Career

On Career, Fatherhood & Parental Leave

When my wife became pregnant with our third child, I’d just ‘officially’ graduated with my Master’s degree and was working on casual contract for the Government of Canada. A few months later, I became a permanent (‘indeterminate’) employee, and among the benefits I was eligible to receive was Parental Leave Without Pay. Admittedly, this soundedRead… Read more »

Cybersecurity Workforce

It’s the dawning of the age of the Cybersecurity workforce. Everyone seems to be jumping onboard the train as it heads out of the station, and we appear to have more than our fair share of conductors. On any given day it seems an article appears about the Cybersecurity workforce. Everything from the Department ofRead… Read more »

Gov 2.0 Hero Day

In celebration of Gov 2.0 Hero Day, I want to highlight a few visionary ROCKet stars at NASA: Robbie Schingler, Nick Skytland, Chris Kemp, Astronaut Mike Massimino, Astronaut and Innovator Ron Garan, and Sean Herron. Robbie Schingler: Chief of Staff, Office of Technology at NASA Headquarters. I met Robbie a few years ago in aRead… Read more »

Maternity Leave

As a retired federal mediator with the U S Equal Employment Oppotunity Commission, at least 30% of my mediations on a yearly basis dealt with maternity issues. The company would fire a person as soon as she told her boss that she was pregnant. I totally support paid maternity leave, just because someone goes onRead… Read more »

10 points on the current situation in Russian Gov 2.0

My interview Government 2.0 in Russia: megabyte democracy – An interview with russian e-gov-expert Alena Popova was published this week. The author of the blog is Julia Talmazan. She lives in Vancouver and blogging about Russia, from the perspective of someone who was born in the USSR, but grew up in Canada. Thank you JulieRead… Read more »

Top 10: Topics NOT to Discuss with Your Coworkers

The Top Ten Topics You MIght NOT Want to Share with All Your Coworkers from Lady Dianne 1. Off color or racially charged jokes and comments (includes gay, lesbian, religious, ethnic, disability or blonde jokes) 2. Wild weekends or hangovers 3. Politics or religion 4. Intimate details of life (includes relationships) 5. Personal problems andRead… Read more »

Paid Maternity Leave

Take a look at an interesting article published by GovExec : http://www.govexec.com/mailbagDetails.cfm?aid=45458#comments-form-area What’s more interesting is the comments posted. Are we THAT heartless of a society that we don’t want to take care of our mothers in the workplace? As a mother, I am greatly offended by the lack of support for policy proposals thatRead… Read more »

Should we retire old public servants? A view from Australia

Hi Folks – Nothing like a wintery day in Canberra to get the brain ticking over. Does your jurisdiction or department look like this? OK. Now that I’ve set myself up for being somewhat discriminatory consider this. The age profile of the APS is predominantly middle aged and upward. 45 to 55 + account forRead… Read more »