Can You Imagine What You’ll Do with Your Extra Day?

Can You Imagine What You’ll Do with Your Extra Day?

The recovery from the COVID-19 crisis offers the workplace an opportunity to rethink and retool its schedule. Responding to the pandemic caused many employers and employees to quickly and substantially shift their ways of working. Millions of Canadians sheltering in place began working from home and connecting with their colleagues over platforms such as Zoom. Take out and curbside delivery became standard fare.

Recently, another design to revamp the work world is beginning to gain traction, at least as a possibility: the idea of a four-day week. This is not a compressed week with the regular 40 hours compacted into one less day. Rather it is full-timers working fewer hours (30) for the regular pay.  One might ask, “Why would any employer support a shortened workweek at the same salary level?” While this change seems illogical, it makes proven sense. It rests firmly on peer-reviewed research, which concluded that employees can be as productive in 30 hours as they are in 40. Better rested workers waste less time. Studies have affirmed that fewer workdays reduce the number of sick days and decrease a company’s operating costs.

It stands to reason that three-days off per week leaves more time for other things, thereby increasing more free time and better work-life balance. Happier employees increase the potential for greater company loyalty which has been long associated with increased productivity.

It seems realistic for business owners to consider seriously shortening their workplace schedules. This would be a new way to create happier staff and a better bottom line.

Can you imagine what you’ll do with your extra day?

-Submitted by Nancy Wales, csj

Indspire Awards:Celebrating Indigenous Achievement

Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day, formerly called National Aboriginal Day, is held annually on June 21 to celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures, and outstanding achievements of the nation’s Aboriginal peoples.  www.timeanddate.com/holidays/canada/national-aboriginal-day

The 2020 Indspire Awards ceremony, filmed earlier in Ottawa at the Ontario National Arts Centre will be broadcast on APTN, CBC, CBC Radio, and CBC GEM on Sunday, June 21, 2020, at 8:00 pm / 8:30 pm NT. Celebrating its 27th year, the Indspire Awards continues to bestow the highest honour on Indigenous Peoples. Over the years, 373 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis have been recognized for their outstanding achievements.

Eleven awards of the 2020 recipients have made significant contributions in the fields of education, art, culture, business, health, law, sports, and public service within Canadian society. These honourees exemplify Indigenous excellence. Their personal stories and careers inspire, uplift, and educate us about the tremendous contributions Indigenous people make to our country.

Three Youth Award winners are also being honoured for their accomplishments, serving as role models to other First Nations, Inuit, and Métis youth in their communities and across Canada. 

Jeanette Corbiere is the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. For more than fifty years, she has championed causes that have resonated across Canada and beyond.  She lost her Indigenous status according to Section 12 of the Indian Act when she married her non-Indigenous husband in 1970.  She challenged this decision at the Supreme Court of Canada in 1973 under the reasoning that it discriminated by gender.  Although unsuccessful, her action led the way for subsequent challenges and was finally overturned in 1985.

“In all they do, these individuals are deeply inspirational, and as leaders in their respective fields, they are motivating young Indigenous people to strive for success.” Roberta Jamieson, President, and CEO of Indspire and Executive Producer of the Indspire Awards. 

From past experience, Sunday’s programming promises to be a celebration of culture showcasing the diversity of Indigenous peoples in Canada including performances by Canada’s biggest names in Indigenous entertainment.

Each of us has the opportunity to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day by tuning in to the 2020 Indspire Awards (APTN, CBC, CBC Radio and CBC GEM). We will witness the superb contributions that Indigenous people are making across our country. https://indspire.ca/events/indspire-awards

- Submitted by Sister Nancy Wales, csj

Father's Day

Father’s Day

Father’s Day is such a mix of emotions for me.  

On the one hand, I think of my own dad who passed away four years ago this summer.  My dad loved me so much.  He consistently let me know every chance he had. I most definitely loved him back, although I wasn’t so outward showing about it at times.  

My dad was a very kind soul, who had an infectious personality that could make anyone laugh out loud.  I miss all the little things he did for me growing up.  Cooking my favorite meals, driving me to friend’s houses, always encouraging me to do my best, wrestling with me on the living room floor, amongst so many other things.

I really wish my dad was here with us now to meet his grandchildren.  He would have instantly fallen in love with them, and they would reciprocate that love.  I have no doubt about that.  

In some weird way, perhaps they may have already met.  Perhaps it was in Heaven.  Perhaps, my dad had something to do with the tiny miracles my wife and I had after a specialist told us to give up hope.  

I am a dad now.  Two times in fact!  We have a beautiful, energetic 2.5-year-old girl and an adorable 1-year-old boy who’s got quite the appetite - and dance moves!  

Believe me……It’s a lot of work.  Exhausting at times.  Two babies that are 19 months apart can wear anyone out.  Some days it feels like it is never-ending, especially in this COVID era, but then there are days where you wish the time with them never ever ends.  The joy, laughter, and fun make every hard day manageable.

My kids have taught me so much.  I’ve learned how to multitask in the non-digital form, how to make countless ponytails, the importance of nap times, and Advil...amongst many other things. 

It’s through my own kids that I experience the love, spirit, and bond that my dad and I had.  

Happy Father’s Day Dad!  I miss you.

-Mike Noronha, Guest Contributor

How serious are we about “Black Lives Matter”?

How serious are we about “Black Lives Matter”?

If some of you reading this are like me following too much news in Canada and the U.S. I wonder if we ask ourselves if we really are serious about racism in any form.  Just this past week the police have used excessive forces that ended the life of more black Americans, more indigenous people in Canada, and with live video coverage of these events.  People all over the world are protesting under the banner of ‘Black Lives Matter” but it will take more than street protests for us to recognize the systemic racism and bias that is built into the systems that structure our lives and our countries.  All this unrest is happening at the same time that a serious pandemic is pulling the curtain back on communities that are more adversely affected by this virus. Those communities do not have the same access to goods and services that most of us take for granted.  We are learning how more poor, black and Hispanic and some Indigenous communities have suffered more deaths from this virus than white more affluent communities.  At the same time, many of the essential services needed during these past months are done by people of colour, putting themselves and their families at risk.

Black Lives Matter protest, London Ontario, June 6, 2020

I was at the rally and march in Victoria Park in London where an estimated 10,000 people attended raising our voices saying enough is enough!  But, if that is true, then that march is only the first step in recognizing the deep change that needs to happen. In every system that structures our lives - police, education, health care, social services, religion, politics, and more - we must uncover the inequities in opportunities, in funding, in services that put more of our people with less opportunity at risk.  The work of changing our systems in a long hard task that will take careful thought, the ideas and time of many people, and resources needed to create more inclusive communities.  I hope the rally at Victoria Park in London and hundreds of rallies all over the world is a commitment that by taking this first step, the next ones will follow.  After all, creating a better world benefits every one of us.  It is a journey worth walking.

-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ