12:33 a.m. - 2002-12-30
Paperwork
I learned a long time ago to keep documentation of whatever I was working on, just as a matter of course. Comes from volunteering with lawyers, I guess. Why? Well, decision makers and committes change over time, and sometimes you have people who are attracted to an activity for the wrong purpose, so the paperwork acts both as a record of agreements and as a restraint where inappropriate intentions become an issue. In addition, in a regular workplace it stands as a record of what one did - or didn't do - which as a contractor is an imperative to protect yourself. It's amazing how often just one single piece of paper has pulled a volunteer project out of the fire or put a dispute to rest.
I was going through some of my old records tonight just to be certain that I had the sequence and timing of events clear for several purposes. One is the up-dated resume that my supervisor wanted. I can now show him the physical records of the work I did, if they are necessary. Where the international work is concerned, I also have documentation of tasks I did for Amnesty International, where my specialization was the Middle East and Asia. With the Red Cross' Survivors of Torture Program I worked with survivors from the Middle East and Central and South America. I also was recruited to do a little work through the university here to gather some evidence for the World Court trials that are occurring now, because of the Amnesty and Red Cross training. Unfortunately, that happened just as my marriage was crashing, so I wasn't able to do as much as I had hoped. Why does that volunteer activity matter for the workplace? Well, sometimes understanding the political and social conditions of the area one works on is just, if not more, valuable as the technical knowledge one has of the industry one works in. Add in 24 years of living in one of the most cosmopolitan communities in the city - we referred to our school populations as the "United Nations" - and I think I have more background in international issues than 95% of the other people in my field, and it is more diverse.
Another reason for the search had to do with the Employment Insurance application I made. I needed the time sheets I submitted to Elections Canada for this year - they have a record of the tasks completed as well. I came across some correspondence with my insurance company, mixed in with those documents, and it was kind of synchronous. There have been a number of break and enters in the past couple of weeks that targeted single parent families. Thieves took the cash that had been saved for Christmas presents plus any gifts that the Moms had already purchased. The media has really been highlighting those incidents. The documents I have were letters between myself and the insurance adjuster for a break and enter in my home that occurred during the last election - it was about six weeks before Christmas 2000. My jewelry and the boys' electronics and games were taken and the house was trashed - they couldn't find any cash because I don't keep any in the house. The adjuster's first question was about my marital status. "Single Mom, eh?" "Yes, what has that to do with anything?" "Are you now, or have you ever been on welfare?" "No, I am not and have not." "Never?" "No, never." "Well then, how do you feed you family?" "I work for a living, just like most everyone else in this city." "But you ARE a single mom?" "Yes." Then he tried to dispute that we could own the things we said were stolen - fortunately the documentation practice I had protected us there, as I had all the receipts needed except for the boys' collectors cards which had been gifts from family over about 15 years. He then tried to question my statement of what I did for a living - in the middle of the election for heaven's sake - and challenged my description of what I did when I wasn't administering an event. He implied that I couldn't possibly earn enough on my own to support my guys and, therefore, had faked this robbery to get some money out of the system for Christmas. I could have given him my tax records, but it was none of his business and wouldn't have even been an issue if I had been married. The jerk already knew, from police reports, that there was a B and E ring operating in the community at the time and that they had already hit several homes before mine. One of the school principals gave me even more information, because the ring was trying to recruit some of the students in our community as members. The police had recovered evidence in the form of fingerprints from one of the boys rooms and they had no trouble believing that the same B and E ring had been involved. It took a letter of complaint to stop his behavior - most of his questions weren't relevant to start with and were illegal under our Charter of Rights anyway. The adjuster finally agreed that all of the boys stuff would be replaced but he wouldn't do the same about my jewelry. After all what could a single mom have of value? My uncle was a jeweler, so I did have a few very nice pieces, but the thieves didn't find my Mom's that my Dad had given me after she died, so I didn't fight that. Besides that, the election was demanding every waking moment I had and that is about the time I came down with mononucleosis so I wasn't in any shape to do any more. I hope that the families dealing with the break-ins now get better treatment than that from whomever they have to deal with.
�
�
