Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER January 23, 2017 18 INSIGHT RED-HANDED OTTAWA — Kijiji can be a handy site for selling unwanted household items, but one public servant took the service a little too far recently when he tried to sell government computer parts on the classified website. Andre Heggaton pleaded guilty to fraud and breach of trust after stealing nearly $1 million in parts from the Department of National Defence between 2011 and 2015. Eventually, his superiors started noticing irregularities with the invoices, said the Ottawa Citizen. Plus, no one could find the items. His lawyer said addiction was partly to blame, and Heggaton has since been fired. "He got pulled into it and things just spiralled out of control." DOGGONE IT OTTAWA — Back in Novem- ber, Jill Skinner made comments that didn't go over so well during a presentation: "We have some very hard-working members on patrol who should be recognized for their hard work, and we also have members who are canine fornicators who will be held to ac- count," said the newly appointed front-line deputy chief of the Ot- tawa police force. at's accord- ing to a complaint by a senior officer who found the comments shocking and "detrimental to our sustained, daily efforts to boost morale and ongoing enthusiastic commitment to the service ini- tiative." Skinner later apologized, according to the Ottawa Citizen, saying she was speaking in gen- eral terms about accountability on the job. "I used inappropriate language in describing those sen- timents," she said. "I have been an Ottawa police officer for 35 years and I am very proud of the mem- bers I serve with." DO YOU BELIEVE IN BIGFOOT? TAMPA, FLA. — If you love dogs, are proficient in nighttime HALO jumps, have apprenticed under a Cuban cigar roller and know the difference between Afghan and Afghani, then Judge Public Rela- tions has a job for you. e Tam- pa, Fla.-based PR firm recently sent out a tongue-in-cheek job ad for a business development associate, listing 69 requirements that included owning more than one tuxedo, demonstrating profi- ciency with a chainsaw, believing in Bigfoot and working on a third marriage (with no regrets). Com- pensation? One winter's worth of firewood and two months' rations of Cuban rum, plus commission. Lower down in the ad, Judge clarified its offer: "In all serious- ness, this position provides high earning potential for candidates looking to build a career in a fast- paced and exciting industry… If you meet the above criteria or possess a sense of humour, and have a strong desire to pursue a career in sales… apply." CRUISIN' FOR A WIN WATERLOO, IOWA — Talk about an incentive: A cabinet manufacturer promised his em- ployees a week-long cruise if the company met its goals for the year. Happily, they succeeded. Now, 800 workers are going on a company-paid Caribbean cruise, according to the Associated Press. Bertch Cabinet had offered cruises as a reward since 1989, but they had stopped as of 2005, and recovery has been very slow, said co-founder Gary Bertch. "We finally got into the black again last year,'' he said. "We just tried to get all of our people pumped up a little more to achieve the various goals, both customer-oriented goals and financial goals.'' W EIRD ORKPLACE THE Vol. 30 No. 1 – January 23, 2017 PUBLISHED BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2017 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, Media Solutions, Canada: 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 News Editor Marcel Vander Wier - (416) 649-7837 marcel.vanderwier@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 The 1 time HR belongs in the bedroom T his column starts with a mighty yawn. We're binge-watching Home- land on Netflix (I know, late to the party — but it's so good), and we snuck in one more epi- sode than we probably should have given it was a school night and all. Nor does it help that my brain seems to kick into high gear as soon as it hits the pillow — why sleep when you can solve the world's problems, muse about the minutia of summer vacation or stress about that one thing (or was that 10 things) you just re- membered you forgot to do be- fore you left the office. To add insult to injury, the To- ronto area got walloped with a winter storm this morning that turned my leisurely 45-minute drive into an hour-and-a-half, white-knuckle odyssey. So, the six-odd hours of sleep I got seems woefully inadequate this morning — but I'm in good company. As John Dujay points out in his article on page 3 of this issue, lack of sleep is costing the Canadian economy more than $21 billion — or 80,000 workdays — in lost productivity. Six hours appears to be the bare minimum of shut-eye time we need, so apparently I'm on the edge today. Workers who average less than six hours of sleep "have a 13 per cent greater chance of mortal- ity risk over someone who gets between seven and nine hours' sleep," wrote Dujay, citing a report from RAND. Great, so not only are we tired but we're more likely to die in a car crash or develop diseases such as cancer, stroke and diabetes in the long run. I slightly jest, but these are se- rious issues and few people take sleep as seriously as they do other health issues such as diet and ex- ercise. But they should. e more immediate effects of sleep deprivation are obvi- ous and annoying — crankiness, poor concentration and memory loss. Researchers have compared sleep deprivation to being drunk. None of this adds up to a positive experience in the workplace, ei- ther from a safety perspective or a morale issue, and the problem is more rampant than you might guess. How many workers do you think report showing up to work tired every day? One in 20? One in 10? It's actually more than one in four employees, found the study of 739 workers. One-quarter of your employees (27 per cent) are regularly showing up at the office already beat before they punch in — more likely to make mistakes. If any other issue other than sleep deprivation caused this level of productivity loss, we'd tackle it with fervour. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but a 1995 Statistics Canada article titled "Tired work- ers" found just one in 25 Canadian workers were chronically tired — so it appears the situation is much, much worse than it was 20 years ago. And don't look for a profile of a sleep-deprived worker — they span every demographic, every industry and every management level. "ey were not concentrated in any particular major occupa- tion or industry group, or even any type of shift schedule. Women were no more prone than men to chronic tiredness," wrote Susan Crompton in the Statistics Can- ada article. "Women with young children were no more likely than those without preschoolers to be tired." But it's just a lack of sleep, right? Everybody's tired, nobody gets enough shut-eye so we just grin and bear it and hope that — some- how — things will get better and we'll catch up on those Zs later. It's the old "I'll sleep when I'm dead mentality." One of the biggest offenders in reducing the quantity and quality of our sleep are smartphones and tablets. As Dujay's article points out, the blue light emitted can lower levels of melatonin — which is a hormone that essentially reg- ulates the body's inner clock. On nights when I have a serious case of insomnia, I've taken a melato- nin supplement and it certainly knocks me out. Many of us are guilty of check- ing work email before we go to bed, and it usually causes more harm than good. Even if you don't respond to an email under the sheets, you're going to be think- ing about the response — craft- ing different options in your head and plotting how you'll handle the problem in the morning. at's why it's important to en- courage employees to not check email on a regular basis after- hours. That's easier said than done, but management can set the example by not sending emails late at night and certainly making it clear — even if that happens — that an answer isn't expected until the next day. If a true emergency strikes at work, a good old-fashioned phone call or text message can cut through the clutter and avoid the need to scroll through email while in bed. In short, employers need to educate workers about the ben- efits of a good night's sleep with the same gusto as other wellness initiatives. After all, this is the one (and only) time employers belong in the bedroom. A DIFFERENT KIND OF HOUSE CALL VANCOUVER — A Vancouver doctor surprised many recently when he asked patients to help him ease into retirement — monetarily. Saying he "did not make much money," Myron MacDonald cited his lack of pension, limited savings and tendency to not charge patients for uninsured services, according to the CBC: "I fully understand that most of you do not have an extra $1,000 lying around but any amount will be of help to me." One supportive patient cited the doctor's unconventional career, as MacDonald was a founding mem- ber of Greenpeace in the 1970s. "He'd been so good to us over the years," said Ilze Bebris. "It felt like a way of our expressing our gratitude for the extra mile he's gone for us over the years." e College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., how- ever, spoke with the physician to resolve the situation, saying: "All of his patients can be assured that Dr. MacDonald will make this matter right, and no money will be accepted by him, even if offered." Credit: Studio Barcelona (Shutterstock)

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