mental health
A Standard of Care
PREVENTION IS THE BEST CURE – AND IT ALL STARTS WITH DIALOGUE, JOINT
COMMUNICATION AND MAPPING OUT GOALS
Mental health issues can affect anyone in any work-place
at any time. Perhaps one of the more stressful
workplace settings, however, is within the airline in-dustry.
That’s where Sari Sairanen, current director
of health and safety at Unifor, worked in the early 2000s when
her employer, Air Canada, was dealing with bankruptcy protec-tion.
As a union leader in the call centre, she was still tasked with
instilling confidence in the workforce even though the situation
was quite precarious.
“Every two weeks, I had this feeling in the pit of my stom-ach
that calls would come in and people would say, ‘My cheque
bounced,’ ” she said.
After working with third party companies and the airline itself, it
was determined that communication was the key to reducing stress.
By Joel Kranc
Taking proactive steps to
protect mental health at
work is the new standard
of care – as is adhering
to the aptly named
National Standard
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HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ APRIL 2017 ❚ 31
