Thank you to Murray Kobe for providing your insightful comments and concerns on this important topic, and allowing us to share with our members.
This news release is so sad.
- Speaking to staff- does she not realize that staff see her differently than she sees them. They see her as the boss and not to tread on any toes, (which is normal for the staff)
- A leader would always provide a system for staff to follow if they needed to, not “the staff feel safe”
- The reason a staff member would step away is because they don’t feel comfortable to say anything to their boss, and when that person did, was ridiculed by the mayor, not professional to even mention the staff member.
- The computer system should be upgraded to accommodate, it is not difficult or expensive.
- “I know that some people are afraid” is really a tell tale statement, people want to feel safe, they don’t want to catch the virus, they want assurances that their employer feels the same way! Not tell the, it’s okay to be afraid. To say you won’t attack, but you did attack, the staff member directly (which now that person has a viable lawsuit against you) and not accepting anyone who feels “afraid”.
- “Lucky to have municipal jobs” this speaks to anybody want to keep their jobs? No one is lucky, they worked for the roles they have, long before they were hired by any employer and will go on to have successful careers after this municipal job.
- “Some employees might feel entitled to work at home and earn 100 percent of their wage, but there is no way they can perform at the same capacity as when at work.” WOW! No sense of change, “feel entitled” not safety, “can’t perform at the same capacity” how do they know, they have never tried it. Statistically people perform better when working at home, they put in more hours, they are more productive, they are much happier.
- don’t ignore the H&S, but don’t dictate to it either. There are provincial H&S rules that are not being followed, there are are management processes that are not being followed, there are human resource issues that are being mismanaged, all within this news release.
- This whole news release speaks of not caring for staff, while trying to say they do, not looking after the safety of the employees, not giving the employee the choice, (as outlined in the labour code) if they feel unsafe, they can refuse the work. To me this so called news release has made the situation worse, not better, it does not give the staff a sense of belonging, but it does say we don’t care about morale, we only care about the work you do and make sure you continue to perform at the same level or else.