Inside the Circle – September 30, 2025

Just a reminder that our massage session is taking place on Tuesday, October 7 (next week) at our Head Office (4211 Yonge St).

If you have already booked your spot, please take a moment to check your schedule and make sure you can still attend. If something has changed and you can’t make it anymore, please cancel your booking so someone else can take your place. Spots are limited, and this will help everyone get a chance to join.

Tap HERE to cancel or reschedule (or email HRDept@circleofcare.com), if needed.

CIBC Run for the Cure

• When: October 5, 2025 (morning to early afternoon)
• Where: Road closures around the University of Toronto Downtown campus (Spadina Ave. and College St.)

Subway – Lines 1 and 2

• When: Throughout October
• TTC Changes: There may be early-weeknight closures (shuttle buses will run) and full weekend closures between Kipling and Islington stations (Line 2), St. George and Woodbine stations (Line 2), and Finch and Eglinton stations (Line 1 – Yonge/University).

Just a reminder to please take a few minutes to fill out the Global Workforce Survey. This survey gives you the chance to share your thoughts about your workplace. Your answers will help us understand what is going well and what we can make better.

The survey is anonymous (your name will not be shared). Thank you in advance for your participation!

Please complete the survey by October 31, 2025. 

Appointments must be booked through Circle of Care Training Hub or by calling 905-272-9214 or by texting 647‑496‑5189 with the following details (full name, email address, training location, and preferred session time).

Important Reminders:

• Please arrive 15 minutes before your training session starts.
• After booking, speak with your Service Coordinator if you need help rescheduling or have client conflicts. Try to choose a time when you have no client visits.
• Your schedule will be marked as unavailable during training. No need to sign in via phone.
• You’ll be paid 4 hours for CPR training and 1 hour for mask fit. This will be added to your schedule 1–2 weeks after the session and listed as ‘Miscellaneous’ on your paystub.
• All bookings and cancellations must be done through the online portal. You’ll receive confirmation and reminders via email/text.

Join RBC to learn the basic parts of an estate plan. They will talk about why a Will is important and how to choose the right person to be your Executor or Power of Attorney.

• When: October 8, 2025 (12:00PM – 1:00PM)
• Where: Online

Important Notice for Staff Turning 71 This Year: If you are turning 71 in 2025 and have a Group RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan), your account must change to a RRIF (Registered Retirement Income Fund) before the end of the year. To help with this, RBC will automatically change your RRSP to a RRIF starting December 1, 2025 (only for accounts that qualify).

• Rewards & Contests 
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Do you wake up feeling rested and ready for the day? If not, here are some easy tips to help you sleep better: 

• Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day.
• Keep naps short.
• Do something relaxing before bed (like a warm shower or quiet music).
• Avoid coffee and alcohol at night.
• Keep your room dark, cool, and quiet.
• Try using the free Calm App to explore guided meditations and sounds to help you sleep.
• Sleep on a good mattress — use Perkopolis to save on quality mattresses (Sleep Country and the Emma Mattress discounts).
• Still tired? Talk to your doctor.

We are pleased to welcome the new following PSWs to Circle of Care:

• Rukinder Kaur
• Elizabeth Ajayi
• Miracle Adebajo
• Michelle Ciego
• Sheila Mae Delos Santos
• Anusha Yeruva
• Ruby Atiga
• Glena Morauda
• Mae Ann Tamayo
• Mariayana Zulfekar
• Michelle Ollivierre
• Revelation Javier
• Yaa Konadu Agyemang
• Jennifer Ugochukwu
• Bridget Abioye
• Jeanny Remocal

Has someone gone above and beyond at work? Give them a High Five!

The High Five program lets you publicly recognize staff members for their outstanding work. High Fives will be posted in your weekly Inside the Circle newsletter.

To give a high five, just click on the button below or use the link in the rotating banner on the Portal home page.

Please note: We do not accept anonymous submissions for this program. High Fives must be submitted by an individual person, whether they are a staff member or member of the community.

We don’t have enough hours because you keep hiring and giving our clients to new hires. I was with my client for more almost 5 years and now you gave those hours to a new hire and my hours are not enough now.

Circle of Care covers a very large area, and our new employees work in different areas of Toronto, Scarborough, Etobicoke, North York, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and more. Our recruitment team focuses on hiring PSWs for areas that have less staff, and more clients, so that we can provide these clients will regular visits, and so that other PSWs don’t have to travel so far from client to client. So this is one reason why we are hiring new staff. One of the other reasons is that the number of PSWs available to work on any given day is not constantly growing as we hire new staff – employees can take time off for holidays, medical leave, maternity leave, other leaves of absences, etc. We need to be able to replace these visits while staff are off, and that’s not always going to be possible without hiring new staff.

There are many reasons why a client may be pulled from your schedule. Some examples of those reasons include the following:

• The client may have requested a different time for their visit.
• They may no longer need care (e.g. moved into long-term care, another neighbourhood, etc.).
• They are in the hospital and are therefore no longer receiving service from us.
• There may have been changes to the client’s schedule, such as an increase and decrease of hours that requires an adjustment to the existing schedule.

How can one be on a twelve hour shift and still can’t make 8 hours of our work? Be realistic and make our time count.

Due to the nature of home services, we understand that schedule hours can sometimes be unpredictable. There are many factors Service Coordinators must consider when scheduling visits: client and worker availability, time preference, day preference, schedule changes (such as vacations, appointments, or cancellations), treatment location, distance between client addresses, and care plan needs. As a result, Circle of Care cannot guarantee that there will be clients available within a specific area who have visit times that correlate with a worker’s availability.

Our funders also make modifications to how many hours clients are authorized for based on their assessments, sometimes decreasing the hours they were previously receiving. This directly impacts PSW schedules and hours. Circle of Care also doesn’t have control over where and when we get new referrals, so the numbers can change frequently across geographies and funders.

Service Coordinators do their best to fill and accommodate all Personal Support Workers’ schedules based on their availability but we do not guarantee any hours. If you have concerns about your schedule or are requesting an increase in weekly hours, we recommend that you contact your Service Coordinator to speak with them directly.

Before you schedule a client to a PSW that drives or has a car, ask the client if they have visitor parking or a parking space. It has happened many times that you send us to a client that doesn’t have visitor parking or that has a pay visitor parking machine. I will not pay anything to the machine just to park, and I will not risk parking somewhere that I will get a ticket or violation because Circle of Care never reimburses it.

You are correct, Circle of Care does not cover the cost of parking tickets. Employees who choose to drive are expected to follow parking by-laws and regulations to avoid parking violations. However, if a worker receives a parking ticket while on duty, we can support them in contesting it. To initiate this process, please send us a copy of the ticket, confirm the date and time of the client visit, and forward this information to HRDept@circleofcare.com. We will provide a letter for the worker to send to parking enforcers.

If you are unsure of where to park at a new client’s residence, or have concerns about parking, you can call your Service Coordinator or CSS for guidance on where to park.

Have a question? Submit your questions or feedback anonymously below!

Please note that it may take us longer to provide some answers. If your question hasn’t been answered yet, we will get back to you as soon as we can.