A Great Big Thank You

As many of you are aware I lost my bracelet. So today I want to say a big thank you to my friend Derren. He knew just how much that bracelet meant to me and so he went out and made one for me. It even has a clasp making it much harder for me to lose. So thank you for that! :o)

Pause, Stop and Think

Ever since I got my cable fixed I have been subscribed to the military channel. I have such eclectic tastes I tell you. Hours of viewing pleasure. Any ways I was watching one show not that long ago called Combat Zone. It looks at specific battles that have occurred in history. This particular episode was on the "Triangle of Death" in Iraq.

What stood out to me wasn't the attacks by the insurgents or the changing face of modern warfare. The main focus was on the first ever democratic election. The US soldiers were protecting the polls allowing people to vote. They would not allow cars for fear of car bombs. So people had to walk in. And still they came. The insurgents continued to attack.. with mortar fire and live rounds. And still they came. These people risked their lives to come out and vote. 70% turned out to vote. In spite of it all these people had the courage to get out and vote.

Kind of puts us to shame. The last election I did get out and vote... but it wasn't because I really felt inspired to do so. I only voted because I was walking right by the polling station any ways. I still felt like it was an inconvenience and it was right down the street. Not like I had to contend with gunfire or anything. It was apathy. I didn't feel like it mattered. Political parties to me equal corruption and none of their platforms really seemed relevant to me. Stories like these really make me stop and think. I take for granted the fact I live in a democratic society and the freedom that comes with it. Perhaps it would be good to keep this in mind the next time there is an election.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Widget

Cat's Best Friend

In a previous post I mentioned that I went grocery shopping the other day. I was at Zellers and decided to pick up some catnip for Azrael. I hadn't bought him any treats or toys in a while. And my paycheque was higher then expected. So why not? I was putting away the groceries and normally he loves to play with the shopping bags. This time he could smell the catnip. So he was trying to get into it. I had to go down to IGA as well. I debated taking it away from him but he had not been able to open the package and I wasn't going to be long.

I am sure that you can see where this is going. I come home and Azrael greets me at the door like usual. As I pet him I am wondering why he's dirty. Then I see the carpet. He got into the catnip all right. It's now spread all over the floor.

I was sitting down and trying to figure out what to do. I didn't want to just vacuum it all up but it's not like cat nip is all that easy to get off the carpet. I was watching and instead of going after what was already on the floor Azrael was trying to get the remnants out of the bag. Eventually I had to get up what I could and put it out of his reach.

He really enjoyed it and I am glad that I could do that for him. I am wondering though how bad it is that I am my cat's drug dealer and am promoting him getting stoned. *lol*

Public Holidays

Back in February was Family Day.... the newest public holiday in Ontario. Initially, I had been banking on getting double time and a half for the day since when asked my supervisor said that they don't give lieu days for any of the holidays. So imagine my surprise when I find out that they are going with a lieu day this time. It does cost them less because it's a day off with pay, rather then 1.5x your wages plus the pay for working the day.

So I requested that my lieu day be a Saturday in March. I was hoping that this would guarantee I wouldn't be working on the anniversary of when I was fired from Minacs. My days off had consistently been Thursday and Friday but it was always possible that the scheduler might do something other then copy & paste for the schedule. Plus it was the only way I was ever going to get a Saturday off. Then Bill got a note saying that they were going to assign the day off. What he said is that he had already submitted the request so we would just be waiting to see if it was given. Now when the schedule was released it wasn't on there. That really didn't mean anything since as I mentioned whoever does the scheduling just copied and pasted the schedule from the week before. So I asked Bill and the next thing I know I have the day off. So at this point I was assuming that it was being used as the lieu day.

Have I mentioned the guy that does scheduling really likes to copy and paste? The following week my schedule still had 3 days off. Now the week before had been the Easter weekend so I knew I had an extra day's pay there. I knew that getting an extra day off.... when my paycheque would remain th same size... was not an opportunity that presented itself very often. So I decided to capitalize on it. Then the following week I still had three days off... I wasn't going to take it... and then with the contract loss I got the time off any ways.

Get paid and low and behold it wasn't on there. Now when I first found out I was at home and not about to go all the way to work to get my pay stub and confirm what I already suspected. First day of training I went down to HR and was reminded that to work in HR (at least here any ways) people skills are not a job requirement. They couldn't find the pay stub and the person that would have it had called in sick. So the next day I was back... and got my pay stub. Sure enough I wasn't paid. When I tried to ask I got cut off and told to talk to Bill. When I went to ask Bill he said that he had told me I might not get paid for the day and that it was a personal request day. Talk about BS and covering his own ass. He never said that. He told me that they were assigning the days off but also said that it might go through since he put the request in before he got that memo. Then he said to let him know if they hadn't paid it out within the 3 months.

At that point I gave up. Since they hadn't paid it out I figured I might as well just enjoy the fact now they owed me yet another day off. If they pay it out it has to be with the shit premium. Otherwise they have to give me the day off with pay. No complaints there. Now you would think that since Bill is a supervisor (and was my supervisor) he would be looking into what they are going to do since it has to be given to me by May 17. That's coming up pretty quickly. Otherwise, it's a violation of the employment standards act. Having said that, it's not like the Ministry of Labour is all that speedy. Took 8 months for them to open my last investigation with my former employer. The real issue is that we will still be training until then. Granted we will be on the floor before the date passes. T-Mobile has a policy that if you miss more then 16 hours then you're out. I'm not sure if that is just in class hours... and I don't think that I will be missing that but if you take away the 8 hours for the lieu day then I really can't miss any time.

It's not like I haven't given them outs. I booked the day off a month after the holiday. Even gave them the chance to correct that and just pay for the day (not the premium wages) knowing that we were going to be in training until their time runs out. Even asked them about paying out the lieu day as one of the days I missed instead of vacation time. That was more for their benefit then mine. I was getting paid for the day regardless... but thought it would be easier for them.

Now I am half tempted to just do nothing... After all I can pretty much guarantee that the 3 months will come and go and I won't get the day off. But at the same time I just want what I am entitled to and don't want to fight for it. I am concerned that if I don't hound them for it I'll get lost in the shuffle and lose the day completely. After all I was switched to a new contract in there.... Or if I leave I'll end up fighting them for the pay. When Heather comes back from vacation I am going to ask her to look into it. If there is still no answer then I am just going to leave it.... until the 3 months has gone by. Then I'll be asking what happened to my day off. See what they say then.

Small Ray of Sunshine

I am still adjusting to the day shifts. It's so odd to see daylight again. This morning I slept in until Azrael jumped up on the bed any ways. He was my wake up call. I must say that the timing of it all was actually not such a bad thing. In winter there isn't a whole lot of sunlight and it was so cold that I didn't want to be outside. Now it's gorgeous weather outside. On Friday after work I took a long walk down to Chapters and the grocery store. It's also good because I am walking to work. I am not a fan of the cold and would much prefer to hibernate in the winter.

Monday payroll went in. The question had been raised about using vacation days to cover the 2 days that we lost. There was no response from HR. I guess, much like with everything else, they were still working on it. So we asked Heather, the trainer, about it. When we went on lunch she went to HR. The initial answer was no because they don't pay out the vacation pay. But then Heather realized that it wasn't that we were asking to pay it out... but to cover the days that we had missed. So back to HR she went... In the end she contacted the site director and after about an hour and a half had been told that we would all get vacation time for Monday and if we were scheduled to work Saturday then we would also get vacation pay for then as well. I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. That's a difference of $160. And with that pay cheque I had to cover my tax return.

Then on Wednesday we got our pay stubs. I am now cautiously optimistic. They kept us at our original rate... Well the shift premium was obviously excluded but that extra 75 cents is an extra $30 a week. That adds up pretty quickly and makes the difference between being able to pay bills and not being able to. I am scared that on the next pay cheque they will say that it was an error and take it away. I'm pretty sure if they try that there will be a cry of outrage. But we'll see. I wouldn't put anything past them at this point. Either way I did get paid the extra and am hopeful that it will continue.

What a Day, Part 2

So yesterday was fun.... today didn't start off much better. I didn't go to bed until 4. I couldn't completely give up the night shift routine quite yet, especially since I have plans first thing in the morning. I woke up at about midnight but didn't want to get out of bed yet. So I went back to sleep.

I woke up to an argument. Now I live in an apartment building so it's not that uncommon. But what jarred me awake was when I heard "Don't hit me." And then "I think you just broke my nose." I was suddenly awake. Not the way I wanted to start my day. So then I was trying to figure out what apartment it was coming from... or if it was outside. And the more I listened the more violent it seemed to become. Time to call the police. Now from the sounds of it I got the apartment wrong since I wasn't the only one that called.

Talk about the adrenaline rushing. I don't want to be a witness to this. I just don't want it to happen at all. 2 hours later and I am finally calm again. Not a good way to start the day.

What a Day, Part 1

Remember how I said I was going to Blog about life shortly? It really had not been dramatic until I said that. Well work had involved some drama.... Then it all just hit the fan.

Yesterday night it started like any other day. Woke up at 9:30 when the alarm went off. Stayed in bed. Fell asleep again. Then got woken up by the alarm. Azrael came bounding into the room and up onto the bed. Nice to know he's my secondary alarm clock. Figure I've got some time to give him attention I curl up with him and then look at the clock. Discover it's 10:30. Oops, time to get up. Okay so that part wasn't as normal. Get up, get dressed, and head off to work.

At midnight it's time to login like usual. Except that there are no managers on duty. For some things I am sure that you could do the job without a manager but not tech support. We need someone to answer questions and authorize escalations. So we all logged in and went into Aux. Around 1 Stu and I had been discussing things and decided that we should go talk to the team leaders for the other contract before they left at 2. It's all about CYA. I was under the impression that we were not allowed to take calls without a supervisor on duty to approve escalations and in case of emergency. So we wander downstairs and leave while they try to reach our team leader... or really anyone that can make a decision and hopefully get someone in. One of the team leaders comes upstairs to find out if we had any idea who was supposed to be here. We just work here. The other team leader was calling the site director after not being able to reach Bill. So at about 1:30 the two team leaders come upstairs with word from the site director that we are to take calls. The question comes up about escalations... We're told to use Bill's name which I still think is fraudulent. The approval is supposed to be based on someone being there to answer questions if necessary about it.... Any ways they call Montreal to confirm but never get back to us. I should also mention that when told to take calls it turned into a confrontation. Some of us scattered so as not to be associated with it. I got pulled off the phones for having the most technical ability. I was just there to answer questions. Immediately I had 3 people that refused to take calls without a supervisor. So 2 people were logged in and another was rolling the queue to avoid calls. Then I had Montreal call wanting me to tell them to take calls. Now they had been told and I can't force them. For the next hour I had to listen to them justify their decision not to take calls and bitch about the whole situation. Had one of them playing mini-lawyer threatening to take the company to the human rights commission. For what? I was pretty happy when they decided to leave. They left at 3... going by the 3 hour rule. Now the 3 hour rule in the Employment Standards Act refers to you being sent home in less then 3 hours. They were not sent home... They left voluntarily. So I'm not sure how the 3 hour rule even applies here. Any ways they left and then at 5 Mr. Negativity finished his shift and left as well. That left 2 people taking calls for the rest of the night. The shift couldn't end soon enough.

I should've known something was up when the Ops manager showed up at about 7:30.... and then one of the team leaders who had been MIA also made an appearance.... Seems he had called the acting supervisor and no one knows what happened there. Then the HR generalist showed up. They sat the 3 of us down and told us that with all the issues we've had with the tools and the fact the call volume just isn't there they are closing down the Sympatico contract and moving it all to Montreal. Last day here will be April 4. How is that for notice?

So what does that mean? Well there is a T-Mobile training group starting on Monday. So they're offering us a job with them. I am not going to lie and say that I am happy about it. Rotating shifts.... Less pay... Billing issues with a cell-phone.... No more emails at night/You Tube/Facebook... About the only good thing is the 6 days off before it starts. That and the fact training is 8 weeks long. Training is always the easy part. But it's from 7 - 3.... not exactly a nice shift for me. I'm still processing the whole situation and where we go from here.

Saving Lives Just for Future Problems?

Yes I have had too much time on my hands this morning.... I need something to keep me awake at the moment. And I hadn't updated in a while and kept seeing news articles that I wanted to comment on. This will likely be my last update for today.... and next time it might actually be on my own life and what's going on there.

Back in the 1970s when I was born it was abnormal for babies born as prematurely as I was to live. I was 9 weeks early. I was born with respiratory distress and severely underweight. But spent enough time in an incubator to survive. I'm resilient, what can I say. Kind of like cockroaches here. But any ways.

There has now been a long term study that looked at premature babies born from 1967 to 1988 compared to full-term births. Preemies tend to have higher death rates in childhood, and are more likely to be childless. While the overall risk was low children who were born 5-9 weeks early showed a doubled risk of death from ages 1-5 compared to those born at full-term. Boys were even more likely to die then girls. Prematurity was also linked to lower education. The question asked by the study leader is "Are we improving their survival at the expense of significant problems down the road?"

Stamped Apple

It's all about the Brands.... Logos... Brand images... Loyalty... What's in a brand? What comes to mind when you think of certain companies? Nike... Pepsi... Wal-Mart... Sony... Etc. We all have our opinions on these companies and it's based on their ability (or inability) to brand.

The web site BrandChannel had a poll to find out which companies had the greatest impact on consumer's lives. Apple won the award taking 6 different categories, including most inspiring and the one readers could not live without. Other inspiring brands included Nike, Coca-Cola, Google and Starbucks.

Microsoft, on the other hand, had the dubious honor that it was the one company that respondents were most likely to argue with and the brand that needed to be revamped the most.

I have mixed emotions about the survey.... But that's also because I have a love/hate relationship with Apple. I spent much of my last 2 days off troubleshooting my computer so it doesn't really endear me to them all that much. Especially since the issue seems to be related to an update that was done. I hate troubleshooting.... At the moment it does seem to be working so that's a good thing. But it seems that, at least for this survey, Apple reigns supreme.

Free for the Taking... or Maybe Not

More news here.... Also from Yahoo. I was reading about a hoax on Craigslist and it is kind of scary. Someone posted an ad on Craigslist indicating that the owner had to leave the area suddenly and all the belongings were free for the taking. Too bad the owner really wasn't leaving town. He came back to people loading their cars full of his stuff. Even had to fight with some of them that it was his stuff and that he wasn't leaving. Really brings to light the mentality that if it's on the internet it must be true. Gotta wonder just how much he pissed someone off for them to do that. Makes me want to make sure that I do not piss anyone off that much.

Water, Water Everywhere

But not a drop to drink... I was checking out the news the other day and they had an article on the drinking water. In 15 southern Ontario municipalities they found traces of painkillers and other drugs. Samples taken from downstream of a sewage outfall were the most contaminated while samples taken from lakes had low but still detectable level of the drugs. In samples taken from wells they did not find any traces of the drugs. The article went on to say that sewage treatment plants are not designed to remove drugs. Now since some of the drugs they were testing for were painkillers does that mean I don't need a prescription or to buy some Advil? Maybe I should just pour a glass of tap water.... Mmmm tasty....

Almost makes me want to buy bottled water actually. But then a lot of companies claim you're getting pure water... when really it's no better then tap water. In some cases it really is tap water. *Cough* Dasani *Cough, Cough* Kind of makes me want to pick up my nice, shiny red can then since at least then it has all kinds of other additives and I know what I am getting into.