Labour & employment law column by Robert Smithson

I don’t know if the downloading by government of the regulation of our lives to administrative bodies is a uniquely Canadian state of affairs. It certainly has, however, become characteristic of our legal system and it’s something that can be a cause for concern.

In a news week in which B.C.’s Liberal Party committed suicide (again), Senator Mike Duffy proved that reading comprehension isn’t a requirement for journalists, and astronaut Chris Hadfield surely did something-or-other in outer space, it was an internal company memorandum which stole the media spotlight. When Yahoo! issued a memo telling employees they’d be expected to work at the workplace rather than from home, a firestorm of commentary broke out.

Approximately 1.2 billion Catholics woke up this week to the news that Pope Benedict XVI has given two weeks’ notice of resignation.  The Vatican Radio’s website reported the 85-year-old Pope said his health is the reason for the surprise announcement.

A while back, I wrote a column entitled, “Use Writing As A Tool, Don’t Be One”.  The point of that item was to encourage business people (myself included) to adopt some basic steps to improve their workplace writing.

As I said then, even with all the technology at our disposal, the written word is still our primary mode of communication.  It is important for us all – employers included – to write in a way that gets our message across without confusing or offending readers.