22:25 - 05.04.06
musicals
Another odd night. I couldn't sleep so I sat thinking with my mouse - computer mouse that is. Surfing. What really threw me was that I was actively feeling happy, even joyful. I don't even mean passive contentment, which has been rare enough the past few years. Just actually happy. Maybe I hooked up with a childhood reverie unknowingly. Don't know, but I liked it and decided to savour every minute of that feeling. I don't think it changes anything in real time, but one's attitude determines how one perceives reality, so who knows. If this makes no sense watch the movie "What the Bleep do We Know".
My youngest attended a job interview this morning. The woman called back later in the afternoon. My son had called me to give details of the interaction from his perspective and they seemed to match with what she asked me too - as his former employer. An informal reference, I guess. She offered him an assignment, being a temp agency. As she spoke the warning bells started going off loud and clear, but it wasn't my call. My youngest, although my baby, is still an adult after all. When he came home, I gave him the details without telling him my thoughts or explaining what I'd found when I researched the company on their own website and read a couple of articles about them. The giveaway for me was when the interviewer, with a very strong Russian accent, said "The mentor we send with this team of young strapping boys will teach them about LIFE!" Well yes. I started hearing mandolins and balalaikas, hearing the theme song from Dr Zhivago and watching that first scene in the movie with flashes to other scenes like the rape and the battles on the railroad. Life. Then up came the song "To Life - Le Chaim" from Fiddler On the Roof; you know just before that first pogrom by the local constabulary? Uh huh. I know, my own stereotypes and prejudices hanging out for all to see. That was why the check on google.
The company's last annual report was all about how to make a profit "quality of product doesn't matter, because anyone can now have access to the technology we use". Well there's a stirring statement and philosophy. Next comment was that the way to survive was in the way one related to it's clients. So much for the people who actually make it possible to turn a profit. Their poverty subsidizes your wealth - right? You see, the interviewer had already told me the factory was on the other side of town - about a two hour transit trip each way. My son would be expected to do a 12 hour shift of very heavy labour around rather dangerous equipment, then try to get a bus home on off peak hours in an industrial area where walking would likely be faster, and for that he would make just above minimum wage. That little tidbit about the temp agency sending their own supervisor with the work crew was the final tip off. Sure enough, there for all to read was a labour relations board arbitration decision handed down the end of February - in favour of the existing employees. The purpose of hiring these strapping young men appears to be a ploy by this very ethics impaired company to get around the ruling. It seems to me as though they are planning to lay off their existing staff and replace them with kids who wouldn't understand that they were being exploited in order to break the labour laws cited. I didn't tell my son that part, but the description of the requirements - plus a significant outlay of his own (non-existant) funds for start up and transportation - was enough for him to decide he could do better. His comment was that he would prefer to take a job at one of the nearby burger joints at minimum wage where he might at least be treated as a real employee. Maybe or maybe not, but certainly less exposed to the potential for labour violence that comes with the kind of tactics used by that company and its enabling temp agency. Life indeed.
While he was gone the cats seemed quite distressed. The landlord for the other side of my duplex seemed to be fixing something insde that dwelling. When I was trying to walk to the front door to check for mail Ms Wildfire took it upon herself to escort me, back arched, ears pointed forward and in attack mode. She tried to block me from opening the door at all. Not normal behaviour at all. Maybe she just felt that there should always be one human (staff member) on site so that unexpected service requirements were met promptly. She should have remembered that all I had on was my shift. I wear street clothes most days.
Work related for me was a call from one of the people at headquarters in Ottawa who left a voicemail asking about pay amounts for three more staff. I haven't had that cell phone on for several days and there is no date stamp so I'm not certain when he called. Have to check my records on the people mentioned, because I don't recognize 2 of the 3 names. Then an email from one of the labour law firms offering workshops on various aspects of due diligence for administrators/managers with respect to occupational health and safety - a theme developing here I think. All but one of the offerings came with a price tag way out of my budget range, and since Ottawa has turned down my request for enhanced training en Francais, which is required by law for our position, I don't think they will ok any funding for this. They also said I was too competent with computers to qualify for the funds set aside for computer literacy training so you can see how little skill building we can acquire through them. Besides they hate it when we read the legislation - less biddable you see. I know - bitter. A call again from the casting agency staff. I'm amazed that they are so persistent given I've been putting them off for over a month. It isn't that I don't want to give the work a try, it is just that since I can't manage a full day out in the downtown world right now without coming home with my lungs in full attack mode I don't want to commit to something for them that I can't fulfill. Too dishonest to say otherwise. I spoke with the head of the agency this afternoon and she seemed to be just genuinely concerned about the illness. But then again this is an agency for actors right. I could play a really convincing zombie or undead person right now. Maybe.
More correspondence with family and friends done and just a little more to go so that I am caught up. Guess I'd better go do that research fo rthe staff wages for headquarters though. Don't want to keep anyone waiting for money they are owed. Good night dear diary.
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