For 15 years I worked for a small regional airline, Pacific Western Airlines. It was a great place to work. Nice people, wonderful benefits and a great employee run social club. Everyone was treated fairly and with respect.
In 1986 we purchased our competitor, CP Air. We had 2800 employees, they had a few thousand. To be fair in the merger, we all had to submit a resume. I knew the packages they were giving to the redundant employees were excellent and I was looking forward to leaving. I worked in Treasury. The Treasury Department at CP Air was much larger and the Manager was 63 and a Chartered Accountant. They gave him the golden handshake and I got part of his job. Of course the employees thought I replaced him entirely but I wasn't qualified. If you think the employees were hard to work with, management was worse. It was a toxic workplace.
For eighteen months I stayed. I tried to leave earlier but my boss in Calgary (former PWA) asked me to stay on until I had completed a special project I was doing for him.
There is no place in this country for a toxic workplace. I hope anyone who is in such a horrible situation is able to leave. At least I was management and I did have some people who were decent to work with but the ones who weren't made it difficult to go to work. I used to say, "I'm a blueberry in a crate of oranges". PWA colour was blue and CP was orange. Calgary loved the humour!
I really hope Prime Minister Justin Trudeau selects Rick Hansen for the new Governor General. He was on the short list when he selected Julie Payette. Julie's former employer knew of her shortcomings and hopefully the next candidate is vetted properly no matter who it is.
