PM Station

Most of the time project manager has to deal with managing the team but; quite often, you get members with special needs or; you have to recruit your team as, not the case you get a pre-assigned team by functional managers; in both cases, there are few tips that the project managers need to be aware of to avoid legal implications, this falls under the constrain of EEF (Enterprise Environmental Factors) in other words it is a Government Impact - Human Rights Legislation Impact on Management of Employees.
The Project manager must have a basic knowledge of human resource management though in most complicated cases the project manager is required to involve the HR manager whether it is unionized or non-unionized and be aware of local legislation of the province, awareness is vital.
However, on the daily grounds for the execution of project activities project managers might see people with special needs those people need to be treated differently to be fair to them. As a project manager, you should eliminate negative treatment of individuals based on prohibited grounds of discrimination.
This is called “duty to accommodate” and it is project managers' and HR's obligation to accommodate a person when their needs are based on the grounds in the Local Human Rights Act.
This may require that alternative arrangements be made to ensure the full participation of a team member with special needs. Organizations should build accommodation into the way they do business as much as possible. Be aware of your company’s policies, it should have policies in place to make the environment accessible, to prevent barriers from occurring rather than removing them retroactively. However, the duty to accommodate has limits too, sometimes accommodation is not possible because it would cause an organization “undue hardship”
The company can claim undue hardship when adjustments to a policy, practice, by-law or building would cost too much, or create risks to health or safety. There is no precise legal definition of undue hardship each situation should be assessed individually. To prove undue hardship your company will have to provide evidence as to the nature and extent of the hardship. The HR department is required to ensure that all people affected by the organization are treated equally, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation or any other grounds of discrimination listed in the Local Human Rights Act.
Management policies and practices should be fair and equitable. There should be no discrimination, harassment or retaliation against anyone who works for the organization or receives services from it.
The company is obligated to take appropriate action against any employee who harasses someone because an employer can be held responsible for harassment committed by their employees
For example, “The Accessibility with Disabilities Act” requires employers to provide necessary accommodations such that physical environments won't pose a barrier to a qualified individual from doing a job.
Another example, is the “Scheduling and Employment Act” For a number of hours 160 per month, a few employees do 168 hours of shift work then what does the company have to do to pay overtime or not, it puzzles the project manager and here should get HR department involvement, overall it is tough to call also for HR as need to adhere to the policies & standards of legislations and alignment within the organization and geographic location.
Compensation programs should be based on performance and skills fairly with no discrimination against jobholders in other respects.
Even when project managers are required to do “Performance appraisal” they should be free from biased thoughts and personnel dislikes as well.
On the other hand, if a project manager is required to hire a team then advertising to recruit people for job descriptions must be inviting to all people to apply not have phrases which exclude members of protected classes, you can check the draft with your HR if you are not exactly sure.
Recruiting and selection must not discriminate against names or age or other ground and starts with application screening, however, organization entitled to use a Bona Fide Occupational requirement (BFOR) in (Canada) the same as (BFOQ) in (the US) Bona Fide Occupational Qualification or it is called (GOQ) in (UK) Genuine Occupational Qualification all serve project managers involved in recruiting as attribute or quality for consideration when making decisions on “Hiring” based on the requirement and nature of business.
The HR department must reflect the organization’s employment equity plans
Project managers are required to identify special “Training” for the team and that must be available for all team members, this is a very challenging one as the question raises should members who are to retire soon have access to development programs? In certain conditions, the company has to protect their investment.
Project managers realized the importance of the HR department to manage all policies to ensure the compliance of the company with all legislations and regulations related to human rights and labour laws concerning the prohibited ground for discrimination but the project managers should not turn a blind eye to a non-compliant team member.
Ensure all team members' safety by having a system documenting a prove of all members have received the necessary training for the job, Job hazard analysis programs & re-assess the risk if any change occurs in standard operation procedures which don’t violate safety
Provide or ensure on the project site that all necessary PPE is used (Personal Protective Equipment)
Project managers are required from time to time to review with the HR department and revisit all company policies to ensure the freeness of all toxic and intentional discrimination or systematic discrimination.
Most legal requirements put too much pressure on the HR department and it looks like they need to have a law degree to handle all legal issues for big companies it is not unusual to have a law firm working for them to ensure all legal requirements are met.
For example, If the project requires the team to work in a substation/switchyard then the project manager is required to ensure that the team has high voltage and arc flash training, the project manager with the assistance of HR required to provide and document all necessary safety training to ensure the safe condition of the team and project site, In general, the safety is a duty of everyone but mostly it falls on the project managers as they are in charge of the site and are likely to be the first prosecuted if any fatal accidents happens in project’s site.
If the project manager has to do “Dismissal” that should be handled fairly by providing due diligence of all documented progressive disciplinary actions, by giving reasonable notice, or by paying severance pay for immediate dismissal
Everyone in the team on the project should be accountable to adhere to rules and requirements to be in compliance, project managers and HR are responsible to facilitate the required training and provide continuous education keeping everyone informed by transparent communication for any changes in laws and policies.

In general RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) is a framework and considered a program for many organizations.
There are four basic principles defined by organizations globally for the RCM to be considered as Program 
1. Is scoped and structured to preserve system function
2. Identifies failure modes, which are the ways in which something might fail. Failures are any errors or defects, especially ones that affect the customer, and can be potential or actual
3. Addresses failure modes by importance
4. Defines applicable maintenance task candidates and selects the most effective one in the case of important failure modes
The goals of RCM include the ability to evaluate, categorize, prioritize and understand the appropriate way to minimize the impact of failures. Ultimately, by performing RCM, an organization can develop maintenance schedules specific to each critical asset within a facility or organization.
Now we talked about assets what about project management when dealing with process and human assets, I often found that implementing the RCM program saved lots of construction project from failure or even costly implication

Successful implementation of a RCM process — coupled with connected sensors, tools and a CMMS system — will increase cost effectiveness, asset reliability, equipment uptime and provide an enhanced understanding of the level of risk that the organization must manage.

It can be applied on many management system for the value, tools and system which can be powerful to any organization Centralized PMO might be using RCM along with other system

The Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Project Manager’s Guide uses a clear, flexible process and set of criteria so an organization can assess what it takes to successfully conduct and implement an RCM project and avoid pitfalls along the way to experiencing measured results that add significantly to the bottom line.

You could be a project manager leading the RCM program.

I understand that we need to get refresh and play. Life can't be just work and study but what balance we need to maintain your health your family your work with all that been said the SDA which is the Skills Development Activities should continue, we need to find time to self-study improve and continue education because the technology is moving fast to keep ourself-up to date we need to continue improvement even if you do less, once a week but at least do it continually. There are many activities like TV shows which divert us from rolling on development.

So what we need to do to charge our self to continue education when our mood falter of study 

No problem that's normal don't panic give yourself a break take vacation take time off study but set your PPO high (Personal Performance Objective) set a target to study and reward yourself after finishing a small course even if you don't get promotion at work just rewards yourself, celebrate your success of completion of the course, any knowledge you add on is a plus point. We as human being tend to forget so by continuous reading we exercise our memory and keep it active. 

It has been said that employer like to hire someone who already has a job, they feel that would give them confidence of a good hire, also you be in a strong position to negotiate, you are not desperate, also it is a good way to evaluate your skills and your weakness points to improve, but this might have a backlash if your employer find about that and they might terminate you, so remember "Loose lips sink ships" so don't share it with your coworkers to avoid rumors and they might be looking for your position.

Be loyal to your current employer schedule interviews at your own free time not work hours, don't use one of your current employer as reference.

Don't use the company computer, Internet, fax machine, or phone in your job search. Most companies track your Internet usage so anything related to your job search may raise suspicions, “Your company may also track your phone use so it's best if you use your personal cell phone in your job search, focus on your current job while at job that's an ethic and part of your professional credibility which you should not lose it, your reputation in market can fly among various employers so quick and if negative it can burn your cards.

Finally, if you believe you are really happy with where you are and that your employer is a great employer to work for then you may slow your search but never quit complete search, you should never completely stop looking for new opportunities.

It is thinking about thinking and that thinking is thinking about whatever is occupying your mind to reach best possible conclusion by looking for ability to reason, you try to engage in reflective thinking independently, when you apply critical thinking you notice that you identify, analyze and solve problems systematically instead of intuition or instinct

To build and appraise arguments you need to understand the links between ideas of more importance and relevance of arguments.

To approach problems consistently and in systematic way you need to figure out inconsistencies and errors in reasoning

When doing evaluation, explanation, problem solving, decision making, you need to recognize any negativity or weakness in the argument.

Check the arguments might cause implication behind the statement, make a structure for reasoning like logical ladder

It is normal that we all don’t use critical thinking all the time because the mindset is in anger, grief or joy so it is prudent to be self-controlled, on the other hand focused continuous exercises can help to improve critical thinking

Look to develop certain routine and be consistent when applying procedure to problems, for example:-

If someone told you something to make you upset think who said it? Does it really matter who told you that comment, where they said those comments in private or public? Did they provide all facts with evidence, why they said that? What is the timing? Is it after certain events? Do you really care for their comments?

It is more important to determine what you want to achieve from critical thinking, you want to make more educated decision looking at range of possibilities, and we all carry likes and dislikes so it is required to develop unbiased decisions and to succeed on that we need to be aware of our self, our strengths and weakness.

Other important aspect is to think about the problem in a big frame picture as a whole not just one narrow side which might shows positive but then two other sides shows negative.

The goal is to achieve the best possible outcomes in any situation for that we need to collect and analyze information from different sources and what is the circumstances for that event.

We must clear our mind and focus to develop the use of foresight as much as we can.

Be prepared after taking decision for any possible negative outcomes

Be willing to interrupt and make changes as required after the negative outcomes to maintain constructed focus.