Category for employees of Canadian Government?

Question

I would like advice or may need help creating a new category for the profile of Emily Melissa (Dunning) Cassells. The category might be named something like Public Service of Canada.

There are a lot of government employees in the Ottawa area including both grandmothers, my mother, my wife and me. However, it only occurred to me that it could be a category while wrapping up Emily's profile. Is this a valid type of Category?

If it is a valid category, could I get help creating it? Or is there an existing category to use? Thank you!

Answer 1

I had to do a lot of thinking about this. The best choice currently is probably; Public Service of Canada, before 1967 it was named Civil Service of Canada.

The Union that represents many Federal Employees is the Public Service Alliance of Canada, but that does not include all the employees and it is a Union.

If you want another opinion I can ask my SIL who works for the Federal Government, he works in the PMO office-(Prime Minister of Canada)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Service_of_Canada

Comments

I could go with Public Service of Canada.

Thanks,

Gary

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'Emily worked as a stenographer in Ottawa from 1913 to 1926.'

Public service might not be correct as when Emily was employed it was called Civil Service of Canada.

Someone more knowledgeable about categories might have another opinion.

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I was hoping to have a single category covering all periods so everyone who worked for the Federal Government would be grouped together. The name should be descriptive but not necessarily accurate for all years.

However the bigger question is whether such a category is desirable at all. If accepted, it would lead to equivalents for other jurisdictions.

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Gary I agree with you, such a category does not have much benefit, as the Wikipedia entry shows there are hundred's of thousands of people that currently work for the federal government across the country. And a huge number since 1867.

A category should group people who have a time or a place in common. People who could have other connections to each other because of where they were, what they did.

In this case unless there was something special about the actual office she worked in, such as other relatives who worked in the same place, or other happenings such as Emily and her co-workers were all working in the office when some significant event happened. That would mean you would need to know who the other people were and how it-whatever happened-tied them together as a group. That would also mean you would need to create profiles for other people in the same office.

You could create a sticker, but again it doesn't have much benefit.

My personal opinion is we have too many categories that are unnecessary and not beneficial,  including her job title and employer in the biography is enough.

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Gary, just looked at your ancestors, somewhere there is probably a connection between your Ottawa valley family and my husband's ancestors as he has several immigrant ancestors who settled in the Pembroke/Renfrew area in the early to mid 1800s.

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The occupation template could be used.  It does not set a category, and all it needs is a suitable image.

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Melanie,

I already added an Occupation sticker and was looking at categories as part of finalizing her profile. (I’m waiting for the cemetery to respond before adding that category.) A possible PSC category came to mind as I was adding others.

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I didn't look at the profile.  I was just following the discussion here.

Answer 2

Hi Gary,

Not sure that a category would answer in this style.  Both my brother and his wife (now retired) worked for the Federal government in Ottawa, he is a geophysicist, she is a technical translator.  One could argue that they were part of what is commonly called ''civil servants'', but they are both much more specialized, and had professions that are found in their own genre.  Who the employer was doesn't seem to warrant categorizing by that.

Answer 3

I think it’s a huge category for sure. I’m a public servant and come from parents who were as well.

Public Service of Canada is what I think it should be called- with a mention that it was Previously called Civil Service

That being said there is a huge possibility of breaking this category down further. Even by job category. Although that would be a huge endeavour - so perhaps just the basic heading.

we also have a few unions that could be categorized- PSAC and PIPSC come to mind. But then that opens the door to making categories for every possible union- so you may get away with a simply category ‘Union Member’

Comments

not sure we want to go there, Union Member would apply to gazillions of profiles.  And lots of people who work for the government don't actually belong to one.