Company Culture

Showing 36 articles

Career Development

The Gender Pay Gap is Real

By Venus Gentile, Monster Contributor

The Pay Equity Act was established in 2018 to address wage disparities and enforce equal pay for work of equal value, reflecting a strong commitment to gender equality within the workforce. Despite considerable strides towards closing the gender pay gap, it remains a significant issue in Canada. Even with substantial progress towards pay equity and...

Career Development

Avoid work from home burnout with positive psychology

By Monster Contributor

For people who are used to office life, the adjustment to working from home isn’t as liberating as it might seem. Sure, there’s no commute, and you can work in your pyjamas, or even from bed if you want. But for many of the newly home-based workforce, it’s a struggle. Some people just aren’t wired for physical isolation, significant changes in...

Career Development

Fall Office Fashion - Why It Pays To Be A Wardrobe Rebel

By Sasha Johnson

Do you struggle with what to wear to work? The best ideas—the ones that are surprising, yet perfect—come from the fringe. They’re not predictable or anticipated, and they certainly don’t follow any rules. Let’s face it; no-one ever got ahead by solely doing what’s expected of them. Originality and creativity come from taking risks. The same g...

Career Development

Six Questions About Taking Stress Leave

By Neil MacIntosh

The option to opt out of work for a while, even if available, might come with a high price tag. Polls show 3 out of 4 Canadians are stressed. No shock there. Job uncertainty, money worries, health issues. They’re the biggest blood pressure raisers. Can make you want to chuck it all for a while. PGA golfers ain’t immune. Don’t let the lavish pri...

Career Development

Expressing Your Gender as Non-Binary At Work

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz Time to get dressed for work. Do you put on slacks and a sports coat, but paint your nails? Maybe you pick out androgynous clothes that are neither male nor female. Choosing what to wear is one sensitive issue when expressing non-binary gender. Each day in the workplace poses challenges to your identity. People may look at you di...

Career Development

Gender Identity and Expression in the Workplace

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz Is everyone at work either male or female? Not necessarily. A few may be a biological mix of both. Some others may identify as the opposite of their birth-assigned sex, as a mixture of the two, or as having some other gender self-concept. This should matter to you. At work people are becoming more open about their gender identiti...

Career Development

The Hidden Effects of Hating Your Job

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz It’s not easy to admit it when you hate your job. The implications could be hugely disruptive. Maybe you’ll have to confront the employer or even leave to find work elsewhere. That’s why some people downplay the problem. They tip-toe around it by faking engagement and hoping no one notices. Except the truth starts seeping out anyw...

Career Development

My Boss is Forcing Me to Take Vacation

By Monster Contributor

By Joe Issid Seriously? The notion of being forced to take vacation can seem a bit absurd. I mean, most people I know don't need to be asked twice to get away from the office. In fact, most of us believe that we are not given enough vacation days and feel like we often have to beg to be released from our professional responsibilities. Whi...

Career Development

When is Public Shaming Appropriate at Work?

By Monster Contributor

By Pira Kumarasamy Imagine working for a company where every mistake you make is publicized to your entire team by way of a ‘ding’ board. In fact, it becomes an ongoing competition – and not the kind that ends with a trophy or pizza lunch – of who can get the most dings. It may sound unbelievable, but it’s a scenario that can actually happen in ...

Career Development

Should You Go to Work if You Are Sick?

By Monster Contributor

We’ve all been there. You wake up feeling that tickle in your throat and a bit achy, but you decide to tough it out. You rationalize the numerous reasons you can’t call in sick. You’ve got a big report. You’ve got a deadline. Or a big project to finish. So you go in. But you spend the day tired, cranky, miserable and completely unproductive. ...

Career Development

Five Trends In Monitoring And Tracking Employees

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz In the near future, more words and efforts of employees may be monitored. Super-powerful computers will analyze the data. They can report your productivity, location, health and even mood on demand. This goes beyond the keyboard stroke recording, video cameras and phone listening that routinely takes place already. Seem a little...

Career Development

How To Reduce Stereotyping In The Workplace

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz You’re about to meet a new colleague who’ll be working closely with you. All you know about them so far is their name. Yet you’ve already started pre-judging them automatically. Is their name male or female? (Gender stereotypes.) Familiar or foreign sounding? (Ethnic, racial or nationality stereotypes.) Perceptions pop into your ...

Career Development

When You Are the Only Minority at Work

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz What if you work where everyone else is more or less alike? You’re the only minority there. It could be in terms of gender, race, colour, religion. Or nationality, heritage, sexual orientation. Facial disfigurement or being differently abled. This happens most often in smaller employers or those located outside of cities. The exp...

Career Development

Bringing Kids to Work? Is it Appropriate?

By Monster Contributor

By Joe Issid If you are a parent, it is inevitable that you will need to bring your kid(s) into work with you at some point in time. Maybe their daycare unexpectedly closed for the day or their school schedule doesn’t quite line up with your work schedule. No matter the cause, most parents will need to confront this reality and do their best t...

Career Development

Can Your Employer Spy On You At Work?

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz The smartphone supplied by your employer can spy on you. So can your company’s laptop and email account. Phone call monitoring and video surveillance are also possible concerns. Is it legal for your employer to spy on you at work? It depends on where you’re employed (e.g. provincial statutes vary, federal employers differ from pr...

Career Development

How Late Should You Really be Staying at Work?

By Monster Contributor

By Joe Issid As a child, I could count on two things: 1) that swim practice would never end early and 2) my dad would be home from work at exactly 5:10pm every day. For years, I just assumed that all companies afforded their employees the freedom to leave work at a predictable and reasonable time just like my father. As you can imagine, it came...

Career Development

Disruption in the Workplace

By Monster Contributor

By Hayley Shaughnessy What comes to mind when we think of “disruption”? For some, the word may have a negative connotation. We’ve been taught it’s not polite to disrupt someone while they’re sleeping or told to use indoor voices so as not to disturb quiet readers in the library. Disruption isn’t always negative. For instance, what about in the ...

Career Development

Are You Ready For Communal Workspaces?

By Monster Contributor

By Karin Eldor It’s the era of the communal workspace, and we’re just living in it. You might have noticed a proliferation of coworking spaces in the past decade. Perhaps you’ve seen them advertised on your Facebook feed, or your hip former colleague works in one. Coworking spaces, also known as communal workspaces, started poppin...

Career Development

Help Your Family Adapt to Your Home-Based Work

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz Monster Contributing Writer Thinking of joining the more than 1.1 million Canadians who work from home? They amount to 7% of our country's workforce. Not all of them live in the presence of family. But for those that do, there are considerations beyond the usual challenges. Gaining the cooperation of your spouse or partner and ch...

Career Development

The "Myth" of Work-Life Balance

By Monster Contributor

By Aisha Newton Monster Contributing Writer We often hear the term “Work-Life Balance” being bandied about. We have been conditioned to believe that there is magic formula for having it all. Men and women who firmly believe that if they work hard and are disciplined that they can make it work! A good job, nice home, fancy car, money in the bank...

Career Development

Sexual Harassment At Work

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz Monster Contributing Writer Who hasn’t made an off-colour joke every now and then at work? Or flirted with a colleague. Then there’s that sexy new intern…it’s hard not to leer as they swoop by enticingly. All part of the harmless though racy workplace routine, right? Not if the object of your attentions is bothered by your behavi...

Career Development

Gossip. The good, the bad and the ugly.

By Monster Contributor

By Aisha Newton Monster Contributing Writer Everyone loves a piece of juicy gossip. Men, women and maybe even animals. I’m no Jane Goodall, l but I’m willing to bet that even monkeys in the jungle talk about one another. There is something addictive about gossip. Polite society deems it sleazy and low class; but there is no denying that it...

Career Development

Is there such a thing as professional flirting?

By Monster Contributor

By Karin Eldor Monster Contributing Writer Once the summer months are in full swing, our minds seem to naturally ease up a bit and become a touch less serious. Maybe it’s the sultry temperature or perhaps it’s because everyone is coming in and out of vacation mode; regardless of the reason, people tend to be more chillaxed from June to September. ...

Career Development

Dealing with social anxiety at the workplace.

By Monster Contributor

By Thomas Watt Monster Contributing Writer A very positive trend in recent years has been the breaking of the taboo of silence surrounding mental illness. We wouldn’t shame an athlete if he pulled a hamstring because he was training too hard, so why do we feel compelled to judge people or ourselves when our mental lives become bruised or broken...

Career Development

An International View Of Happiness At Work

By Monster Contributor

Latest Research finds nearly Two Thirds are Content with their Jobs and approximately One Quarter Love them so much they would Work for Free Monster.ca, the leader in successfully connecting people to job opportunities, and GfK, an independent global market research company, today released new survey data looking at levels of job satisfaction amon...

Career Development

Are You A Workaholic?

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz Monster Contributing Writer The number of hours Canadians spend at work is increasing. We have about 60 minutes less for after work activities than we did in 1982. But this doesn’t mean we’re a nation of actual workaholics. That’s because true workaholism is an addiction. Workaholics crave immersion in their labour. They undergo...

Career Development

Challenges of working from home

By Joanne Richard, Monster contributor

If you've always wanted to work from home, you're likely getting that opportunity—and it's not entirely what you bargained for. The pandemic has blown apart our routines and schedules. Countless distractions, interruptions and temptations lurk around every corner, sabotaging our work efforts. We’re logging in from makeshift home offices with pets, ...

Career Development

Dealing With Occupational Burnout

By Monster Contributor

By Joe Issid Monster Contributing Writer - Looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately. - I wouldn’t say I’ve been *missing* it, Bob. Office Space (1999) Chances are, you are going to suffer from some form of job burnout at one point or other in your career. Be it physical, mental or emotional, the stresses involved in your profession...

Career Development

What Not to Wear to Work

By Monster Contributor

By Amanda Frank Monster Contributing Writer How you dress at work is important, even with “corporate casual” established as the office standard. The quintessential method used to size up someone is the head-to-toe glance. When you catch someone stare like that you know you’re being judged. Even if you don’t, your colleagues and managers notice an...

Career Development

Canadian Business Culture

By Monster Contributor

Canadians are overall a polite people, and slightly more reserved than their southern neighbours. The values of the country are largely respect, peace and good government. Make sure you do not offend a business colleague or dash your chances of securing a deal by learning the basics of Canadian etiquette. It is a good idea to treat all persons w...

Career Development

Is Work Taking Over Your Life?

By Monster Contributor

By Jenny Ungless How’s your work-life balance? Is work a rewarding and fulfilling part of your life, or is it something that has grown to take up so much of your time and energy that you resent, rather than enjoy it? The pace of our lives today, and the fact that modern technology means we’re always contactable, can make it very difficult for us...

Career Development

Coping with Layoff Survivor Sickness

By Monster Contributor

You’ve survived a round of layoffs (or two or three) at work. So why do you feel as bad as if you’d been laid off yourself? You might be suffering from what author and consultant David Noer calls “layoff survivor sickness,” a toxic blend of anger, survivor guilt, fear and anxiety that can cause sleepless nights, sinking morale and plummeting p...

Career Development

What to Expect When Working in a Family Run Business

By Monster Contributor

By Cheryl SteinMonster Personal Coach Being a non family member who works for a family business can be a tricky career path but it can also be one of the most rewarding career choices that you ever make. While you may have to contend with pretty intricate politics, have trouble figuring out who is your real boss, and have to deal with conflict t...

Career Development

Transsexual Transition at Work

By Monster Contributor

Manage a Gender Change at Work by Dan Woog One transsexual employee was forbidden to use any bathroom at work for two years. Saddled with concerns about transitioning from male to female, she chose to use the restroom at a nearby gas station rather than fight. Gender transition raises basic issues. "The big things are bathrooms and pronouns," say...

Career Development

An Introduction to Telework

By Monster Contributor

by Bob Fortier In the next few years, can you see yourself working from home some or all of the time? If so, you are not alone: according to the latest polls, over two thirds of Canadians want to telework from home. Telework, also known as telecommuting, occurs where employees or paid workers work away from their normal place of work, usually from...

Career Development

Canadian Slang

By Monster Contributor

Monster.ca Canadian English sounds pretty similar to a lot of American English, although the written word follows most British conventions, for example Canadians write colour, neighbour, centre, cheque. Here are a few words to get you sounding more like you are from up north, eh? eh? Pronounced "a" as in "say" a very popular term which m...