Staff Spotlight: Julie Muller

My name is Julie Muller, and I’m the Director of Human Resources for Assiniboine Community College. I started at Assiniboine not as an employee, but as a Business Administrative student back in 2001. When I was a student here, I was involved in many college-related things; I was the president of the student council, played on the women’s volleyball team, worked in the college library, and was also part of the Board of Governors as Assiniboine was transitioning to its North Hill campus. I guess you can say I was a bit involved in college life [laughs].

After my time in school at Assiniboine, I joined the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency and got my first job as a Human Resources Assistant in Shilo. I later attended Brandon University (BU) to earn my Bachelor of Business Administration and while I was attending BU, I worked for Child and Family Services as a Human Resources Specialist. It was a busy time; I was working while going to school and, on top of that, starting my family. It was later, after I graduated from Brandon University, that I was flipping through the newspaper and saw a job listing at Assiniboine for a Human Resource Officer. I thought it would be great to come back and be a part of the exciting stuff happening where I got my start.

My career journey with Assiniboine started in 2008. What began as a position working half-time grew into a full-time position. Since then, I’ve held several roles at the college in the Human Resources department, and I also spent a year teaching Human Resources in the School of Business. Eventually, I became the Manager of Human Resources and then accepted my current position as the Director of Human Resources. It’s interesting when you’ve been a student, especially an involved student, and then get the chance to come back and work in this environment.

The best part of my job are all of the different people from across the college that I get to work with every day. I really enjoy the diversity of the things I get to do that make a positive difference at the college. The projects we work on affect a lot of people, and it’s nice seeing many of the projects come to fruition to make things better for our employees.

This past year has been tough; I was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2021 and have been focusing a lot on recovery and returning to a point of normalcy. Going through a crisis like that really changes your perspective around work and stress management.

I think about how lucky I am to be in a position where I can work and be healthy. Sometimes, you become embedded in your work and focus on all of the things you must do; it can be really challenging and difficult. But when you are removed from that, you have the opportunity to reflect. Now I think about how lucky I am to be healthy and able to work. I am grateful to be here, focusing on what I get to do, instead of the things I have to do. My perspective has really changed.

This all happened in the middle of the pandemic, so it took me leaving to realize I was stressed. Now that I’m back, I feel like I’m approaching everything with more of a balance and the things that used to stress me out don’t affect me like they used to.

I was worried about my team when I left. I didn’t want to put them in that position. However, when I did return, it was pretty obvious that I didn’t need to take on as much as I had before. Everybody seemed to enjoy the opportunity to step up and take on new responsibilities—I’m really proud of them, and they’re all so solid. Recently, we discovered that Assiniboine’s human resource team has a combined time of over 100 years of experience!

The college has a diverse team of employees, and some of our metrics are noteworthy. Our senior leadership team is comprised of 54% of employees that identify as female, and 53% of the general staff also identify as female. These aren’t numbers we try for or must meet; this equality and balance has happened naturally over the years. It’s great to be part of a place of employment where this can happen. It shows the progress made and the steps Assiniboine has taken to attract great employees.

The college has been turning its attention to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and over the next few years, we’ll continue working on new initiatives that support these groups. It’s important to have a reflective workforce, and it’s important to have the right people involved and actively working on the policies and processes to continue our EDI efforts.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Break the Bias’, and it’s wonderful to be in a place like Assiniboine that leads by example, especially when it happens so organically. I’m proud to be part of an institution that’s so open-minded and active towards these values; they are quite central and core to who we are. We’re lucky to be in this position as not all places of work have met this equal representation. There are still more barriers for women to overcome.

My advice for women on International Women’s Day, and every day, is to go after whatever you set your mind to with a focus on your self-care. As women, we juggle a lot between family life and work life. It’s not always the case, but statistically women take on many things at work and home, which contribute to higher stress and the possibility of burn-out. Make a plan and work towards your goals one step at a time—breathe through the hard stuff, reflect often, and don’t be afraid to take a step back and take care of you when you need to.