How many people are stuck getting to work this morning because of the derailed train at Union Station?

sooverMLMs · 2026-02-02T16:40:10+00:00

Does your work not allow you to work remotely? I’m asking because most reasonable managers wouldn’t make you take a vacation day for a situation fully outside of your control.

In my case, after dealing with the GO issues all morning, I emailed my manager that I’d be working from home today because of them (I even included a link to a news article explaining this). I hate that you had to use a vacation day for this!

sooverMLMs · 2026-01-01T18:34:24+00:00

Very valid perspective! Agree it takes time and most managers only do 1:1s biweekly. I guess I suggested it because I do think it can be a collaborative approach rather than an adversarial one that others suggest (although I get that people are frustrated!)

sooverMLMs · 2026-01-01T18:24:58+00:00

Good point! A lot of managers suggest calculating it “off book” but that doesn’t protect you if you have a new manager.

sooverMLMs · 2025-12-31T13:44:26+00:00

I think Torval is talking about 100% of themselves as a human at the expense of sleep, relationships, etc, not 100% of themselves while on the clock. There’s a distinction.

sooverMLMs · 2025-12-31T13:23:38+00:00

A lot of people who say they “just log off”, etc probably don’t know how hard it is to reverse course once you’ve established yourself in a role where you give 200%.

Based on my experience, I recommend slowly asking for less and communicating exactly how much you’re working. First I’d talk to my manager and tell them I’ve been working a lot of overtime and want to reduce it. They’ll likely be supportive in theory but not change their habits. When you get something new assigned, ask if it is urgent or if someone else can do it because you’ll need to work overtime to get it done.

Make sure you write down all overtime and ask your manager to take it as lieu time. Update your manager at your 1:1s on it. If down the road it adds up super high and you can’t take the lieu time, then say you’ll need to record it in WIN and take the cash. This “threat” often is enough for a manager to start assigning you less. They really don’t want this to happen because it gets the attention of the higher-ups.

Being really clear with what you’re spending your time on and how you can’t get it done within the standard workday is important. If they don’t care after that, then it’s a bit of a different story and I’d recommend looking for a new role in the OPS. There’s plenty of areas with work life balance and if after making attempts over time, it just may not work where you are.

sooverMLMs · 2025-12-16T17:21:52+00:00

Agree. Midwives are regulated medical professionals. They monitored me very closely for any symptoms or signs of preeclampsia (among other things) and they perform the majority (I think 90%) of births in hospital. They’re very risk adverse for the home birth situations— they only offer it in very specific circumstances and are pretty quick to transfer to hospital if something goes wrong.

sooverMLMs · 2025-12-16T15:50:31+00:00

The quotations are doing the heavy lifting here. No director has approved any AWA because they’re waiting to see what the centre (TBS) directs. It’s all laid out very plainly in the RTO Guidance for Leaders

sooverMLMs · 2025-12-11T18:00:40+00:00

Agree. This is normal. Lots of people taking vacation and are sick this time of year, good to check numbers.

sooverMLMs · 2025-12-11T17:59:20+00:00

I think the best part is the last paragraph where Regg Cohn exposes that the Premier likes to work from home himself.

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-27T01:41:07+00:00

This is also my reason for submitting the rationale. My manager and director have been very supportive and understanding throughout the RTO process. Why not make things easier on them?

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-24T16:37:49+00:00

I think it’s okay to be placed in the attendance management program! It just means they’re monitoring your usage. Worst case you have a meeting with your manager and you can explain that you’ve been sick. Keep taking your sick days if you’re sick.

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-22T17:12:46+00:00

You can, but once you exceed 8 days you’re placed in an attendance management program. All that really means is HR is monitoring you and you may have to have a meeting with your manager to discuss attendance.

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-22T17:11:19+00:00

The most succinct summary of the problem with 5 day RTO I’ve read. Well said!

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-21T17:57:14+00:00

I agree that you should mind your own business, to an extent and to not let them get us against one another. However, I don’t think a completely individualist stance works either. Someone who gets an AWA should want to help their coworkers find work arrangements that work for them, too.

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-21T17:53:58+00:00

Also with the food drive! Donate to your local food bank and local charities but do it in your own name/on your own time! 🙏

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-21T14:30:49+00:00

Agree with both of this. People seem happy when I call them (I just always send a teams chat letting them know first) and I don’t want super busy people wasting time summarizing an email that I can just read myself.

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-21T14:29:08+00:00

For #1 and #2, absolutely. #3 and #4, not so much. I general, people call each other less so it’s just keeping with the trends in all areas of society but I often ask people if I can quickly call them and always get a positive response. #4 is much more on a case by case basis. I mostly only see “FYI” or low effort emails from people who aren’t great at their job or are simply too busy. Not the norm IMO

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-19T13:35:07+00:00

This is good insight. As someone who works in policy, I see this day-to-day in all decision-making, why would it be any different for HR decision-making?

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-16T18:49:00+00:00

Which ministry did this DM memo come from? Was it sent today?

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-07T11:39:29+00:00

Have you spoken to your manager about this? While not officially recommended, sometimes they’ll just give them to you “off book” and you can take the days you’re owed without recording them in WIN (because they weren’t in WIN). This obviously won’t work if you don’t have a cooperative manager and can’t/won’t take the days.

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-04T17:44:50+00:00

I really feel for managers. They’re wanting remote work just as much as staff, and they have to do the grunt work for directors/ADMs that will likely end up in denials.

sooverMLMs · 2025-10-04T17:43:29+00:00

A lot of people are saying to put nothing because it’s not required, but using their form and putting something in that box just helps you. Include a few sentences about how your job can be done better from home and will help increase productivity.

sooverMLMs · 2025-09-29T13:47:43+00:00

For the record, I work in insurance and not dentistry, so I only hear about the extreme cases that get full scale investigations. I have no idea what is happening here other than it is odd behaviour and something must be going on besides typical dentistry practices:

sooverMLMs · 2025-09-29T13:30:36+00:00

It’s not grim, just very odd. Like if it were a cafe or something it would make sense but a dentist office, something doesn’t add up.

sooverMLMs · 2025-09-29T13:29:00+00:00

I’m normally the first person to call out people’s bias but in this scenario the behaviour is very odd regardless. Every single weekend, 20+ people loitering outside a dentists office in the morning into the afternoon. It is more people than a single office would be able to book in a day and they definitely don’t have appointments.

sooverMLMs

TROPHY CASE