19:10 - 30.09.05
Rest
I came home not well at all from the meeting with the Elections Canada staff. Woke up this morning and realized I wasn't going to be able to manage the bus ride and very cold conditions inside the warehouse today. Called in sick. That is a penalty both in terms of lost wages and in the payment of my wages. You see I haven't got my paycheque from last week yet and my mortgage is due this Monday. Add in that my timesheet has to be filed by fax by 10 am on Fridays or the next paycheque is late too. I can't send that from home because it has to be signed off by my supervisor. Now that I am at the warehouse delivery of the cheque becomes an issue too. When I arrived home from the meeting yesterday, there was a letter from Elections Canada waiting for me. It had been opened and it appeared that the contents had been read. I don't want any material sent to my home like cheques because I am not certain I will receive them. Or like this last incident, the mail arrives but only after delay while someone else goes through the contents.
The meeting yesterday? Well, lunch was great. The material presented was no different than anything I've heard over the past decade. The presenter finally acknowledged, near the end of the day, that this was so and that the real purpose was for the seasoned Returning Officers to teach the new Returning Officers the practical aspects of managing/administering an event after they'd received the theoretical training in Ottawa. When the rubber hits the road, I guess.
About half the people were new and that is the norm. Turnover is very high among us, because the treatment we are subjected to by senior EC staff is so abusive sometimes. It was apparent, from the beginning of the meeting, that almost every Returning Officer from last election had taken both financial and personal hits from EC and they were all as frustrated as me. That letter of "evaluation" I received in the summer was no worse than anyone else received. What is especially galling is that we are being assessed on factors over which we have no control. One woman pointed out she was docked $500 because she hadn't responded to all the questions EC sent her during the election "in a timely fashion". She said one item they cited was the question "have you received the Writ". She hadn't, so she responded "no". In her evaluation she was docked "marks" - and money - because of that. The only answer they wanted was "yes". She asked the presenter if we were being expected to lie so that head office could misrepresent it's statistical reports to parliament. Head office is the body that mails the Writs of Election - why are we docked and reprimanded for the fact that they are late in doing so?
Many times during the event, even after we received our computers, they weren't operational as you can recall from the posts I made then. Connectivity was sporadic and there were literally days where we couldn't get through. In addition, the software provided for critical tasks like producing Voter Information Cards wouldn't work for anyone. I still got mine out on time, but most offices didn't. The mood of the experienced ROs and AROs was of cynicism and frustration. We all love the work itself, but hate the way we are treated. Came home and found this article waiting for me in one of my e-newspapers. Appears the head of Elections Canada was speaking about us, among other things, even as we met. Not only is he violating labour law in the way he deals with us but those "evaluations" come close to being character assassination. We have no advocate for us, as the presenter kept insisting that the system was fair and equitable but only needed tweaking to make it work. Not. But then again, she is on retainer for 3 years for a wage that far exceeds ours even though she is not required to be accountable for her actions in the way way we are under the Elections Act. Conversations among ourselves during the day were mostly about strategies to use to survive and be able to get our jobs done despite the barriers and obstacles that are being imposed on us. Lucky we value the electoral process as much a we do, eh?
Today I just had fevered dreams between doing little tasks I could manage. The second in command called me around 8:30. Could she still send the boxes of used office supplies for the election - binders and folders - to me today. Sure thing. I think I was being a little bit unfair to her this week in my posts. She told me on Wednesday that the one supervisor had quit to join another team in the company. She was good friends with the one woman who was fired about a month after I started with the company. I suspect she had likely been looking for another position since then. She and the second in command are good friends, so I imagine the whole thing has been very stressful all around. Still, they had no right to pick on that one "new to the workforce" staff member as I posted at the time. Everyone is entitled to feel what they feel without someone else denying their emotions. However, that doesn't excuse using that as a reason to take it out on other people. Go punch a pillow or chop wood, grasshoppers. Bake a cake. Or belly dance - right? The other oddity was a couple of e-mails sent to me and the other women on contract by our supervisor. We are not to respond to questions from head office in Texas. One form someone else in the company about staff reorganization,if I recall correctly. Just odd and makes for some unease for certain. Something is obviously not right but that doesn't mean it's "bad" or "good". Could just be "different" - right? Fed and watered the cats several times today. Litter box duty was done last night, so tonight I guess it is time for laundry and dishes again.
"And the seasons go round and round. And the painted ponies go up and down. We're all captive on the carousel of time" Joni Mitchell "The Circle Game Great singer from this province. The fevered dreams centered around a murder mystery in some place called "Grizzly Falls". Seemed to be in a state like Wyoming or in the Dakotas. It involved a senior politician and a cover up of the details. The odd part was that I was being drawn in to help uncover the truth by the one politician I've posted about on occasion. The one who has changed so much that I don't recognize the person anymore. In the dream, he found me through my work and was calling me there to discuss the clues. He wanted me to join the search in the place where it had happened. The other person involved was my automation co-ordinator for the next election - he was helping me do some research here. It seemed it was a woman and maybe her children who had been murdered. It could have been something was triggered in my subconscious, when we were discussing how to protect victims of domestic violence from spouses who were stalking them at the Elections Canada meeting. I explained the strategy used for one such woman and her children in my electoral district. She was living in her car with them, having no place to go. The shelters were full. Some women are never free of that spouse. They hunt them for the rest of their lives and that was one of those cases. I guess unfinished business will get you one way or another, but why bring those particular people in to the dream Mr Subconscious?
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