Your digest

Blood donation a family affair for father-daughter duo

Greg Dobbin, a resident of Charlottetown, P.E.I., has been a dedicated blood donor for many years. He was first motivated to donate after one of his brothers required emergency blood transfusions following a serious car accident in the 1990s; he hasn’t stopped giving ever since. As a laboratory technologist working in a hospital, Greg continues to see the benefits of blood donations in his day-to-day life and feels that it is his civic duty to give back. This summer, Greg made his 61st blood donation and celebrated the milestone with his 17-year old daughter, Hilary, who proudly made her first. “I wanted to be a blood donor because I saw how proud it made [my] Dad,” she said. Read more about how blood donation has turned into a family affair for Greg and Hilary at blood.ca/stories.

Showing the LOV: Arleen Asi and Caitlyn Quinn

Earlier this summer, we asked you to nominate and celebrate your outstanding colleagues and teams for our annual peer recognition program, Living our Values (LOV). As always, we were blown away by the incredible stories and examples you shared of employees across our organization who have gone above and beyond to embody our ICARE values of integrity, collaboration, adaptability, respect and excellence. We’ll be profiling each of the six regional recipients over the next few weeks, as we lead up to the announcement of the National Award of Distinction for an individual and a team. This week, we’re celebrating our first two recipients, Arleen Asi, event coordinator (BCY) and Caitlyn Quinn, staff development associate (NCC). Meet Arleen and Caitlyn and learn about their tireless commitment to our organization and to patients across the country, on Connect.

Programs, resources and supports to help you manage your mental well-being

In this week’s Connect poll, we asked employees how they were feeling as we inch closer to September – and your responses highlighted that stress and anxiety are prevalent. Thirty-two percent of respondents indicated they were feeling stressed, 16 per cent indicated they were feeling depressed and 16 per cent felt overwhelmed. At Canadian Blood Services, the health and mental well-being of employees is our priority, and we recognize that this is a particularly stressful time of year, compounded with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that we have a number of programs, resources and services designed to help you and your loved ones maintain balance and manage your mental health and well-being.

If you are looking for some extra support as we prepare for the next phase of the pandemic, along with post-lockdown workplaces, schools and other settings, check out the free resources from LifeSpeak (password: thrive) and ComPsych, and visit connect.blood.ca/EmployeeSupports for free webinars, events and other resources. Those who are looking for additional mental health and well-being support can access clinical counsellors and psychologists through their employee benefits package. For those without Manulife coverage, our employee assistance program (EAP) provides all staff and household members access to family counselling and resources to help navigate these challenging times.  

Question of the day: Canadian Blood Services has been encouraging and reminding staff to take their vacation time, but with folks away from the office, this can add to the already significant workloads of their colleagues. How are we balancing the need for vacation time with growing workloads and concerns related to employee burnout? 

Booking vacation time is not only important for your mental well-being, but also for the financial stability of our organization.

We understand, however, that it may feel difficult for some employees to take their well-deserved vacation time when they are faced with high workloads and many competing priorities. Assigned delegates may also feel overwhelmed when they are tasked with additional work while their colleagues are away from the office. 

One way we can all balance the need for vacation time with current priorities and concerns related to employee burnout is by aligning with our teams and delegates about priorities, in advance of taking time off.  Be honest about what work can wait while you take a well-deserved break. Senior leaders are having the same conversations with their peers and teams. Collaboration is key to supporting workload and preventing burnout.   

While our strategic priorities and organizational goals are no doubt important, it is critical to remember that the health of Canadian Blood Services employees comes first. 

If you are struggling, please consider accessing some of the mental health and well-being resources listed above, reach out to your manager or contact thrive@blood.ca 

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About your digest

This digest highlights the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters.  No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.     

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