BLOG

Career professionals can learn how to have safe and meaningful conversations to support clients experiencing this form of bullying

Priscilla Jabouin

I was first introduced to the concept of bullying in the workplace in 2010 during my graduate course in Career Psychology. I realized that although bullying has been a workplace issue for many years, it has received very little attention in the Canadian context. Nevertheless, as a Career Counsellor in private practice, I have often heard clients share stories that highlight clear instances of this issue.

Unfortunately, when I researched tools to support clients in navigating this reality, the resources were very limited. This stayed with me, as I find that it reflects how our society often approaches “negative” topics. For example, in 2003, the Canadian government conducted an Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) and reported that 65% of underrepresented individuals experienced racism in the workplace. Even though this is a high percentage and it’s a known fact that racism has a serious impact on a person’s mental health, I did not find any follow-up action plans to deal with this situation – until now. In this post-George Floyd era, when racism and systemic racism are a hot topic, we are now witnessing everyone jumping on the equity, diversity and inclusion train.

But are we really implementing lasting solutions to this problem?

I would like to open up the discussion on a topic that is often overlooked: racism as a form of bullying in the workplace. By starting this conversation, my hope is that as career development professionals, you will be better equipped to have safe and meaningful conversations with your clients, and to help them set boundaries to protect themselves from various forms of bullying in the workplace and to limit its negative effects on their mental health.

What is bullying?

In the literature, bullying is described as a series of negative behaviours that includes harassing, offending, socially excluding or negatively affecting someone’s work, taking place repeatedly and regularly over a period of at least six months (Podsiadly, A. & Gamian, Wilk, M., 2017; Samnani, A-K. & Singh, P., 2012; High, A., Hansen, A.M., Mikkelsen, E.G., Persson, R. 2011). However, when working from a trauma-informed lens, one event is often enough for an individual to experience trauma and/or to trigger an individual’s past trauma. Therefore, it is important to recognize that an individual who experiences any type of bullying in the workplace over any period of time could still experience its negative outcomes.

In the context of this discussion, I would like to include in my definition of bullying: any type of workplace situation where an individual feels unsafe or distressed or lacks the tools to protect themself from an actual or perceived threat. In this case, I include racism as a form of bullying and as a consequence, relational trauma in the workplace.

“It is important to recognize that an individual who experiences any type of bullying in the workplace over any period of time could still experience its negative outcomes.”

The psychological impact

Research has not only confirmed that bullying in the workplace leads to negative psychological outcomes (i.e. higher rates of anxiety and depression) for individuals who are targeted by these negative behaviours (Podsiadly, A. & Gamian, Wilk, M., 2017; Samnani, A-K. & Singh, P., 2012; High, A., Hansen, A.M., Mikkelsen, E.G., Persson, R. 2011); it has also identified that targets are often ethnic minority women (Samnani, A-K., & Singh, P., 2012).

Furthermore, in its 2022 training on the trauma of racism, NICABM (National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine) emphasized the hypervigilant behaviour racialized individuals often exhibit due to the serious psychological impact of regular racial stressors in their environments. Thus, we cannot take this topic lightly if we care about the Canadian population’s mental health and well-being.

So, what can we do about it? I’d like to continue this conversation by suggesting some simple interventions you and your clients can start to use to address this problem.

Read more

The future of work for the Black community

Case Study: Reimagining mentorship for South Asian & Tamil women and gender-diverse peoples

Hiring a Chief Diversity Officer isn’t enough to make workplaces safer for racialized employees

Interventions and solutions

It can be challenging to recognize that your client is experiencing racism in the workplace; it can also be difficult for your client to acknowledge that they are being bullied at work. Therefore, I believe it’s important to highlight that it is never the “victim’s” fault or responsibility to find solutions and interventions to issues of racism, discrimination and racial micoragressions in the workplace. We do not ask the person who is bullied to come up with solutions, so let’s ensure we take the same approach when it comes to racism in the workplace.

Educating employers and employees

It should no longer be acceptable for employers to lack training and/or education on issues surrounding equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. To create a safe space for all leaders and employees, it should be mandatory for everyone to receive training on bias and anti-racism in the workplace. Employers need to question their current practices and go beyond simply reaching their employment equity quotas – a practice that does not protect underrepresented individuals. On the contrary, individuals can experience serious repercussions when they are tokenized and thrown into unsafe work environments where their colleagues have not explored their personal biases.

Acknowledge complaints

If you are a non-racialized individual, or your client is working with a non-racialized supervisor, it is important to remember that your experience of power and privilege means you are not in a position where you have experienced what racism looks like, feels like or sounds like. This lack of awareness can lead you to ignore serious complaints that require your immediate attention.

Denying an act of racism can be as harmful as the actual racist experience your client has endured. Remember that calling out racism requires a lot of courage from a racialized individual and puts them in a very vulnerable space, emotionally and psychologically. Treat every complaint with the amount of attention it deserves.

Understanding microaggressions

It is also important to remember that microaggressions are very subtle acts, incidents or comments that cannot be easily identified – (see Microaggressions in Everyday Life by D.W. Sue & L. Spanierman). Some things are felt in the body, and not easily explained by the mind.

Setting boundaries

This is where you can teach your client strategies to protect themselves against racism in the workplace. How can you help your clients identify safe working spaces? How can clients voice their concerns and opinions to encourage positive change in the workplace? When should a client consider leaving a toxic work environment? How can you support your client to ask questions such as: What anti-racist policies are in place? How do these translate in the workplace?

Co-operation and commitment

Is your client’s employer ready for open and uncomfortable conversations? Are they ready to hear suggestions from the groups affected by racism and discrimination? Are they ready to dive into the complexities and subjective realities of their employees? Have you prepared yourself as a helper to explore these ideas and to be in an uncomfortable space with your clients?

In order to create meaningful and positive changes in the workplace and to ensure safe work environments, employers as well as the work environments and culture need to be open and willing to listen and communicate with racialized individuals about their experience.

Conclusion

The interventions and strategies I have shared only scratch the surface of the conversation that needs to be had about racism as a form of workplace bullying. As Canadians, we will have to participate in in-depth discussions to shift mindsets and dismantle the systems that uphold work environments that are conducive to bullying and racism. If we want to create meaningful changes where the goals of equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives are optimally reached, we will have to do the uncomfortable work.

Priscilla Jabouin, M.A., C.C.C., c.o. After a career change in 2010, Priscilla returned to school to complete her master of arts in counselling psychology. She then embarked on a new path as a Career Counsellor in university career centres in Canada and the United States, and is now in private practice helping creative professionals who are unhappy at work, wake up to a career they love.

Additional sources

Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute (CTRI) (2021). Trauma: Counselling Strategies for Healing and Resilience (Training Manual)

Khan, C. (2006, Summer). “The Blind Spot”: Racism and Discrimination in the Workplace. In J.S. Frideres (vol. 2). Our Diverse Cities. (pp. 61 – 65). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anita-Friesen/publication/332180728_Winnipeg’s_Inner_City_Research_on_the_Challenges_of_Growing_Diversity/links/5ca4db0da6fdcc12ee9113e9/Winnipegs-Inner-City-Research-on-the-Challenges-of-Growing-Diversity.pdf#page=63

This experiential learning opportunity can help students broaden their horizons after two years of pandemic learning

Michelle Dittmer

No prom, no graduation, no high school plays. It’s no surprise to anyone that students who graduated in 2022 did not have a normal high school experience; their only non-pandemic high school year was Grade 9. They have missed out on experiential learning opportunities like sporting events, school plays, international trips, part-time work and summer jobs. While this is showing up on resumes as lack of experience, it is also showing up in a variety of other deficits such as confidence, optimism for their future and understanding the full range of opportunities that lie ahead of them.

While the pandemic highlighted some of these challenges, the trend toward focusing on academic achievement over engaging in a variety of experiences has been developing for a while. At the Canadian Gap Year Association, students taking gap years (“gappers”) have noted trends of feeling compelled to choose the full repertoire of STEM courses over co-op experiences and pressure to build “med-school-ready” resumes. With a rightful focus on equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility, many schools lack funds and resources to create financially and culturally accessible experiential learning. To complicate things further, increased liability concerns limit longer and more intensive programming such as school trips or overnight experiences.

Reflecting on the high school experience rarely brings about memories of balancing chemical equations or reading Hamlet. The formative teen years rely on novel experiences to broaden ideas, get exposure to new concepts and people, make memories and form lifelong connections. Without these experiences widely available, students are learning and developing in a much narrower ecosystem while the world continues to become more complex and globalized.

“The formative teen years rely on novel experiences to broaden ideas, get exposure to new concepts and people, make memories and form lifelong connections.”

One antidote that expands young people’s horizons is to take a gap year – to push pause intentionally on formal education to learn more about themselves, the world around them and how they see themselves contributing to a complex future. A gap year supports foundational skills development through any combination of working, volunteering, travelling and project work. In other words, a gap year is experiential learning and career development work. While some may dismiss a gap year as wasted time or a detour off the proven track to success, they actually support physical and mental well-being and help young people develop passions and interests that provide clarity for their life’s next steps.

Exploring the gap year

Long gone are the days of a gap year being strictly the domain of affluent youth strapping on a backpack and travelling Europe for a year or “helping in Africa” (although travel and service are still part of the equation). Instead, 2021 gappers in CanGap’s network focused on their mental health, bought their immigrant parents a house, started a vegan bakery, ran non-profit organizations, secured substantial scholarships, worked and travelled in the UK while taking courses on social media management, and worked with the mayor of Toronto.

While these are the newsworthy undertakings, many other gappers share how their experience-focused gap years allowed them to overcome burnout, build confidence, make a more informed decision about their academic pathway and become more financially stable – all core components of stepping into their desired futures and entering adulthood feeling more prepared and balanced.

Students often want to take a gap year but are frequently met with barriers such as societal expectations to continue education through to post-secondary graduation, pressure to progress alongside their peers, cultural norms that don’t include gap years and a strong desire to not disappoint their parents. Parents, educators and advisors can be a powerful gateway to students realizing their gap year goals.

Read more on youth career development

How to help parents help kids with career decisions

Articles and organizations to support students considering a gap year

The scary ‘C-word’ in high schools

How to be a gap year influencer:

• Normalize non-linear pathways after high school: While all post-secondary pathways are valuable, students and parents are still heavily influenced by the antiquated hierarchy of post-secondary choices, which puts gap years at the bottom as a “failure to make it” to the more desired options.
• Share more stories: Invite gap year alum or gap year professionals to come speak with your young people so that they can learn what possibilities are before them. The US-based Gap Year Association’s 2020 Alum Survey stated that students’ biggest barrier to taking a gap year was deciding what to do during their year.
• Talk about post-gap year transitions: A gap year is a break from being a full-time student in a traditional classroom. Parents may feel more comfortable and students can be better positioned to enjoy their gap time when they understand how to navigate the transition out of their gap year into the next phase of their lives (trades, further studies, workforce, military, etc.) up front.
• Set up a gap year plan: There is a difference between a purposeful gap year and spending the year on the couch. Designing a year’s worth of experiences that push the gapper closer toward their goals is the key to a successful gap year.

Tips for planning an effective gap year

The non-profit Canadian Gap Year Association’s role is to help students and families decide whether a gap year is the right fit, and then give them the tools and support to make their gap time purposeful. The recommendations below are based on 15+ years supporting Canadian gappers, and all links are to free resources that expand on the bullet points.

• Define goals: Look at three main categories: personal, strategic and fun. Having well-balanced goals will help set the intentions for the year and factor in personal needs, future planning and the need to have a good time while doing it! Once goals are established, decisions about the types of activities to pursue becomes much clearer and less overwhelming.
• Set expectations: Discuss expectations as a family. Having everyone on the same page at the start of the year will reduce conflict and ensure that everyone understands the parametres for the gap year (budget, acceptable activities, rules about living at home, etc.) and expectations surrounding what happens at the end of the gap year.
• Research options: Did you know that most activities for a gap year are not found by googling “gap year”? The possibilities include internships, volunteer opportunities, jobs, clubs, hackathons, courses, passion projects or starting a business. All can be done within Canada or abroad. There is also a wide variety of designated gap year programs to choose from as well.
• Track progress: As the year unfolds, find opportunities to document the learning that takes place, the skills that are developed and the networks that are being built. This can be through journalling, conversations with a mentor, developing a gap year portfolio or however the gapper processes information. CanGap offers a micro-credential, The Student of Leadership and Humanity Award, that supports reflection on experiences and making connections to future scenarios.

A gap year is experiential learning. It compliments and augments classroom learning. Gap years expose students to new situations, provide immediate and relevant feedback on career options, and allow students to discover or showcase knowledge and talents that might not get exposed in the classroom.

Let’s celebrate the gap year pathway as a wise choice that supports personal and professional growth and add it to our toolkits for supporting positive youth development.

Combining youth’s need for experiential learning and developing reflective and values-aligned practices, Michelle Dittmer, an educator, founded the Canadian Gap Year Association as a solution to mental health, lack of clarity and the skills gap.

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for the new workplace

Brian Lambier

Organizations are asking employees to return to the office and a “new normal” workplace. However, while some employees are eager to separate work from home, not all are keen to return to the office full time. As businesses implement new working models from fully remote to strictly office-based, and everything in between, career professionals need to be prepared to support clients to consider what meets their needs.

In a 2022 survey conducted for Global News, 32% of Canadians said that they’d look for another job if their employer forced them to work exclusively at the office, a sentiment more widely shared among those aged 18 to 34 (42%) than those 35 to 54 (29% ) and 55 and over (22%).

Microsoft’s Annual Trend and Index Report 2022 also reported that the collective experience of the past two years has left a lasting imprint, fundamentally changing how we define the role of work in our lives. For Gen Z and millennials, there is no going back. And with other generations not far behind, companies must meet employees where they are.

In response, employers are now considering hybrid-working models, where employees will work both in the office and at home. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

What does hybrid work look like?

According to Webex by Cisco, there are four primary models of hybrid work that employers are implementing:

1. Flexible hybrid: Employees choose their location and working hours based on their priorities for the day.
2. Fixed hybrid: Employees may be required to work in the office on fixed days and times, to ensure that everyone is on-site at those times.
3. Office-first hybrid: Employees are expected to be on-site most of the time but have the flexibility to choose a couple of days a week to work remotely.
4. Remote-first hybrid: Employees work remotely most of the time with occasional visits to co-working spaces or the office for team building, collaboration and training.

Career professionals need to support clients to look at each of these hybrid models to determine which one offers the best “fit” for their lifestyle and expectations of work.

More from Careering

Two models to develop individual and organizational resilience

Choose crisis before crisis chooses you

Future mindsets and skillsets for a changing world

Benefits and limitations of hybrid work

Hybrid work provides the freedom and flexibility for employees to manage their life and workdays from home, and still stay connected with co-workers and managers in their workplace. These connections can prevent remote workers from experiencing isolation that affects their mental health, productivity level and job satisfaction. There is also a cost-savings benefit as they will commute less to the office, saving time and money spent on transportation, clothing and other expenses.

A Gallup study found the optimal engagement boost for millennials occurs when employees spend 60-80% of their time – three to four days a week – working remotely. This generation often defines flexibility by when and where they work.

It is important for employers to be attuned to employee needs and desires to help improve recruitment and retention. The degree of workplace flexibility will influence some employees’ decisions about whether to accept a job offer elsewhere. Understanding employees’ need for flexibility can lead to engaged workers who are also often more productive and happier, which can be a win-win for both the employer and employee.

“It is important for employers to be attuned to employee needs and desires to help improve recruitment and retention.”

While there can be benefits to hybrid work, these models are not the best fit for employees who prefer to go to their workplace every day to enjoy the culture of the organization, teamwork and face-to-face interactions with managers, co-workers and clients. These employees may face challenges when working from home. They may not have the self-discipline to stay on task nor have an appropriate workspace or resources required to manage everyday interruptions. This may decrease their productivity and overall job satisfaction.

Setting clients up for success

So, what does this mean for career professionals? How can you support your clientele to make an informed decision regarding their career direction and how it fits with different models of working?

Career professionals can continue to support their clients to increase their self-awareness by helping them to identify their skills, values, interests and work preferences, as well as their perceptions regarding the benefits and challenges of the “new normal” workplace. Helping clients explore who they are, as well as the wide variety of models of work including the hybrid options outlined above, will equip them with greater self-understanding. This increased knowledge will place them in a better position to answer the following four questions and begin a process to determine which type of work environment is best for them.

1. Are you concerned with feeling disconnected or isolated from the workplace and the other members of your team?

In a study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour in 2021, researchers examined rich data including the emails, calendars, instant messages, video/audio calls and workweek hours from before and after Microsoft imposed a company-wide work-from-home mandate in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They found that working from home caused workers to become more siloed in how they communicated with others. Employees engaged in fewer direct conversations and spent less time in meetings.

2. How do you prefer to communicate and collaborate with co-workers, managers and other stakeholders?

Do you prefer in-person, direct communication with others or are you comfortable communicating via email, texting or via an online digital platform? Everyone shares and receives information differently, so the quality of information exchange will be influenced by the method of sharing, as well as each individual’s level of comfort with it.

3. When working from home, will you be able to create a balance between your personal and work life?

All employees, including hybrid workers, need to have a positive work experience that increases their overall health and wellness. Work-life balance has numerous positive effects such as decreased stress, a lower risk of burnout and a greater sense of well-being. Some benefit from working remotely because it allows them to juggle their work and non-work responsibilities from one base of operation. Others prefer to find balance by working away from home because they can create a separation between these two areas of their life.

4. What circumstances need to exist in a hybrid model for you to be productive?

This includes the physical work environment (e.g. home office setup), the type of interruptions the individual can expect and how they can manage them, and the daily structure they create to support their productivity and overall well-being.

The answers to these questions can provide both the career professional and their clients with additional information and insight to engage in a more in-depth conversation about the new world of work. The client will be in a better position to make a more informed decision as to which model of work is the “best fit” for them, and the career professional can help identify the necessary actions to effectively prepare their clients to work in this “new normal.”

Brian Lambier, BA, CRC is the President/Owner of Career Vitality Services Inc., a career coach, a certified retirement coach as well as an adult education workshop facilitator who has worked in a diversity of positions in the human services and career development fields for the past 30-plus years. He also teaches in the Career and Academic Advising Certificate Program at the University of Calgary.

Examining the role of rational, intuitive and emotional dimensions in career decision-making

Hélène Brisebois

The career decision-making process is complex. It does, after all, require an individual to choose a career that will make up a significant part of their life. While some people rely primarily on their rationality, others are chiefly guided by their intuition, while others still rely mostly on their emotions.

Many researchers agree that it is important to consider the rational and conscious dimension, the intuitive and unconscious dimension, as well as emotions when making career decisions (Baumgardner, 1977; Cournoyer & Lachance, 2018; Falardeau, 2007; Gelatt, 1989; Krieshok, 1998; Krieshok et al., 2009; Krieshok et al., 2011; Lecomte & Savard, 2008, 2009; Motl et al., 2018).

As such, this article discusses how these three dimensions combine with respect to career decision-making.

The rational and conscious dimension

When it comes to decision-making, many people will see themselves using a rational and analytical approach. There are many aspects to consider when looking ahead into the long term: “Will my career choice provide enough income for the life I want? What about job stability? What qualifications do I need to move in this direction? How much study time is required? What are the costs? What are the risks if I drop out?”

By taking a rational, logical and concrete approach to career decision-making, individuals can therefore match their personal characteristics with career characteristics. This can be done through verbal communication, rational analysis work and psychometric testing (Krieshok, 1998; Krieshok et al., 2009; Krieshok et al., 2011; Motl et al., 2018). That said, this approach does not account for emotions or the intuitive dimension.

Intuitive and unconscious dimension

The intuitive and unconscious dimension lies beyond the conscious and rational dimension. Decision-making based on the intuitive and unconscious dimension allows an individual to choose a meaningful career that leads to self-fulfillment. The flow concept (Collin et al., 2022) can also be included in this dimension. In short, intuition can help with decision-making, as reported by a number of authors (Cournoyer & Lachance, 2018; Krieshok, 1998; Krieshok et al., 2009; Krieshok et al., 2011; Motl et al., 2018).

“Decision-making based on the intuitive and unconscious dimension allows an individual to choose a meaningful career that leads to self-fulfillment.”

In this context, we might wonder how to tap into our intuition and unconscious. To do this, Motl et al. (2018) suggest “journal writing, guided imagery, and counselling” (p. 618).

Emotions

It should be noted that many authors suggest that emotions, which also contribute to decision-making, are part of the intuitive and unconscious dimension. According to Falardeau (2007), Prévost (2021) and Young et al. (2015), being in touch with emotions can facilitate the decision-making process.

For example, the more intense the emotion, the more important the subject of that emotion is for a person, which highlights the factors to consider in decision-making (Prévost, 2021). Positive emotions foster engagement and the understanding of emotions helps with the career selection process (Prévost, 2021).

So, how do we get in touch with our emotions in this context? Among other things, Prévost (2021) suggests striving to explore and understand emotions.

Read more

Choose crisis before crisis chooses you

Supporting homeless clients starts with understanding their unique stories

‘Crossing the Rubicon’: Turning career action crises into opportunities

Actions that combine all three dimensions

In essence, rationality, intuition and emotions are three dimensions that can work together to facilitate career decision-making. However, this raises the following question: What action can be taken to combine these three dimensions in this context? According to my study, both artistic creation and art therapy could set the stage for bringing these three dimensions into play (Brisebois, 2021). It is important to note, however, that art therapy is a practice specific to art therapists.

As for the approaches to take to incorporate these three dimensions in the career decision-making process, I would also mention Gati and Asher’s (2001) PIC (Prescreening, In-depth exploration and Choice) model, as it takes into account both rational and intuitive decision-making methods (Gati & Kulcsar, 2021).

Another way to use these three dimensions when making decisions is to engage in activities that foster occupational exploration and the experience of career decision-making. This is what Krieshok et al. (2009) suggest in their trilateral model of career decision-making, which combines conscious and non-conscious processes, as well as engagement. In this model, the non-conscious system involves intuition and emotion, while engagement, which falls under the experience of career decision-making, includes career exploration and enrichment.

Volunteering, mentoring, information sessions and work experiences are also endeavours that can provide access to engagement and thus to career decision-making.

Conclusion

In short, rationality allows an individual to make a connection between their personal and career characteristics while taking their reality into account; intuition provides direction toward self-fulfilment, and emotions allow them to shed light on what is important to them, among other things. Ultimately, we make the best decisions when we examine these three parts of ourselves: rationality, intuition and emotions.

Hélène Brisebois is a career counsellor. She holds a master’s degree in counselling from Université de Sherbrooke and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Concordia University. She has many years of experience as a college-level academic advisor and employment counsellor. She has also written several professional articles on counselling and a dissertation on art therapy in counselling.

Additional sources

Lecomte, C. et Savard, R. (2008). Counseling de carrière : enjeu d’orientation et d’insertion professionnelle. [Recueil inédit]. Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté d’éducation.

Lecomte, C. et Savard, R. (2009). Counseling de carrière avec ses enjeux d’orientation, de réorientation, d’insertion, de réinsertion, d’adaptation et de réadaptation. [Recueil inédit]. Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté d’éducation.

This article was translated from the original French.

Flourish mentorship program aims to address data and programming gap while centring the lived experiences of racialized individuals

Abarna Selvarajah and Herleen Arora

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on the economic, physical and social well-being of racialized women, newcomers, immigrants, LGBTQ2+ communities, people with disabilities and those who are low-income. The burden of unemployment, precarious employment and poor working conditions has fallen more heavily on these marginalized populations as they are more likely to be working in front-line sectors that have been greatly affected by the pandemic (i.e. retail, food service, hospitality, health care and education).

At the same time, they are also performing essential work in occupations that care for and meet the needs of communities. In addition to the economic barriers experienced by racialized women, we have also seen a rise in gender-based violence and racism across Canada.

The pandemic has also presented challenges for students and young workers. Following a shift to virtual workplaces and learning environments, students and young workers continue to express feelings of isolation as they navigate the transition period between school and work. Young people often express a longing for careers that align with their passions and spark positive social change. This becomes increasingly difficult to achieve as spaces to connect and build authentic relationships with other professionals follow different social conventions in a virtual world.

There have been numerous reports and op-eds about the impacts the pandemic has had on women and youth and the need for feminist recovery responses. Yet, there is a data gap here. We have yet to address the distinct experiences of racialized women and South Asian (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, etc.) and Tamil women and gender-diverse communities in particular.

So, how can we support young, racialized women and gender-diverse communities navigate this period of transition? What role can mentorship, sponsorship and coaching play?

In this recurring Careering feature, career professionals share their real-life solutions to common problems in the field. Read more Case Studies from Careering:

Bridging the gap between degree and career

Carleton careers course aims to help students manage change and complexity

Helping a client with autism improve her interview skills

Understanding lived experiences

According to the 2016 Census, South Asians are the single-largest visible-minority (racialized) group in Canada, accounting for 29.6% of visible minorities in Ontario and 8.7% of its total population. Approximately 18% of South Asian people in Ontario live in poverty. While data is available on the South Asian community as a whole, there is little information gathered on the lived experiences of women and gender-diverse folks within this community.

In March 2022, Pink Attitude Evolution released a National Study analyzing the experiences of South Asian women’s experiences in the labour force. The report documented that this group of women felt unfairly pressured to choose between caring for their family or prioritizing their career. It observed that these “cultural expectations placed on South Asian women have resulted in them having less time to devote to career-building activities such as social networking.”

The study offered several recommendations directed at employers, including increasing access to targeted mentorship and sponsorship opportunities for South Asian women. At the South Asian & Tamil Women’s Collective (SATWC), we believe that it is important to have these conversations on mentorship with those affected by the lack of supports. Now, more than ever, there is a need to build support networks that mentor South Asian and Tamil women and gender-diverse folks in a way that respects and nurtures their lived experiences as part of their personal and professional journeys.

Helping people ‘Flourish’

SATWC creates spaces for connection, growth and learning in the Greater Toronto Area. Our work has been driven by the lived experiences and stories of our community members, many of whom describe facing a diverse set of challenges in their journeys through education, employment, mental health and well-being.

In recent years, we observed a need for more spaces to nurture long-term, wellness-centred mentorship for young South Asian and Tamil women and gender-diverse individuals. To help young women and gender-diverse folks navigate career pathways and transition to employment, SATWC launched the Flourish pilot mentorship program in September 2022. Mentors and mentees applied to the program and were paired following consultations with community advisors. Mentors included South Asian and Tamil women and gender-diverse folks in fields related to mental health, health inequity, social work and post-secondary education.

Flourish aims to centre wellness and community through the curation of spaces for collective learning and reflection. It offers six guided workshops for mentors and mentees to achieve sustainable personal and career development goals. Topics for each workshop include:

1. Understanding confidence and our authentic self
2. Navigating expectations and pressures
3. Career mapping and exploring pathways
4. Resume and cover letter writing
5. Skill building and interviewing
6. Workplace rights and negotiating wages

The series of workshops ends with a learning circle, where program organizers and participants share their experiences with Flourish. Each workshop takes place over an online platform, where mentors and mentees participate and learn together in community with one another.

Guided by community

This mentorship structure grounds community-centred perspectives from start to finish, as it fosters reciprocal relationships between adult allies and youth. Reciprocity and community-centred methods were informed by the work of bell hooks, who writes in the book Teaching to Transgress, “[in] a classroom community, our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing one another’s voices, in recognizing one another’s presence.” While mentors and mentees are encouraged to meet once a month over the course of this four-month program, program organizers hope that these relationships will continue to flourish past the end date.

Flourish recognizes that one’s career and personal growth are not separate from their unique experiences and identities but rather are interdependent on one another. The migratory histories of the South Asian and Tamil diaspora are intimately tied to young people’s everyday experiences of family and the workplace. It is important to be conscious of these interconnected realities by nurturing relationships that will enhance a student’s learning and surround them with people who have similar lived experiences.

“Flourish recognizes that one’s career and personal growth are not separate from their unique experiences and identities but rather are interdependent on one another.”

For instance, in the “Navigating expectations and pressures” workshop, facilitators not only explore pressures within a workplace, but also connect it to family environments and even the personal expectations we set for ourselves. It also addresses the many forms of oppression faced by and within this group of people, including colonialism, racism, casteism, sexism and homophobia.

Moving forward

We believe that through the creation of the Flourish mentorship program in York Region, ON, SATWC will address a core data and programming gap for South Asian and Tamil young women and gender-diverse communities across Canada. By providing data on community needs and creating valuable resources for mentorship, Flourish aims to present a program model for organizations and grassroots communities to implement in their own spaces that is centred on the lived experiences of racialized folks. While the impact cannot be fully grasped at this stage of the program, the collective is focused on providing clear definitions and guidelines on mentorship in the South Asian and Tamil community, to advocate for greater investments into building sustainable mentorship programming models.

Abarna Selvarajah is the Flourish Program Lead and Herleen Arora is Managing Director at South Asian & Tamil Women’s Collective. Reach out to us via social media @satwcollective on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Thank you to our Community Advisors for their contributions and edits: Shamitha Devakandan, Sivathmiga Kumaraswamy, Qudsiya Jabeen and Varenya Kuhathaas. For questions about South Asian & Tamil Women’s Collective, please email: satwcollective@gmail.com.

Prevention starts with knowing the risks and triggers for helping professionals

Jo-Ann Trudeau

Compassion fatigue is now widely recognized as an occupational hazard for those careers that are dubbed “the helping professions,” such as nurses, police officers and lawyers. People working in career development, such as employment counsellors and vocational rehabilitation professionals, are also part of this group. Job title notwithstanding, compassion fatigue is a risk for professionals whose jobs require empathizing with another person requiring help, in order to provide competent and effective care.

By developing awareness of what compassion fatigue is, how it happens and strategies to prevent it, career professionals can instead strive for compassion satisfaction at work. 

What compassion fatigue is – and what it’s not

Compassion fatigue is sometimes confused with burnout. These conditions share some symptoms and can co-exist but are not the same. Burnout is the physical and emotional exhaustion that a worker experiences when they have low job satisfaction and feel powerless and overwhelmed at work. Individuals who are experiencing burnout might feel drained, hopeless or resentful, and experience lower levels of motivation. Being burned out does not mean that you have lost the capacity to feel compassion for others. Changing jobs – as many people chose to do during the Great Resignation – can provide relief from work-related burnout.

Compassion fatigue develops over time and is described in many ways. Recognizable symptoms include feeling reduced compassion and sensitivity in the face of clients’ pain. People with compassion fatigue may also experience increased anxiety, anger and irritability; cognitive concerns such as decreased concentration and decision-making; sleep issues; and physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea and dizziness. Some people may neglect their own self-care, withdraw from friends and family and increase substance use as a form of self-medication.

In fact, more precisely, compassion fatigue is secondary traumatic stress disorder (STS). This is a form of post-traumatic stress, also called vicarious trauma, that is brought on by indirect or secondary exposure to stressful or traumatic events. While we do not experience the events clients are sharing with us, hearing their stories can still have an impact.

Read more on trauma from Careering and CareerWise

How to help your clients navigate the trauma of racism in the workplace

Working toward trauma-informed career development organizations

Practical steps to provide trauma-informed career development

Compassion fatigue triggers

Compassion fatigue can be brought on by a stressful workplace or environment, lack of resources, excessive hours or even workplace culture. What does a CF trigger look like? To name a few, this can include:

• providing services to someone who has a mental health disorder
• reports of discrimination and race-based trauma
• providing care that introduces you to issues such as refugee settlement living conditions
• being physically and verbally threatened when providing support
• providing care under a heavy workload
• excessive demands or long hours

With an accumulation of these experiences, your thoughts, mood and well-being negatively change. Being affected by your work is a normal part of a work day; however, when it starts to overwhelm you, you may be feeling compassion fatigue.

Risk factors

People who are most susceptible to CF usually lack a support network outside of work, have a personal history of loss or trauma, are perfectionists and have difficulty dealing with their emotions. The emerging psychological research behind perfectionism suggests that it is a coping mechanism and a sign of trauma exposure that results in much anxiety. The evidence points to protecting oneself against the distress of being perceived as a failure, as perfectionists’ self-worth is based on success and achievement. Unfortunately, trauma can lead to self-judgment and judgment of others, social isolation, stress and negative self-talk. The personal characteristic of perfectionism requires greater research attention on account of it exacerbating the risk of compassion fatigue.

Responses to these feelings can cycle from self-blame and feeling you have neglected your professional standards, to blaming others for errors, to overworking. These are common reactions and there are methods of prevention to heal and maintain balance.

Prevention is the best medicine

The ABCs of compassion fatigue prevention are:

• Awareness: Consider times when you were annoyed or wound up at work. Ask yourself, what was the trigger?
• Balance: Practise work-life balance. Do I make time for things that I enjoy? Do I set boundaries between work and home?
• Connection: Who in my network can I vent to or discuss work challenges with? (e.g. friends, family, colleagues, spiritual mentors)

Answering these questions can help you determine your potential risk factors for compassion fatigue and take preventive action to maintain your well-being.

Adopting self-care routines, including proper sleep, exercise and nutrition as well as practising mindfulness, are also good preventive practices. You may find it beneficial to work with a psychologist or counsellor to develop positive coping strategies and process challenging feelings about your work situation. Above all, learn to have self-compassion and treat yourself with the care and concern you would a friend, sibling or parent.

Getting to compassion satisfaction

Compassion fatigue is one dimension of professional quality of life; the other dimension is compassion satisfaction (CS). Professional quality of life describes the negative (CF) and positive (CS) psychological outcomes of working. CS works as a protective factor and refers to the pleasure and benefits of working (and is not exclusive to helping professionals). These include feeling valued, having a sense of belonging in the workplace, having self-efficacy in the ability to make a difference in the workplace and achieving personal goals.

From a workplace perspective, employers can try to prevent compassion fatigue by encouraging work autonomy, providing role clarity, offering mental health days and creating a safe space to share challenges and successes and openly discuss CF. Employers can also give employees the opportunity to attend training regularly (skill training specific to job or training on how to deal with trauma), and encourage them to ask for help with their workload and overall wellness. Look at it as an antidote to CF as well as burnout.

Remember, compassion fatigue is a normal, human reaction to witnessing another person’s pain. Having a compassionate organizational culture increases compassion satisfaction, resetting the boundary between the professional and personal, and allowing helping professionals to return to work engaged, caring and healthy.

Jo-Ann Trudeau is a sought-after expert, speaker and practitioner of return to work/disability management and vocational rehabilitation. She is currently on a second master of art, this time in counselling psychology and holds a human resources management diploma and is a Certified Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist.

We all face barriers that affect our ability to perform our jobs, both during the workday and outside of it

Gillian Cattle

As an occupational therapist working in the employment sector, I have witnessed the significant impact of the pandemic on employees and jobseekers. The pandemic has caused disruptions to our daily routines, lifestyles, employment, financial planning and future goals, which has led to increased stress, anxiety and sleep disturbances and a decrease in physical activity.

Occupational therapists are experts in occupations, which are any activities that add meaning and value to your life. Occupational therapists support individuals when they cannot participate in activities such as employment and help them overcome barriers to participation.

When we break down the activity of working, it consists of much more than just the job description. All the activities completed before, during and after work affect our ability to perform our jobs, and barriers can exist at any step. For example, if you cannot sleep, you generally have a hard time focusing, completing tasks and managing your emotions. If you cannot decompress and unwind after the workday, you may develop chronic stress, which can lead to anxiety, headaches, memory and concentration issues, or high blood pressure. Employment is more than a job description and COVID-19 has not made it easy for any of us these past few years.

The following are strategies I have used during the pandemic to support clients with employment and ease some of their stress so they can focus on their job duties and have a more balanced/healthy life.

Routine

Our days are made up of social and behavioural patterns like morning/evening routines, mealtimes and work schedules. Studies have shown that maintaining a regular routine leads to increased mental and physical health, while irregular routines are associated with lower life satisfaction and greater depression, anxiety and stress.

However, the pandemic continues to disrupt our routines. As workplaces pivot from virtual to in-person, we find that our routines are in flux. Creating consistency where you can is key. The act of planning out your morning/evening routines will be beneficial in maintaining some normalcy. Being able to make new routines a habit and maintaining them throughout change is important.

Sleep hygiene

Quality sleep is important for overall health and affects your ability to manage emotions, respond to stress and restore bodily functions.

There are various activities that we can engage in to improve our sleep:

1. Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol before bed.
2. Avoid screen time 30 minutes before bed or make sure to set your gadgets to night mode to get rid of the blue-light emissions.
3. Have an adequate sleep environment: ensure the temperature, sound levels and darkness are to your liking.
4. Create a “worry time.” Set aside 15-30 minutes to write down all your worries at the end of the day. Make sure to do this before 8 p.m. to give yourself time to wind down before bed. See which worries are within your control, and then make a plan to address them. Cross the items that you have no control over off your list; you have done everything you can.
5. Create a consistent sleep routine and stick to it. If you stay up late on the weekend, wake up early on Sunday to give yourself time to readjust.

Read more

Two models to develop individual and organizational resilience

Yes, your employees are still burned out. Here’s what you can do about it

How to help your clients navigate the trauma of racism in the workplace

Stress management plan

When you’re stressed, your ability to think and be emotionally flexible decreases. Coming up with a plan before you are stressed gives you a list of dependable strategies that you can reference if you are not feeling like yourself.

1. What keeps you healthy? Make a list of activities that keep you well and incorporate them into your routines. (e.g. eating healthy, exercising, drinking water, walking, spending time with friends/family)
2. Triggers to manage: What stresses you out? Try to avoid these things or make plans to improve them. (e.g. caffeine, poor sleep, saying “yes” to everything)
3. My warning signs: What are you thinking, how are you feeling, how are you behaving? Our thoughts, feelings and behaviours tell us when things are wrong, but we often ignore them. If we are aware of our warning signs, this will signal us that we have to use coping skills/strategies to enact change before it becomes too much (e.g. tension headaches, thinking “I can’t do this,” isolating self, not participating in activities).
4. Strategies to help with warning signs: What coping strategies have worked well in the past? Recognize that there are different strategies to help with our thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and everyone has their own strategies that work best for them (e.g. practising positive self-talk, self-compassion, mindfulness, exercising, music, contacting your support network). If you are struggling to find coping strategies, BounceBack is a free skill-building program to help you develop coping techniques.

The pandemic has caused a lot of change, which has been difficult for everyone. Keeping consistent routines, being aware of triggers for stress and having coping strategies ready can be helpful during these times. Take it slow and introduce one or two changes to start building the routines that meet your needs. Maintaining these routines during periods of change can add the needed consistency in your life when you have to pivot from virtual to in-person or change positions altogether.

Gillian Cattle is an occupational therapist with a background in neuroscience and recreational therapy. At the YWCA Hamilton, Gillian supports clients with self-disclosed disabilities obtain and maintain employment by breaking down barriers and providing strategies to support their employment journey. Gillian’s goal is to provide workers with tools to juggle all their meaningful activities and reduce the risk of employee burnout.

Career professionals can support jobseekers to develop human skills, higher-order thinking and other key employability attributes

Colleen Knechtel 

Skills assessment and development are central aspects of career professionals’ work. Canada is ranked 10th of 36 countries in preparedness for the demand of future skills (OECD, 2022) – a gap that connects to the present labour shortage.

Besides the essential skills of reading, writing and numeracy, Vermaeten, Finney, Zareikar & Downie (2022) presented at CERIC’s Cannexus22 conference labour market gaps that employers identified: social competencies, successful communication, teamwork and problem solving. These presenters noted that collaboration, curiosity, problem-solving, adaptability, flexibility and cultural sympathy were also considered by employers to be work skills of the future. Employers need agile thinkers and innovators who can pivot quickly and lead change.

This article will examine four complex mindsets and skillsets that connect to employers’ present and future needs: human skills, interdisciplinary competence, multiple intelligences and higher-order thinking. Also presented are ways clients can future-proof their employability skills.

Human skills

Human skills include socio-emotional skills (Goleman, 1998), self-regulation, self-knowledge and adaptability developed through life roles: school, work, volunteering, recreational activities and community involvement (Super, 1990; Watson, 2019).

For example, when thinking about social, civic and team contributions as a student, parent, engaged citizen or employee, what roles have your clients played throughout their life and how effective were they in these roles? One might demonstrate human skills by summarizing the points being discussed in a group meeting, planning a community event or serving as a referee on a team. It is important for clients to learn how to translate their experiences into skills for the labour market.

Read more

Stress-management strategies from occupational therapy

Re-entry moms: untapped talent at its finest

Which hybrid work model is right for your client?

Interdisciplinary competence

Coined by Frodeman as “sustainable knowledge” (2017), interdisciplinary competence is one’s mindset and skillset for collaborative project work. This includes flexible thinking, understanding other perspectives or worldviews, learning how to learn, being resourceful, recognizing skills and strengths in others, mentorship, giving and receiving feedback, complex problem-solving, creativity and innovation, project management and digital platform skillsets.

Interdisciplinary skills inform how one approaches situations and how one values contributions made by others. For example, how aware is your client of their roles in group work? Do their actions help or hinder group process? For example, do they jump right in with their ideas, or do they sit back to reflect on the problem or group goal before sharing their thoughts and ideas? Are they good listeners? Self-awareness is an important tool for reflection and personal growth.

Multiple intelligences

Gardner’s (1993) approach to intelligence embraces differing abilities and skills for an inclusive workplace. One strength of Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is the view that learners have different capacities and interests for learning within different areas. A pluralistic conception of intelligence requires the interaction of several different types of intelligence: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, musical-rhythmic, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal (self-knowledge, purpose and awareness) and naturalist.

Developing diverse intelligences helps individuals solve problems more creatively. Lakhani, Jeppesen, Lohse & Panetta (2007) found that individuals with areas of expertise outside the main expert group offer ideas that are most likely to lead to the best solutions. This reinforces the notion that many voices need to be considered in the creative process of collaborative problem-solving.

Higher-order thinking

Higher-order thinking (Bloom, 1956) involves analyzing complexities as well as evaluating possible solutions to create something new. Anderson & Krathwohl (2001) refined Bloom’s hierarchy:

• Remembering – retrieving, recognizing and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory
• Understanding – constructing meaning from oral, written and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing and explaining
• Applying – carrying out or using a procedure through executing or implementing
• Analyzing – breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing and attributing
• Evaluating – making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing
• Creating – putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning or producing (pp. 67-68)

Higher-order thinking is about considering possibilities and alternative solutions in a non-linear way.

Supporting clients’ employability

By developing human skills, interdisciplinary competence, multiple intelligences and higher-order thinking, jobseekers can be prepared to navigate the changing labour market. So, how can career development professionals help jobseekers identify these employability mindsets and skillsets?

Here are some questions, ideas and activities to help you facilitate knowledge and skill translation as your clients work to advance their future skills.

Know thyself

Self-knowledge is a valuable tool for knowledge and skill translation. It is a way to prepare clients to share specific experiences, mindsets and skillsets, and illuminate those they are working on.

Narrative activities create new understanding and deepen self-awareness to promote empowerment and agency to support life transitions and lead individuals to design their future lives. Career professionals can support clients to reflect on their knowledge, skills, attitudes and values through storytelling.

Sharing stories advances affirmation of one’s sense of self and one’s life purpose. It also helps change our response to differences as we adapt to accept multiple points of view simultaneously. Understanding our personal experiences through socially shared narratives transforms through listening to the stories of others; these stories can provide powerful frames for the way we understand our own experiences (Fivush, Bohanek, & Zaman, 2010). One’s stories act as a way to nurture and care for oneself, and they shape one’s inner compass. The narrative approach to self-understanding is a widely used practice in counselling settings as a way to rewrite one’s life story.

Storytelling also allows us to discern what and how to share in interviews. Here are a few examples of how you can help clients derive meaning from their stories.

• Timeline: Clients can create a timeline and/or biographical narrative of significant events in their lives and write about their future skills from these experiences.
• Photovoice: Photovoice is a way to empower people to make meaning by using photographs to document their experiences.
• Personal collage: Life design through narrative storytelling increases an individual’s abilities to create their stories through “bricolage” in art-based learning. Have clients write their name in the middle of a piece of poster paper. Give them five minutes to write, draw and doodle all dimensions of themself that they can come up with. Encourage clients to present in story form what they have identified.

Skills assessment 

To better understand their skills, have clients explore the Government of Canada’s National Occupational Classification website and the Labour Market Information Council’s (LMIC) Canadian Job Trends Dashboard. Clients can present their research findings, identify their future skill gaps and create a paper-based or electronic future skills portfolio they can add to on a regular basis.

Career professionals can also guide clients through the following questions/activities to help develop specific skills:

• Communication: Communication is a key skill that overlaps the four domains outlined above. Career development professionals can help clients become aware of their communication patterns by asking: How well do you use paraphrasing as a tool to seek clarity and deeper understanding? How effectively do you present your ideas or listen to others?
• Higher-order thinking skills: To develop higher-order thinking skills, the career development professional can introduce this chart to their clients and create activities around the questions provided.

Knowledge and skill recognition and translation are important to identifying future skills for employability. This advancing future skills framework and activities can lead your clients to developing important future-proofing mindsets and skillsets for skilling, upskilling and reskilling for employability.

Colleen Knechtel is working to complete her PhD research project at the University of Alberta in Education with a focus on career-integrated learning and interdisciplinarity in educational communities. To provide feedback to the author on this future skills framework, please email colleen.knechtel@ualberta.ca.

Dealing with change and loss is inevitable, but there are strategies we can employ to enhance our recovery

Tracey Campbell

I believe that resilience is built with hope, health and happiness. Individuals and organizations are motivated by a desire to improve the world, and improving the world is achieved by having a strong understanding of health and happiness factors.

For decades, researchers studied and tried to understand happiness predictors. Some researchers believe that happiness is due to genetic and inherited factors and others believe that happiness comes from environmental factors such as income, education and being active. Results of previous studies suggest that happiness is not caused by just one or two factors but is a result of integrated several factors.

Choosing to notice, appreciate and anticipate goodness is a powerful happiness booster. Hopefulness is a choice to have an optimistic attitude and mindset that allows you to see the bright side of things and plan for a better future. While we cannot always be healthy, we can indeed strive to be as healthy as possible. Over the past 25 years I have spent as a career practitioner, I have observed that resilient individuals and organizations are more hopeful, positive and healthy.

Defining resilience and its importance

Dealing with change or loss is an inevitable part of life. At some point, everyone experiences varying degrees of setbacks. Some of these challenges might be relatively minor (not getting into a class or being turned down for a promotion at work), while others are more difficult on a much larger scale (divorce, death of close relative or natural disasters).

Resilience does not eliminate stress or erase life’s hardships. People who are resilient do not see life through rose-coloured lenses. Resilient individuals understand that setbacks happen and that sometimes life is hard and painful. However, they are able to use their skills and strengths to cope and recover from life’s challenges.

Read more from the “Recovery, Reflection, Resilience” issue of Careering:

Yes, your employees are still burned out. Here’s what you can do about it

How to help your clients navigate the trauma of racism in the workplace 

Stress-management strategies from occupational therapy

Resilience is important for several reasons: it enables us to develop protection mechanisms against experiences that could be overwhelming, helps us maintain balance in our lives during difficult or stressful periods, and can protect us from the development of some physical and mental health issues.

To put it simply, resilience is our ability to bounce back after we have struggled, faltered or failed. It is being able to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, take a moment or two to collect ourselves, and then get back to the business of pursuing our goals.

Building resilience in yourself and others

Self-awareness is a key component of building individual resilience. When you are self-aware, you are more accountable for your actions because you can see yourself in a real light. With self-awareness, you are set up for more success in personal development.

Dr. Ken Ginsburg, a pediatrician, professor and author, has advocated that the following seven skills and traits will help you build resilience:

• Competence – the ability to handle situations effectively and trust your judgment to make responsible choices.
• Confidence – the belief in your own abilities practised through keeping a positive attitude, staying calm, making eye contact and smiling. You got this!
• Connection – show others that relationships matter by addressing conflict directly. Work to resolve problems rather than letting them fester. Healthy relationships involve honesty, trust, respect and open communication.
• Character – each of us has a fundamental sense of right and wrong and we demonstrate this by being comfortable with our personal and work values. Change is less uncomfortable if we remember to research, reflect, embrace and then organize information.
• Contribution – individuals gain a sense of purpose by seeing the importance of their contributions demonstrated by the generation of options through ideas and actions. What steps can you take to improve your personal situation or workplace?
• Coping and Control – each of us can reduce anxiety by maintaining good nutrition, getting adequate sleep, exercising and practising relaxation techniques. Avoid becoming overwhelmed; change can be controlled by adjusting our behaviour and celebrating each step that gets us closer to the transformation we want to see.

Organizational resilience

In addition to cultivating individual resilience, we also need to build up the capacity of organizations to be resilient. Organizational resilience is the ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions to survive and prosper. Organizational resilience can be measured by reviewing its leadership, people, processes and products. Deloitte Canada recently argued that resilience is not a destination; it is a state of being.

“Resilient organizations don’t just survive—they thrive in an unpredictable world. They take on new challenges with confidence. Have the ability to adapt rapidly to changing markets, new threats, and disrupt competition.”

Deloitte Canada’s approach includes three concepts:

• Resilience by design – Designing and executing the long-term journey toward organizational resilience.
• Resilience through change – Creating an environment that enables flexibility to change while still maintaining a high level of resilience through any transformation the organization undertakes.
• Resilience in adversity – Having the right governance, controls, contingency plans, and roles and responsibilities to meet adversity and disruption as it arises.

In summary, Deloitte helps organizations focus on what-if and what-next scenarios to anticipate shifts and identify risks.

Surround yourself with positivity

Your time is a valuable and limited resource. Just like any investment, choose wisely how you are going to spend it. Limit the time you spend with negative people and situations and instead, focus on the positive. Negative emotions – like positive ones – can impact your overall health and sense of well-being. While it could feel selfish on some level, you are taking the steps you need to care for your own health. There are many ways to help nurture the positive – keep a journal, get out in nature, find the awe in every day and practise happiness.

Hope is an inherent part of being a human.  Hope helps us define what we want in our futures and is part of the self-narrative about our lives we all have running inside our minds. In a way, having hope links your past and present to the future. It is a match that can spark the light you need to reveal the path ahead.

For more on this topic:

• Briggs, J.R. The Resilient Leaders Podcast
• Ginsburg, Kenneth R (2020). Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Kids Roots and Wings, American Academy of Pediatrics.
• Hanson, Rick Ph. D. Being Well Podcast: Introducing Resilience
• LaDayne, Rebekkah and Kain, Kathy L. (2020). The Mind-Body Stress Reset: Somatic Practices to Reduce Overwhelm and Increase Well-Being, New Harbinger Publications.
• Ungar, Michael Ph.D. (2019). Change Your World: The Science of Resilience and the True Path to Success, The Sutherland House Inc.

Tracey Campbell is a Senior Policy Analyst with Alberta Labour and Immigration. She provides strategic advice and policy support on career development, employment, training and labour market policy issues. She has been a career practitioner for over 25 years. She spent the first 15 years delivering career and employment services directly to youth and unemployed adults in Alberta. She is a proud member of the CDAA, APCDA and NCDA.

Dismantling caregiver bias in the hiring landscape starts with reflection and resilience

Rebecca Joy Tromsness

The global skills gap is real, and Canada is no exception. Addressing this deficiency is essential to this country’s ongoing economic recovery.

At the same time, the pandemic-induced “she-cession” saw 12 times more Canadian women than men stop working because of childcare responsibilities (Nolen, 2021). They are now, two-and-a-half years later, waiting and available to fill the skills gap.

The solution to meeting these challenges is two-fold:

1. Reflection: Employers need to reflect on their recruitment and retention practices and address (unconscious) biases to advance strategic diversity, equity and inclusion efforts by accessing an untapped talent pool: re-entry moms.
2. Resilience: Jobseeker moms can leverage a primary caregiver role by believing their worth and clearly articulating the value of their transferable skills, while also approaching re-entry with the growth mindset employers crave.

Where reflection and resilience meet, it’s a job search and hiring jackpot.

Talent, overlooked

Roughly eight out of 10 Canadian executives recognize an industry-wide skills gap and are struggling to find prospective employees with the right skill level and experience to fill positions, according to CERIC’s 2022 National Business Survey.

In particular, employers surveyed said individuals with adequate “soft skills” are hard to come by. Positive attitude and communication were cited as the top two desirable qualities, and the importance of reliability has increased significantly over the past eight years. The majority of Canadian employers prefer to hire someone with the right soft skills who is a “good fit” and provide training for the technical aspects of the job.

This should be good news for moms who are looking to re-enter the paid workforce. Mothers develop an array of widely sought-after soft skills during their “resume gap” months and years. Adjusting to the arrival of a newborn, for instance, offers a masterclass in adaptability. Navigating children’s virtual education demonstrates communication across remote teams, change management and problem-solving amid strong digital fluency.

Unfortunately, caregiver bias (whether unconscious or not) is alive and well in today’s hiring landscape. It’s playing a role in employers’ rejection of suitable candidates who happen to have a “mom gap” on their resume.

“Mothers develop an array of widely sought-after soft skills during their “resume gap” months and years.”

Studies show that caregiver parents (mostly mothers) are perceived as undesirable candidates, often seen as less reliable, less committed and less deserving of a job; they are 50% less likely to receive callbacks compared to non-caregiver applicants with the same gap (Weisshaar, 2018). Interview chances significantly decrease for work gaps beyond two years, a 2019 ResumeGo field study found.

This bias has been infused into hiring practices. A recent Harvard Business School study (2021) revealed that almost 40% of employers using ATS said they automatically weed out resumes with gaps of more than six months.

Of course, this bias affects caregivers of all gender identities; it’s important to remember that not everyone caring for children full time answers to “mom.”

Read more

Which hybrid work model is right for your client?

Yes, your employees are still burned out. Here’s what you can do about it

Case Study: Reimagining mentorship for South Asian & Tamil women and gender-diverse peoples

Dismantling employer bias

Lack of corporate self-reflection sustains a rut of outdated and inequitable recruitment practices that sabotage the attempt to close skills gaps and, in the process, overlook underrepresented candidates, harming DEI initiatives.

After seeing new lows in women’s workforce participation at the height of the pandemic, it is crucial to cultivate an organizational culture and recruitment strategy that accepts and respects mothers’ non-linear career paths.

And even though women’s workforce participation has “recovered,” with mothers surpassing pre-pandemic levels in recent months, Leah Nord of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce cautions against a “self-congratulatory consensus” that women/moms have arrived at “recovery.” She points out that the women who made a difficult decision to drop out of the workforce long term to care for children during the pandemic are no longer captured by the StatsCan Labour Force survey (which informs our recovery numbers).  A survey by the Canadian Women’s Foundation this past spring found a whopping two in five moms (37%) have put their career on the back burner to manage home and caregiving responsibilities.

Reflection begins with recruiters, talent acquisition teams and hiring managers recognizing and removing structural barriers in recruitment. For instance, demonstrating a preference for candidates with employment continuity reflects a bias that a mother’s “gap years” are void of employable skills.

Seeing the value of caregivers’ transferable skillset requires a mindset shift: skills aren’t less valuable just because the work was unpaid. Employers need to replace the “mom gap bias” with curiosity — “I wonder how x months/years of caregiving prepared this candidate for this role?”

COVID has helped advance this mindset shift in some ways. For instance, it prompted LinkedIn — the largest professional networking platform on the planet — to provide the option to add a “career break” (including full-time parenting) to one’s profile.

Reflection continues with executives re-imagining what a people-focused ROI looks like, bolstering employee retention by nurturing the very reliability and dependability that they’re hungry for.

Imagine implementing flexible working environments – as part of policy – that offer remote and hybrid set-ups, job shares, part-time positions and hours that aren’t strictly 9-5. Imagine proactively supporting parents with a return-to-work program. (Employers could connect employees on parental leave to the organization Moms at Work, which offers courses, community and coaching for mothers.)

While many employers fear that they will invest in training only to have employees leave, these supportive practices would give traditionally overlooked candidates a strong reason to stay. Candidates who believe they’re valued – and see policies in place that support and invest in their well-being – are more engaged and committed.

This is what it looks like to lead in the new normal: reflect, adapt, rebound.

Building up re-entry moms

The mindset shift is crucial for parents, too. Moms also have to bridge the skills-awareness gap to effectively communicate their value to potential employers, and this takes work.

Resilience for re-entry moms begins by replacing self-doubt with knowing their worth. Knowing that their transferable skills have value. Knowing that employers need and want those skills. Re-entry caregivers’ job search success relies on doing their part to be clear (and confident) about which in-demand, transferable skills they offer – including those they developed doing the unpaid work of raising a family.

For the past two years, employers surveyed in Monster’s 2021 and 2022 annual Future of Work reports say that jobseekers need to better articulate their transferable skills to make it easier for recruiters and hiring teams to quickly identify a candidate’s value as a great fit for the role.

To help them navigate this, moms may want to check out free back-to-work sites such as Nabanita de Foundation, conduct a skills audit (either by cross-checking against a skills checklist or having a professional evaluation) or work with a career professional.

An awareness of moms’ transferable skills shines brightly when application documents and interview conversations reflect evidence of in-depth company research. Caregiver parents will draw on critical thinking skills, investigation and data analysis to answer: How would my transferable skills help my potential employer make money, save money and/or save time?

Part of company research involves networking and arranging informational interviews with individuals at target companies or in target roles to better understand and articulate relevant transferable skills.

Resilience continues with mothers demonstrating and communicating a growth mindset to prospective employers – a willingness to learn and grow through upskilling/reskilling. Re-entry moms can approach new roles with open-mindedness, teachability and a positive attitude – the soft skills needed to address our labour market recovery.

Filling skills gaps takes two to tango; however, gatekeepers will always make the final call. Leading in the new normal means imagining an economic recovery that normalizes hybrid work, flexibility and mat leave / return-to-work onboarding as policy so that DEI initiatives can seamlessly include the untapped, soft-skills rich talent pool that is caregiver moms and simultaneously be met with ROI and high employee retention.

Rebecca Joy Tromsness is a full-time caregiver mama, turned re-entry prospect, turned entrepreneur and educator. Tromsness helps fellow caregiver parents land call-backs against crappy odds. After years moonlighting as a copy editor, resume-polisher and research junkie, she has plucked the most relevant tips, tools, and strategies from all the current advice and (mis)information, curated specifically for moms re-entering the workforce with a resume gap. Tromsness’s background in journalism lent itself to a digital editing and reporting stint at The Globe and Mail before jumping into full-time people management as a mom of four and most recently founding and launching Rebecca Joy.