Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 30, 2016 18 INSIGHT W EIRD ORKPLACE THE Vol. 29 No. 10 – May 30, 2016 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 EDITORIAL Publisher/Editor in Chief: Todd Humber - (416) 298-5196 todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com Editor/Supervisor: Sarah Dobson - (416) 649-7896 sarah.dobson@thomsonreuters.com Senior 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 LOW BLOW FOR WOMEN LONDON — A woman unhappy with a rather stringent dress code has started a petition in the United Kingdom. Nicola orp showed up to work as a temp at PriceWaterhouseCooopers in London but was surprised to fi nd out she was required to wear two- to four-inch heels, according to the Telegraph. Her agency said it was "female grooming policy" for women and orp would be sent home without pay un- less she complied. "When I pointed out that my male colleague was allowed to work in fl at shoes, and that I felt that I was being discriminated against, I was laughed at. She said, 'Men aren't used to wearing heels' — well I'm afraid I'm not, either," said orp. e employment rights hotline told orp that as long as employers enforce a formal dress code for both male and female workers, they're not being discrimina- tory. "I was told that because men don't usually wear high heels in non-work life, yet women do, it is not sex discrimination to expect women to wear high heels," she said. PwC said the dress code is not a company policy and it is in discussion with suppliers. 6-hour workday not in the cards I live in the centre of the uni- verse. Well, just north of it to be precise — but I work in Toronto, which makes me a leading authority on the rat race. At least that's what people tell me on the rare occasions when I es- cape the grips of the 6ix. (And hey, since the entire country now has Raptors basketball fever, we're all allowed to speak Drake). If none of that makes sense, you're either as old as me or have a serious lack of millennials running around your house. But this is what I hear from non- Ontarians and non-Albertans in particular: "You work too hard." A couple of years ago at the Hu- man Resources Management As- sociation (HRMA) conference in Vancouver, I decided to head over to the tradeshow early to ensure the omson Reuters booth was spick and span and ready to greet B.C.'s fi nest HR professionals. I wandered over at 7:15 a.m. and struggled to fi nd an unlocked door. When I did, I was greeted by a security guard who asked what I was doing. I explained my mission. He looked disbelievingly at me — then down at his watch — and up again at me. He said, "Where are you from?" When I told him, he shrugged and said, "I should have known. Go back to bed. Nobody will be here before 11." Another time, on the ride from the airport to my hotel in Saint John, N.B., the local cabbie spent a good 20 minutes pontifi cating on the woes of Toronto. He was an amusing chap who had visited Toronto twice — and didn't much like what he saw. To sum up his thoughts: "It's just too much. And nobody there knows how to relax." An ardent Maple Leafs fan, he bemoaned the empty seats he saw on TV during the fi rst period — "Nobody can get out of work on time, even for a hockey game. It's ridiculous." If you've been to New Orleans, you'll understand the meaning of the word slow. Nothing much of anything in that city happens in a hurry — and the locals adore the pace. And don't even get me started on Europe, the land of two-hour lunches and months of paid vacation. It's also the land of the six- hour workday in some quarters, a notion that makes productiv- ity hounds on Bay Street gasp. But maybe it shouldn't — just ask some nurses in Sweden. For the last year, nurses at a re- tirement home have clocked six- hour work days. ey didn't take a pay cut, they just worked fewer hours. It was part of a govern- ment-funded study to gauge the impact on productivity. e results? e nurses took half as much sick time and were 2.8 times less likely to take any time off . ey were 20 per cent "happier" and had more energy both at work and in their spare time, according to Bloomberg. But the long-term care home also had to hire 15 additional nurs- es, which cost about US$735,000. So the math may not be as simple as it looks. In many knowledge-based in- dustries, that isn't necessarily the case. A Salary.com survey from 2014 showed 57 per cent of 750 workers surveyed wasted at least one hour of work per day, the big- gest distractions being social me- dia, gossiping, the Internet and texting. More than one-quarter of workers waste at least two hours, and some pundits have argued eight hours is simply too long a stretch for the average person to be productive. But for this theory to work in practice, workers would need to put down their smartphones and be fully engaged for the full six- hour stretch. And that may be, well, a stretch. Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim proposed an alter- nate idea in 2014 — the notion of a three-day workweek. He told attendees at a conference in Para- guay that a shortened work week was inevitable, with staff working 11-hour days and not retiring un- til they're in their 70s. In an era where automation is eliminating a lot of manual labour, and where ideas like a guaranteed minimum income are gaining traction because of worries there won't be enough work left to go around, it's tempting to look at alternatives to the standard work week. But my inbox suggests another reality — there aren't enough hours in the day to get my work done. e idea of having two few- er hours every day induces panic attacks. So, to my Saint John cabbie buddy, I can only say this — for- give me. I'm going to be late for the next Leafs game. at is, if I can ever get a ticket. surprised to fi nd out she was required to wear two- to four-inch heels, according to the Telegraph. Her agency said it was "female grooming policy" for women and orp would be sent home without pay un- less she complied. "When I pointed out that my male colleague was allowed to work in fl at shoes, and that I felt that I was being discriminated against, I was laughed at. She said, 'Men aren't used to wearing heels' — well I'm afraid I'm not, either," said orp. e employment rights hotline told orp that as long as employers enforce a formal dress code for both male and female workers, they're not being discrimina- tory. "I was told that because men don't usually wear high heels in non-work life, yet women do, it is not sex discrimination to expect women to wear high heels," she said. PwC said the dress code is not a company policy and it is in discussion with suppliers. KARMA BITES BACK TABER, ALTA. — Social media took its revenge once again after an employee was suspended for his comment on the Fort McMur- ray fi re. "Karmic #climatechange fi re burns Canadian oilsands city," wrote Tom Moff att of the Town of Taber on his Twitter feed on May 3. Town council voted in favour of suspending Moff att until it could conduct an investigation, accord- ing to the National Post. "A recent post made by a town employee on a personal account in no way refl ects the town's views on this terrible tragedy," said the coun- cil's post. "The Town of Taber apologizes unreservedly. We are discussing this matter with the employee." In retrospect, "karmic" was not a good word to use, said Moff att, "because it implies people there deserve what they are getting and that's not what I meant at all… When I wrote 'karmic,' I was think- ing of my own failure because I see this as a climate disaster and I have not done enough to inform people of the perils of climate change." WHERE'S THE BEEF? VACAVILLE, CALIF. — The owners of a California restaurant chain serving only vegan dishes came under fire recently after customers discovered Matthew and Terces Engelhart were now meat-eaters. Angry patrons and animal rights activities called on vegans to boycott the Café Gratitude chain, according to the Associated Press. " e brand has betrayed my trust by turning around and killing the animals that trust them on their property," said Anita Carswell, communications manager for In Defence of Animals. e couple faced death threats and protests but were unfairly cast as deceptive animal killers, said son and COO Cary Mosier. "I personally feel it's a little illogical to require my parents to remain vegan for the rest of their lives just because they created a vegan restaurant at a point in time that they were vegan… And if you're a vegan, why would you want to close and boycott, frankly, the largest vegan restaurant group in California?" NOT QUITE ROMEO & JULIET TENNESSEE — A teacher in Ten- nessee was suspended recently after showing a movie consid- ered inappropriate for students, according to the Sun newspaper in the United Kingdom. Human Centipede 2 features graphic scenes of people being cut up and stitched back together. It tells the story of a man who watched the fi rst Human Centipede fi lm and decides to create his own 12-per- son "centipede." e movie was temporarily banned in the U.K. and has been labelled "the sickest film ever." Apparently, students were shown the fi lm to under- stand "what to do if you're bullied." But the Jackson-Madison School County System announced it was launching an internal investigation and the teacher had been suspend- ed pending the outcome. e fi lm's Dutch director, Tom Six, however, said he would send the teacher a signed copy of the fi lm. PIZZA DELIVERS SALEM — He was a regular cus- tomer so when employees at a pizza joint noticed Kirk Alexan- der's calls weren't coming in, they got concerned. And they may just have saved the man's life, accord- ing to OregonLive. Alexander had ordered from Domino's pizza for more than a decade, but when he hadn't placed an order in 11 days, delivery driver Tracey Hamblen went to his home to investigate. While lights and a TV were on, no- body answered the door and Al- exander did not answer his phone. So Hamblen dialed 911 and depu- ties dispatched to the home heard a man calling for help. ey found Alexander inside, suff ering from medical problems that could have ended his life. Now in hospital, he's in stable condition — and likely craving pizza. Credit: Africa Studio (Shutterstock) It's tempting to look at alternatives to the standard work week.

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