who had things like chin implants, nose jobs and injectable filler scored higher with their after photos. Viewers thought they were more creative, motivated and trustworthy. More scientific studies have borne out a strong link between good looks and company perfor- mance, at least when it comes to CEOs. Back in 2010, Duke Uni- versity researchers argued that good-looking CEOS were better negotiators and appeared to be more competent. A University of Wisconsin study followed up on that in 2014. In Beauty is Wealth: CEO Ap- pearance and Shareholder Value, economists rated the looks of 677 CEOs. It found attractive CEOs boosted the stock price when they appeared on TV and had better returns than less attractive executives. So perhaps aging gracefully isn't the way to go. Since the be- ginning of time, people have been searching for the elusive fountain of youth. Everybody wants to look young and feel young. As science improves, the options for looking young will continue to multiply. Maybe I'll have to reach for the bottle of Just for Men after all. Stay tuned for a more exciting head- shot next issue. MAC AND CHEESE MAYHEM STORRS, CT — Workers at a food court at the University of Connecticut probably see all kinds of hijinks from students, but one particular individual recently crossed the line. Luke Gatti, a 19-year-old freshman, went on an obscenity-laced tirade against service workers when they refused to sell him jalapeno-bacon macaroni and cheese, according to the Associ- ated Press. Gatti's drunken 10-minute meltdown was, of course, captured on video. e student ended up pushing a supervisor, who maintained his cool, while other employees came out from behind the counter to try to diff use the situation. Since the incident — which eventu- ally saw a police offi cer taking Gatti away in handcuff s — students have started an online fundraiser to show their support for the food service workers. And Gatti posted an online video apologizing for his outburst. "Nobody deserves to be treated that way, ever,'' he said. "I was just watching it and saying 'Oh, my God, like what the hell is wrong with me?''' Workers at a food court at the University of Connecticut probably see all kinds of hijinks from students, but one particular individual recently crossed the line. Luke Gatti, a 19-year-old freshman, went on an obscenity-laced tirade against service workers when they refused to sell him jalapeno-bacon macaroni and cheese, according to the Associ- ated Press. Gatti's drunken 10-minute meltdown was, of course, captured on video. e student ended up pushing a supervisor, who maintained his cool, while other employees came out from behind the counter to try to diff use the situation. Since the incident — which eventu- ally saw a police offi cer taking Gatti away in handcuff s — students have started an online fundraiser to show their support for the food service workers. And Gatti posted an online video Credit: Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock One study found attractive CEOs boosted the stock price when they appeared on TV.

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