When employee clients approach us for assistance, they bring a variety of questions and concerns. It can be comforting for them to know that there are resources and options available in addition to legal proceedings.
Especially in the employment and human rights field, we find that our employee clients can often benefit from a team of specialized professionals to assist through challenging circumstances and transition. We see individuals who have experienced bullying, harassment, or discrimination in the workplace, which results in significant emotional distress and health challenges. It’s also common to interact with individuals who are on the lookout for a new job, sometimes after having no need to update a resume or write a cover letter for years and years. Sometimes areas of law intersect, such as insurance matters and employment matters.
Our clients may work with their family doctors, counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists to overcome distress caused in the workplace or to help formulate a return to work plan. It may be important for a damages claim to have medical documentation to substantiate it. In this way, medical professionals become important to our practice and to our clients’ cases and general well-being.
Increasingly, we are also encouraging our employee clients to request career transition services or coaching from their employers. In the event of conflict or a termination of employment, it is often in both parties’ best interests to restore a healthy work environment or to transition an employee to alternative employment. Far from a government job bank manned by summer students, these services are increasingly valuable and sophisticated. They assist employees to assess strengths, network, navigate the job application and interview process, amongst other things. It’s also common for them to provide leadership or job coaching. We recommend companies such as Career Joy (www.careerjoy.com) , Optimum Talent (www.optimumtalent.com) , or Clariti (www.claritigroup.ca), to provide these services. Each has its own brand and style.
Likewise, within our firm and professional networks, we have developed connections with other counsel to refer our clients to in the event that specialized legal knowledge is required in another area. An advantage to working in a full service firm is the ability to refer internally.
It’s important to us that an employee who reaches out for our services is fully taken care of. When the scope of need goes beyond what we can deliver, we are happy to direct you to other professionals who can complement our work to help get you through a challenging time.
This blog post was written by Alayna Miller, a member of the Employment team. She can be reached at 613-369-0374 or at alayna.miller@mannlawyers.com.
