Canadian Safety Reporter

©2015 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-7798-2810-4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher (Carswell, a Thomson Reuters business). Canadian Safety Reporter is part of the Canadian HR Reporter group of publications: • Canadian HR Reporter — www.hrreporter.com • Canadian Occupational Safety magazine — www.cos-mag.com • Canadian Payroll Reporter — www.payroll-reporter.com • Canadian Employment Law Today — www.employmentlawtoday.com • Canadian Labour Reporter — www.labour-reporter.com See carswell.com for information Safety Reporter Canadian www.safetyreporter.com Published 12 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. Subscription rate: $129 per year Customer Service Tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5106 E-mail: carswell.customerrelations @thomsonreuters.com Website: www.carswell.com One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Road Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1T 3V4 Director, Carswell Media Karen Lorimer Publisher John Hobel (On leave) Associate Publisher/Managing Editor Todd Humber Lead Editor Sarah Dobson Assistant Editor Mallory Hendry (On Leave) Assistant Editor Anastasiya Jogal Contributing Editors Liz Foster Sabrina Nanji Liz Bernier Jeffrey R. Smith Marketing Manager Mohammad Ali mm.ali@thomsonreuters.com (416) 609-5866 Circulation Co-ordinator Keith Fulford keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-9585 Presenteeism could indicate mental health challenges physically or otherwise. Mental illness Two of four main issues behind presenteeism and absenteeism directly correlate to different lev- els of mental illness, whether it is anxiety and stress that occur due to the inability to deal with one's emotions under certain circum- stances or a full-blown medically diagnosable depression, accord- ing to Johns; employees need to deal with the issue sooner rather than later, not only for the ben- efit of the employer but for their own benefit as well. "Rates of presenteeism could be an indicator maybe that someone is having some mental health challenges or difficulties," says Laura Kalef, co-founder and occupational therapist at L&L Consulting in Toronto. Presenteeism is one way you might see a pattern to potential mental illness issues she says; but it is important to keep things in perspective. "I am sure there are a lot of peo- ple out there who are physically at work and just spending hours on Facebook, and that does not necessarily mean that they have (a) mental illness. Maybe they are bored or (more) interested in other things," says Kalef. There is a spectrum when it comes to defining mental illness, she says. "Imagine a traffic light, the green zone is when you are feel- ing mentally healthy and you are productive and fruitful. From there (we can) move into a yel- low or an orange zone, where maybe you are fatigued or you're tired and your thinking is a bit al- tered but you can move between zones and then I would say the red zone… (is) where your men- tal health is really impacting your day-to-day function." Bells gets to root of problem Telecommunications and media company Bell is well-known for supporting employees before they reach that red zone. Maree-Josee Boivin, vice- president of HR at Bell in Mon- treal, says a mental health pro- gram started at the company three years ago and since its in- ception, improvements in work culture have been evident. A mandatory course to train and inform managers about mental illness is the first step to having happy and healthy em- ployees, says Boivin. The key is educating managers and upper- level employees to be able to have an open conversation with an employee if signs of presen- teeism and absenteeism show. "You would engage the con- versation and, hopefully, the employee will volunteer what's wrong," says Boivin. "Some peo- ple will do it naturally and for some people, it's not as natural to notice those things." The three-module program helps "raise awareness and pro- vide them with tools, so we do role-playing where we give some examples of conversations and how to address a situation," she says. "We try to make it, as easily applicable as possible." Productivity < pg. 5 too far and she wished she could take back that day. When the TDSB informed Hatzantonis she was being ter- minated, she responded, "I stood up for my daughter and I got fired for that?" The board found that Hatzan- tonis' conduct was "extremely troubling" and though she was off-duty at the time, she identi- fied herself as a TDSB employee and was on TDSB property. In addition, the TDSB had to act as its reputation was at risk from people who saw the altercation live and online. "It is likely any reasonable, fair- minded parents or non-parent who viewed or became aware of the incident would be concerned with the TDSB's continued em- ployment of someone who so casually, and spectacularly, un- dercuts its responsibility to pro- vide role models, and instill ap- propriate values in students, and instead engages in verbal abuse of a student," said the board. The board also found Hat- zantonis exacerbated her mis- conduct by downplaying it and placing students in a difficult position by asking them to be "less than honest about a seri- ous altercation involving another TDSB student," which sent "a most unfortunate message to the students regarding the need to be honest at all times," said the board. The board determined that though her behaviour was "fu- elled by a desire to protect her daughter," this didn't excuse her misconduct. See Toronto District School Board and CUPE, Local 4400 (Hatzantonis), Re, 2015 Carswel- lOnt 6561 (Ont. Arb.). Employee's off -duty conduct 'extremely troubling' TDSB < pg. 6 CSR | August 2015 | News "I am sure there are people out there who are at work and just spending hours on Facebook, and that does not mean that they have a mental illness."

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