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Balance
My current work is very physical, which is mostly a good thing. I have more strength and stamina now than I had for the past decade or so. I've lost bucket loads of weight, too. I'm now able to wear dresses I haven't fit into the past decade. Met one friend on the bus from one of my downtown assignments four years ago. She couldn't stop exclaiming about it the entire journey. I allowed that I had lost a dress size, but she felt it was much more than that. However, she also kept expressing concern about the pallor of my face. It had been a demanding day. Truth is I now have to eat constantly and I'm still losing inches. The other downside is that I need new clothes for work, but can't afford them with the wages and hours assigned. Part of that is because my health still needs some guarding because of that superbug (MRSA) I had a year and a half ago. The specialist did say that my immune system would be compromised for at least a year and he was right, unfortunately. Fatigue now really leaves me at risk when exposed to toxins or germy people. Both are difficult to avoid. Fatigue is induced by the schedules that are set at work. Split shifts are the only way to get a reasonable amount of hours per week, since most assignments are three or four hours, on average. My body can't cope with that yet.
Meant the day after A+ and I watched "Swing Vote", my body simply refused another day of very early, very short work hours with long travel time - including an additional lengthy walk through deep snow drifts, after a train and bus excursion - to deal with, as well. Add in, I knew I had a very demanding assignment coming up the next week that would likely have been too much to handle after wasting what energy reserves I had on that one small assignment. But at the same time, I need all the paid hours I can get since the wage doesn't come close to paying all the bills. Sigh. Conflicted is a regular comment from all my co-workers too. They are all struggling with the same issues. So why do we keep trying to make it work? We really enjoy each others' company, as well as the work itself. The current management treats us well in all other respects and that is something that is highly valued among us.
The upshot was that I chose not to take the short assignment, because I was already too tired and sore. I didn't want to risk missing a whole weeks' worth of work at the next assignment, if my body cratered after the short day. I know, whine with cheese, please. The assignment covering the next two days was running a large crew in a stockroom. A lot of heavy lifting and constant motion, in order to meet the training needs of the half dozen new people mixed in with the work needs of the regular experienced workers. I enjoyed the assignment the first day. A new contract between our company and the client meant the in-store staff were much more co-operative. The crew never stopped working except for two very short breaks and they did that willingly.
The senior manager felt that that wasn't good enough though, because it didn't generate a big enough profit at the end of the day. Next morning he stayed long enough to lecture the entire group about their lack of "productivity". When I had the crew underway with the days' work, I took that manager aside and questioned him about his comments. If a dozen people working non-stop and bettering last years' daily average production by about double wasn't enough to generate enough revenue, then the company needs to find a better negotiator for our contracts. He said he didn't mean to imply, and felt no one on the crew would have interpreted his remarks thus, as stating that they were "bad workers". I begged to differ and the reaction and comments of the crew after the manager left for the day bore that out. They were very upset and intimidated. Some of the experienced crew were deeply hurt by his remarks. Nothing like destroying a crew's morale and breaking down that sense of being a good team to reduce the incentive to work harder or longer, eh? Usually, given work conditions in the same setting last year, the work we did would have taken four to five full days to achieve. We managed to complete that same work in two full days. The reward for that crew? Originally, to be told they wouldn't be able to have the additional two days reassigned to other jobs, because there wasn't any other work available. So, great work and attitude was initially punished, both in terms of loss of two days' pay, as well as that lecture. In fairness though, all the crew were offered double shifts on the following weekend to make up for the lost two days.
Governments wring their hands as corporations flounder due to said corporate induced "lack of productivity". So what does our fine federal government budget offer to workers now without work? Bailouts and incentives to those employers who are causing the problems to begin with, while still soaking the workers for payment into an unemployment program that withholds those funds to 60% of female workers and 50% of men who have made their payments "because they didn't have regular shifts or predictable monthly incomes", because of those same employers' practices. Don't even get me started on the other "bailout" hand-outs to their buddies at the expense of those who actually do work hard for a living. Our Prime Minister is so vindictive that the budget actually now withholds or claws back money from provinces who are entitled to receive it, because their governments have challenged his government's behaviour over the past year. What a coward. Thought he was elected to serve All Canadians. Oops, end of rant - for now. Ask me later about several more hidden taxes on taxes.
Since we did our work so quickly, I was also shorted one less day of paid work. I was assigned to tag the same store the day after that, but was also not scheduled to work the next day when the floor count was done. Two days loss of pay for getting a crew to double their productivity in essence. Sigh. That following weekend, I did have one assignment with one manager, whom I respect, in a clothing store. We were done in three hours. Next day, work with another manager I like a great deal - we have great political discussions enroute and in between work hours. He had me doing specialty work instead of the floor count - data entry and displays. Each of the managers seem to want to give me as much diverse training as possible. Another benefit I really appreciate from this company. Our front line managers are generally excellent.
The following Monday, the day before my birthday, was the first day of the Chinese New Year and Australia Day. My youngest had brought me two new exercise videos - one Tai Chi (yang style, martial arts) and one yoga, as well as "Beedle the Bard" as gifts. We decided that, including my birthday, there was enough reason to go out to dinner to celebrate as well. Wrong choice. We ended up with food poisoning. Spent the next day, my birthday, vomiting. My youngest was in worse shape, being that he couldn't stop throwing up for over 10 hours. Even the cats were showing concern, clustered around the bathroom door where he was ensconced. I finally felt strong enough, late in the afternoon, to go out to the drug store to pick up some meds and gingerale for him so that he could at least rehydrate enough to sleep off the effects. Cost both of us our days' wages. Guess I could blame it on the solar eclipse if I wanted, although the one western astrologer who interprets Chinese astrology actually said that because Jupiter was the "lord of that eclipse", right on my natal sun, that it should bring great things into my life this year. We'll see. Looking back a year ago, I have to say my youngest and I are in better conditions than then. Baby steps, I guess. He went back to work the next day. I would have gone back too, only no work was scheduled for me on that or the next day. Or the next. Truth was I really needed to rest anyway, as my system sort of shut down in protest. Didn't actually feel well enough to move until today. Frustrating. Maybe the eclipse actions are to protect me from my own bad judgment or others'. Don't know, but it doesn't - or hasn't - stopped the bills from piling up either.
Last night we watched the movie "The Children of Huang Shi". It was based on the true story of a British journalist caught in China, when the Japanese invaded it during World War II. The movie dealt with the aftermath of the genocide in Nanking and the work that he did with a group of children orphaned by the atrocities. Despite it being such a difficult topic, the movie was actually quite uplifting. Reminded me again that there are a lot more important things to attend to in life other than work and cash flow issues. This too shall pass. Good night dear diary.
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