Archive for November 2019
The informational interview – your secret advantage for your next job
Whether you’re thinking about your next step in your current career, or have your sights set on new and exciting challenges elsewhere, informational interviews can be your secret advantage in the highly-competitive world of job searching. Part networking, part information-gathering, and part low-key self-promotion, an informational interview is a powerful way to position yourself as…
Read MoreA poppy is not enough. On Remembrance Day, let us understand history
Around this weekend we mark several anniversaries. Nov. 11, for instance, commemorates the end of hostilities in the First World War – originally Armistice Day, it is now Remembrance Day in Canada and other Commonwealth countries and Veterans Day in the United States. Why do we mark historical anniversaries? Even when the ceremonies are routinized,…
Read MoreWhen are defined severance terms unfair?
It is hard to win a game when you start with a disadvantage. Yet when signing employment contracts, employees constantly set themselves up for failure. How? By routinely permitting employers to draft and dictate almost all of the important contractual terms, especially the conditions surrounding severance. Companies understand that they can vastly reduce severance liability…
Read MoreThe new literacy in an AI world
More than five decades ago, Marshall McLuhan argued that media are ecosystems, extensions of human consciousness. The famous adage that the medium is the message also means, as the often-misquoted title of McLuhan’s famous book notes, that the medium is the mass age. We are all immersed in media and technology. Media have changed a…
Read MoreAmplify: I took my husband’s last name because I wanted to, and that’s true feminism
When I decided to change my last name after I got married earlier this year, I expected plenty of questions about how to pronounce it. What I didn’t expect were the unfavourable reactions to my decision. I’m Sarah Bugden, editor of Amplify. A few months ago, I was Sarah Nolan. When I told my coworkers…
Read MoreAmplify: Miss, Mrs., Ms. or Mx.? A look at how honorifics have evolved over time
Tavia Grant’s feature on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, published in the Globe and Mail earlier this month, contained some jaw-dropping revelations about the extent of abuse-related scandals in Canada. But the piece included something else, too – a new, two-letter prefix that our readers haven’t seen before in our stories: Mx. If the prefix is…
Read MoreCan I endure the worst and hope for the best? I’m working on it
If you’re a friend I haven’t seen for a while, as happens in our busy lives, you may ask how I’ve been. If you’re a casual acquaintance, I may say fine and leave it at that. If you’re a trusted friend, I may give you a very different response. As my friend, you remember I’m…
Read MoreHow do I deal with a co-worker stealing my meals from the office fridge?
THE QUESTION Our office has a food thief. While this was humorous at first, it’s gotten serious and out of control. Yesterday my breakfast was taken brazenly from our cafe after I stepped away for five minutes! Several others have complained about their food going missing from the fridge. We have raised the issue with…
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