Scenario: Parenting and Personal Time Off: Fairness in Workload

Group Size: 4-15

Scenario

“Good morning. What are you working on?” asks Master Corporal (MCpl) Pierre Prevot.

“I’m late finalizing the duty roster again,” replies Sergeant (Sgt) Maya Singh. “It’s been so busy lately.”

Sgt Singh and MCpl Prevot work in a Joint Operations Centre (JOC) together and, between them, they supervise several junior ranks. Besides ongoing operations which the staff continually monitor, the JOC has been involved in several training exercises involving the CAF and other government departments. It has been a particularly busy month, and they are both trying to catch up with their regular, but essential, administrative tasks.

“The duty roster is just what I was meaning to discuss with you,” says MCpl Prevot. “One of my corporals, Cpl Blair, has noticed – and is grumbling – that she has been tasked with a lot more weekend duties over the past several months than the privates and other corporals. I overheard her complaining to another corporal that she’s carrying the load for your Cpl Tsang. What gives? Doesn’t Cpl Tsang have to work the odd weekend too, just like the others?”

“Of course, he does, but I give him a break every now and then,” explains Sgt Singh. “He is a single dad with two kids, and he was deployed last year.”

“But you’ve got to be fair,” responds MCpl Prevot. “Cpl Blair has also been deployed, twice in the last three years. Is she getting more weekend duties because she’s single and doesn’t have any kids?”

“Well, yes Pierre,” says Sgt Singh. “Since she doesn’t have kids, I consider all of her time outside of work as free time.”

MCpl Prevot thinks about Sgt Singh’s explanation. He has three kids under the age of ten and understands working parents don’t have a lot of free time. He also knows that babysitting costs can add up quickly. He doesn’t think it’s fair, however, that one person gets assigned extra night and weekend duties because of their personal circumstances.

Categories

• Principles: Respect the Dignity of all Persons
• Values: Excellence
• Cultural themes: Leadership, Teamwork
• Misconduct types: Employment Equity
• GBA Plus themes: Gender, Family Status
• Audience: Canadian Armed Forces

Facilitator’s Guide

Learning Objectives

• Discuss the broader policy stance of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) towards personal responsibilities and needs outside one’s professional role so that the nature of different kinds of personal needs (and whether they are relevant or not to assigned workload) is considered in deciding what is fair and equitable treatment.
• Consider how gender assumptions may play into an assessment of one person’s personal needs in comparison to another’s.
• Consider how our bias surrounding gender, parenthood and gender roles impact the way we interpreted this scenario and how we feel about the outcome.

Facilitation Questions

1. What is the problem in this scenario?
   • Open group discussion.
2. What are the facts? What are the assumptions?
   • Open group discussion.
3. What are the obvious courses of action (COAs)? Are there other possible COAs?
   • Open group discussion.
4. Which principles, values and results are at play for each option, including the option to do nothing?  
   • Open group discussion.
   • Discuss “Respect the Dignity of all Persons” in relation to this scenario.
   • Discuss inclusion, teamwork, and leadership in relation to this scenario.
5. In this scenario, what do you think MCpl Prevost should do? Why? Is Sgt Singh’s argument sound?
   • Open group discussion.
   • Discuss with reference to Defence Ethics, the military ethos, and relevant policies.
   • Discuss fairness and equity vs equality.
     • Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.