Sometimes, we take feeling respected in our workplace for granted. Since starting at the Ranch, I’ve felt nothing short of a welcomed, valued member of the team. So I was both surprised and not surprised to learn that I’d be required to take respectful workplace training as part of my employment here. Everyone already treats everyone so well – but maybe that’s because we’ve all taken the course?

I gathered with about 30 other Ranch employees on a blustery morning. The course began with facilitator Scott – who incidentally worked at the Ranch for several years – introducing himself and his co-facilitator, Amanda. Then everyone had a chance to answer the question “how would you know if you worked in a respectful workplace?”

Everyone’s answers revolved around things they’ve experienced at the Ranch! Things like accessibility, support, constructive criticism and positive feedback, and feeling safe to voice our opinions were repeat themes, and something that all Ranch employees, from VPs to front-line staff, do very well.

We then got a chance to discuss behaviours that were considered respectful vs. behaviours that were considered to be disrespectful and the ‘grey area’ in between.

No matter how respectful a workplace strives to be, conflict will sometimes occur. We learned that our own reactions to a conflict – whether we are directly involved in it or not – can cause the situation to escalate or de-escalate. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure we’re doing our part to keep our workplaces as conflict-free as possible.

We also had the opportunity to practice our newly learned skills.

It’s great to work somewhere that places so much value on respecting everyone. Especially in an organization as large as the Ranch, it would be easy to feel like we’re not valued members of the team. Happily, requiring employees to attend this training proves that that is not the case.