Last week while on holidays I saw a post on a LinkedIn group that caught my eye.  It was about women, family and  career success. What prompted my colleague Lisa Ryan to start the discussion was a comment made by former GM CEO Jack Welch in his keynote address at the annual SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) [...]

I am en route, flying home after delivering Speak Up: Speak Out – Personal Power and Respect in the Workplace, one of most popular presentations I developed after publishing Road to Respect last year.  Speak Up: Speak out is intended to empower employees to speak up about disrespect at work.  I make the case in [...]

Aqsa Parvez wanted to be like every other Canadian teenager. She wanted to hang out with her friends, go to movies, get a part time job and wear stylish clothes. Beyond that she wanted a few things that most Canadians believe is our right – a door to her bedroom and the ability to choose [...]

In 1984, just as our modern day human rights framework was emerging in Canada, a case called Caldwell vs. St. Thomas Aquinas high school was heard at the Supreme Court of Canada. The case involved the firing of a teacher as a result of her marrying a divorced man in a civil ceremony. The Court [...]

I have lived in Canada my whole life. I have lived in different cities and communities in three different provinces and eaten in a myriad of different environments. I must say that until recently I was not aware that there was a Canadian way of eating. In 2006 seven year old Luc Cagadoc was eating [...]

Like many of you, I was shocked to hear about the passage of legislation in Arizona which empowers, and actually requires police to stop individuals to determine if they are in the US illegally. The criteria the police are to use when deciding who to stop is reasonable suspicion. What will trigger that reasonable suspicion [...]

I spend a lot of my time talking and writing about the relationship between power and respect at work. Disrespectful behaviors like harassment and bullying are power based behaviors. The choice to engage in these behaviors and how we respond to them is very much connected to power – how much we have and how [...]

Today, April 14th is Pink Shirt Day in BC. Started three years ago by Vancouver radio personality Christy Clark, Pink Shirt Day Serves to raise awareness about bullying in schools, workplaces, homes and over the internet. Ms. Clark took her cue from the actions of two teenage students in Nova Scotia who took a stand [...]

I had a great example recently of how one word, a unconscious slip of the tongue, the use of a habitual phrase can unintentionally offend. I was traveling for work. I got off the plane and went to the rental car kiosk. The customer service agent got high marks for his pleasant, welcoming and efficient [...]

One of the things I discuss in my book Road to Respect is how bad behavior is often tolerated within workplaces. Excuses are made. “Oh that is just (whomever). That is just how she/he is”. When nothing is done to deal with workplace disrespect, everyone soon accepts it as “just the way it is around [...]