11:09 p.m. - 2004-07-15
Thinking
Got into work a bit early the last couple of mornings. Took the earlier train so I could avoid the "Children's Day" crowd for Stampede, y'all. I love being around little ones, but at that hour of the day being jammed in train cars packed with strollers, diaper bags and cranky mommas and poppas just isn't appealing. The teen day today?I enjoy young adults too, but I'm not into partying at that time in the am any more. I know, bah humbug.
The office was almost deserted this morning. Four staff on, the rest out playing cowboys/girls at the rodeo. My co-worker was absent too. My supervisor called just before lunch to see how I was coping. He seemed fairly concerned about my health, which was very kind of him. I just commented that when the City quit spraying all it's poison around my house - there's a tot lot just across the street that was the focus of the activity - then things would get better. I'm more concerned about the effect that stuff has on the children and pets that play in the park; if it's having such a severe effect on me what is it likely to do to some little sprout?
We got to talking about the next round of assignments. He had mentioned, at the beginning of the conversation, that he was feeling very stressed and I didn't want to add to that. However, I don't want to go into an assignment that makes me so uncomfortable, without having said anything upfront. My supervisor stated that increased income wasn't possible, because the data management company was just breaking even on the venture anyway. Yet, while I was there last time, a complaint about the charges from the liaison and a comment from one of the other temps in another conversation indicated that the company was charging about three times my salary for my services. How do I reconcile that? My supervisor doesn't seem the type to deliberately mislead me, so maybe there are other charges being submitted by the data management company that are being construed as being part of my wage. Don't know.
I also pointed out that being treated with contempt for basic needs by a client, even though they asked specifically for me, wasn't acceptable to me. The working conditions from the first assignment, which weren't great to start with, got considerably worse the second time. What was it Eleanor Roosevelt said "Fool me once -Shame on you. Fool me twice - Shame on me." I told my supervisor that I felt I deserved better treatment and he took responsibility for not advocating as he could have last time. That may be true from his point of view, but I think it is the responsibility of the liaison to ensure a basic level of resources are available to any worker not just me.
Oh well. I had an interesting discussion with the business co-ordinator at my current assignment this morning. A key environmental policy framework was piloted by their head of state through the UN about a decade or so ago. Discussed the right to basic things like unimpaired(by the state) access to healthy living conditions as well. I was asking for guidance with respect to researching the impact that implementing those priorities into their own country's "best practices" model had on their economy. That is the bogey man always shaken in our faces when our provincial government tries to avoid any such compliance on either health or environmental policy. Turned out the co-ordinator had had a major involvement in that process and had a wealth of information to offer me - different resources that I could look into to proceed with my own little bit of citizen participation in my own life's governance. Bonus. Spent the balance of the day with my headphones on, the music distracting that topmost layer of awareness so I could process the two key conversations of the day. HMMMMMMMMM.
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