6:29 p.m. - 2003-03-06
Insurance
I heard from my friend who had had to stay in the women's shelter. She's moved into her own apartment with her daughters and a niece. Everything seems to be ok. The girls are back at a school where they have a lot of friends and like the teachers. Hopefully she can make a go of it this time.
The one friend who is remaining in the Middle East, e-mailed to let me know that our mutual friend has left the country and should be back in Calgary any day. The friend still in the danger zone was cautious in her discussion, but seems to have contingency plans and security issues worked out with a number of alternatives. Hopefully, none will be necessary. One of my cousins and his family was living and working in Oman during the Gulf War over a decade ago. They managed to get through the upheaval at that time, but I think the anger among the local population this time is much higher and may be more volatile. I don't see how one can be surprised at that. I think we need to remember what happened to Canadians of Japanese and German heritage in WW II. They were locked up in camps "for their own protection" from other Canadians. We are theoretically a peaceful nation, but those Canadians were not safe. I don't think we can expect any other nation to meet a standard that we couldn't achieve ourselves.
Another issue is that there is considerably more threat to stable,pro-Western governments and regimes in the region this time. That factor did not exist last time. At work, there is quite a good library service. On-line, there are subscriptions to a variety of publications and also a number of PDF books and reports. I have been reading an on-line Intelligence service's analysis of the terrorist threat and the possible scenarios should the US government pursue the path of declared war against another nation rather than targetting the terrorist networks. It was written one year ago, so some of their predictions have already come to pass. I haven't quite finished it but it is very thought provoking so far.
Attended a seminar at work yesterday on the evolving privacy legislation in Canada. The major spurs are two-fold. The first issue has to do with stopping the amount of identity theft that is occurring in North America. Corporations are, or can be, gold mines for identity thieves because they keep so much personal information about staff, clients, shareholders, and business partners to carry on their day to day business. Numerous examples of hard drives going missing were alluded to - one specifically last week, where an insurance company's data was stolen by a disgruntled employee. The second issue has to do with our global trading partners. Most European countries and a number of Asian countries now will not share information or do business with countries that do not meet their privacy standards. It is becoming the price of doing business.
Some of the senior managers were quite discomfitted to learn, for example, that their notes on interviews with potential employees, comments on personnel files, and any disciplinary information must now be available for viewing by the person being assessed, upon request. It is a very different paradigm of human resource management. Having worked in an HR department, I see the value. Some managers have put comments on some employee's files that are slanderous. For example, the female who appeared to be stealing at the one company I worked for, made a point of putting very derogatory and untrue reports on files of people who stood up to her and had her VP sign off on them. No, I never did see my file - it was kept in the manager of that department's office along with all the other HR staffs', so I don't know what she wrote about me. Maybe I'll request it, when the legislation is implemented. I had pointed out to that HR that some of the comments on a lot of their employee's files would be considered "actionable", even under current legislation. Hopefully, this will clean up some of the damage to people's careers and reputations.
I was asked to research and clean up some of the material found in the PC's office yesterday. It became quite apparent to some of the team that something very wrong was going on. I wonder if the company will be able to track down her "clients" or accomplices. That does seem to be plural. This morning T2 told B to tell me not to work on that data anymore. Doesn't matter to me, I already had guessed what was happening. All this did was provide confirmation.
My supervisor called at about three, to ask for some reports from the previous assignment. Don't know what's got into him, again, but it doesn't matter. I can't do anything about anyone's behaviour but my own. Right now being fairly secluded and solitary outside of work really appeals. I've done my stint as mom and peacemaker. Someone else can take it on now.
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