Stuart Bailey is a private person – at least when it comes to work. In agreeing to speak with Unlimited about his job, for instance, he cheerfully and apologetically said, “I can only speak for myself, not for the government.” That’s because Bailey is an information management and privacy strategist for the Ontario Ministry of Finance, where he navigates the complex, sometimes intangible and often confidential world of data. Not that he’s necessarily trading in top-secret information – “I don’t have a lot of sensitive material,” he admits – but for someone whose work is all about managing, sharing (and sometimes not sharing) information, Bailey is sensitive to the challenges of describing what he does without saying too much. He gives it a try.

The Man Who Wasn’t There: Stuart Bailey’s official office at the Ministry of Finance

“My job is to help regular people in different program areas integrate practice and information into their daily work.” Huh? “Really, it’s helping people deal with information overload,” Bailey adds. Oh, right.

That could range from helping staffers manage email to helping colleagues understand the logistics and legalities around sharing information. “Storage is cheap, but finding it is very expensive,” Bailey says. A gigabyte of storage might cost only 20 cents, but a company will have to shell out another $1,300 or so to manage, share and protect that information. “It’s not just about an object sitting in a space.”

“The type of work I do is about understanding broad abstractions. Information,” he points out, “is always part of something else that you do.” In that sense, we are each de facto information managers, even though we might not consider this part of our real jobs. It is always, Bailey explains, wrapped up in our other tasks.

After earning a BA in cultural studies and philosophy from Trent University, Bailey went on to complete a master’s in information studies at the University of Toronto. Warm and engaging, his philosophy background quickly surfaces. “A large part of the work I do is – pardon me for lapsing into code – to understand basic metaphysics, entities, attributes and relationships. I have to operate in abstract areas. Privacy is not a monolithic object. It’s not a like a shoe,” he says. “A shoe will have certain dimensions, it goes on your foot, you can wear it in certain weather. But privacy could be a whole range of things.”

Bailey’s Virtual Office

Bailey, whose official mailing address is for the Central Agencies Cluster at the Ministry of Finance in Toronto, in actuality divides his time between three offices.

Bailey telecommutes from his couch-office

+ This office in the picture is where I’m stationed, but sometimes I work with the rest of the team in Oshawa. I also work at home. My employer has a great teleworking project and a lot of flexibility. I spend more time focusing on work and less on additional stressors like whether I’ll make it home in time to pick up my daughter before her daycare closes.

+ I have one computer and BlackBerry. It’s not like I produce a certain number of widgets a day. Where I’m located is sometimes not as important. I don’t always have to be tied to a desk, but I do have to ingest, analyze and provide comment on information for colleagues.

+ Yeah, sometimes I can’t find things. It’s like asking a ditch-digger where you put the shovel. Well, you can just find another shovel.

+ That’s a tennis ball on my desk. I bounce it around to relieve stress or think about things in a different way. Sometimes the best way to focus on an abstract problem is not to focus on it. You have to let the brain refresh and let your mind wander.

+ Those boxes are filled with paperwork. Although I work a lot with electronic media, I like the tactile quality of reaching for an article. I have to stay on top of new developments such as the use of wikis or policy development or a recent court decision. I make sure I don’t keep more around than I need. U

Who: Jessica Hutcheson
What: Works at the Rotman School of Management’s career centre; formerly at Accenture, a global management consulting and outsourcing company. Contributing writer at TalentEgg.ca
Where: Toronto

When Jessica Hutcheson graduated from Ryerson University’s Arts and Contemporary Studies program in 2007, she couldn’t have faced better prospects. The Canadian dollar was climbing as methodically as a mountaineer ascending the last stretch of Mt. Everest, the GDP had surpassed that of the U.S. (the “recession-plagued” U.S. as Statistics Canada put it) and employment across the country continued to grow. Grads might have had a few grand in debt, but there were good chances they’d find work in their fields.

Toronto-based human resources professional Jessica Hutcheson. Photo by Kate Dewasha

Hutcheson was exceptional among the graduating class of 2007: She was part of the first group of students to graduate from Ryerson’s new contemporary studies program. She’d studied highly unemployable things. “Everything from philosophy to early technology,” she recalls. Every semester her stream took a course called Ideas That Shape the Modern World. She studied history of the world, religion and culture. “The idea behind it was to expose students to as many ideas as they could possibly be exposed to. It was really about idea creation.” She focused on diversity and equity to marry her twin interests of business and feminism, and minored in human resources with the idea of following in family footsteps (she comes from a family of HR professionals). How was HR going to influence business? What would its presence be at the boardroom table?

Hutcheson’s prospects were good. This was 2007. “It was fairly prosperous, and that worked to my advantage because a company that historically only hired BComms and business grads was willing to hire a BA,” Hutcheson says. “I think they were willing to take a risk on me.” She started at Accenture, the international management consultant and outsourcing company, where she worked in human performance consulting, an area of management consulting that helps companies implementing new technologies and deal with the HR issues that arise, like structural changes.

Last year, one month before the economic downslide came across mainstream radar, Hutcheson used a networking connection to land a one-year maternity leave position at the Rotman School of Management’s career centre. She’d started at Accenture two weeks after graduating and it was time for a change. A mat leave position at a prominent institution – and in her field of interest, no less – was a way to try out another company and a different role. No pressure. “I felt like I needed to evaluate where I wanted to go,” she says.

The catch is that Hutcheson’s contract ends this October, after months of rising unemployment, after people in human resources have been at the frontlines of the crisis. “I started in August and the bottom fell out of the market in September, so I’ve only seen doom and gloom,” Hutcheson says. “I don’t know if I can say what’s unusual.” It’s not a great time to be looking for another job, she admits, which is perhaps why she started making connections in early spring. She was a little early, she admits, but she wanted the time to find a company that impresses her as much as she impresses them. “I feel good about it,” she says of her job search. “It will require a little more singing and dancing but I’m fired up to add value and make change.”