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By Adam, on June 10, 2013, at 10:57 am
80,000 Hours is a student run organization at Oxford University that helps people find a job or career in something that makes the world better. This is great for so many obvious reasons – but the one I love the most is that it shows how philosophy can be applied in your life everyday.
Do you want to spend 8 (or more) hours a day just earning a couple dollars when you can get paid to make the planet, people, and the world better?
According to the organization’s view of ethics-as-impact, a do-gooder job only “does good” insofar as you (Read more…)
By Adam, on May 9, 2013, at 12:08 pm In this TED Talk Dan Ariely presents his research into what motivates people to do work and how they feel about their workplace. The findings are interesting because it’s not necessarily what people do but the reactions to what has been done that provides motivation.
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on March 8, 2013, at 1:00 pm Men, especially white men, sleep too easily at night while women earn 70 per cent of what we do. Secretly, I think we’d prefer to not have to talk about this much. Sure, March 8 and December 6 are days we set aside for reflecting on this, but, most likely, we don’t want to be bothered with it every other day of the year. Plus, the NHL is back.
One conversation I have never had, goes like this. I’m in the lunchroom at work with a group of men discussing workplace realities. The topics drifts around to how women in (Read more…)
By Zoom!, on February 27, 2013, at 6:54 am
This is what my day looks like so far:
9:00-12:00 – all-staff meeting at work to do a SWOT analysis of the organization (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
2:00-3:30 – Conference Call
3:30 – meeting with funder
5:30-6:30 – House of Commons to watch Bill C-279 being debated. That’s the private member’s bill to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code with respect to gender identity and gender expression. (Or, as some notable Conservatives so crassly refer to it, the Bathroom Bill. They claim it will permit perverts to use the ladies’ room, where they will ambush
. . . → Read More: knitnut.net: A day in the life
By Adam, on February 12, 2013, at 10:28 am
The currently popular 40 hour work week is a fairly modern notion and it’s thanks to unions that we don’t have something like an 80 hour work week. Times have changed and now scientists in the field of biodemography have suggested that a 25 hour work week is optimal. It allows people to spend more time living life than working in exchange for working later than the currently popular age of retirement.
“In socio-economic terms it makes a lot of sense. The important thing is that we all put in a certain amount of work – not at what point
. . . → Read More: Things Are Good: The Ideal 25 Hour Work Week
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on January 30, 2013, at 12:00 pm
Should academic work be locked up like Disney[tm] artifacts?
I’ve been quite inspired by this very good analysis of the context surrounding Aaron Swartz’s suicide.
As news spread last week that digital rights activist Aaron Swartz had killed himself ahead of a federal trial on charges that he illegally downloaded a large database of scholarly articles with the intent to freely disseminate its contents, thousands of academics began posting free copies of their work online, coalescing around the Twitter hashtag #pdftribute.
via How academia betrayed and continues to betray Aaron Swartz « The Berkeley Blog.
The willingness of scholars
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Aaron Swartz, Intellectual Property and the Public Good
By thescottross.blogspot.com, on January 25, 2013, at 12:52 am On July 22 1848 beside stories of fighting in Paris and markets in England, the front page of The Globe featured this column. As I was reading I thought this article could be perhaps excused because the opinion it expressed was just popular at the time, after finishing, I’m glad it was.
Punch was a British satirical humour magazine named after one half of the infamous puppet duo, Punch and Judy.
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on January 21, 2013, at 12:00 pm Quack.
It’s 9am, do you know where your millennial employees are? No? No worries. It’s all good. They’re not factory chickens.
People who study characteristics of different generations have some incredibly important things to say about how different groups work. Organizations, however, are typically run by older people with their own generation-influenced work norms. Those that adapt to include younger generations more effectively will be more successful. And, no surprise, it seems that co-ops are structures that fit the work styles of millennials. Let’s explore the future of work, for organizations that figure it out in time!
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: How Millennials Can Improve Everyone’s Job Satisfaction
By Ron Brown, on January 18, 2013, at 4:22 am As students approach the completion of their university education some are excited to enter the “Real World”. Others are in no rush to “move on” – perhaps out of fear or uncertainty about their future, anticipatory nostalgia, or a keen awareness of what a uniquely special time the university years are.
University really can be a tremendously special time. Thousands of energetic, big-dreaming, hormone-charged, young adults for whom alcohol and pot are still exciting new adventures, all living away from home for the first time. An intellectual commune housed in a mixture of historic and state of the art buildings (Read more…)
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on January 3, 2013, at 12:00 pm On December 3, 2012 Politics, Re-Spun’s Stephen Elliott-Buckley spoke with Jarrah Hodge from Gender-Focus.com, exploring issues around feminism and labour, and:
labour unions the BC Federation of Labour temporary foreign workers migrant Chinese coal miners [reminiscent of how Canada built its railroad] improving justice and equality in the labour movement how the premier is doing in relating to women and women in work.
Listen to the podcast here: itpc://dgivista.org/pod/Vista_Podcasts.xml
Or you can listen to the mp3 file here: http://www.dgivista.org/pod/2012.12.03.Coop.Jarrah.Hodge.mp3
By Zoom!, on November 11, 2012, at 1:34 pm So far at my new job I’ve been immersing myself in reports and files and getting up to speed on the subject matter and my projects. The subject matter is fascinating but the projects are a little intimidating because there are so many, and some of them require skills I’m not sure I have, like [...] . . . → Read More: knitnut.net: First week of work, and a psychotic parrot episode
By Bill Longstaff, on November 7, 2012, at 2:15 pm In 1991, Linda Duxbury of Carleton University and Christopher Higgins of the University of Western Ontario conducted the first national study of work-life conflict in Canada to “explore how the changing relationship between family and work affects organizations, families and employers.” They repeated the study in 2001 and in 2012 have completed a third round. The study examined the work-life
By GroupThink ReSpun, on September 19, 2012, at 1:31 pm So, did you get a 3% raise last year? The average Canadian did. See the first chart below.
If not, you’re behind the average Canadian. And even with a small offset of increased hours worked going up by only 1% for the 12 months ending last June, at worst, the average Canadian saw a 2% raise. And if you want to see if people in your province earned even MORE than that 2%, scroll all the way down. Hint: only 3 provinces were below the average.
So did you get a 2% raise? If not, do you know who, politically,
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: So Did YOU Get a 3% Raise Last Year?
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on September 3, 2012, at 12:00 pm I was but wee when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It must have been quite trying: a feat of technological innovation, cooperative efforts by thousands of mostly anonymous people and the global fame of a few astonishingly brave people who would be willing to sit atop a huge bomb that, if working properly, would send them to the moon and back.
I used to dream of being NASA’s poet laureate in space. An easy dream because of its unlikeliness.
It must take a certain kind of crazy, aberrant behaviour to risk one’s life in the astronaut way, but when
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Bravery in a Time of Struggle
By Adam, on July 12, 2012, at 4:32 pm Thanks to modern technology it can be really easy to always be checking email and taking calls. This is great for some circumstances but it’s always important to take a break from being always-connected to work. In fact, it can be good for you!
Another trick: simply ask yourself “will anything bad really happen between 5pm and 6am if I turn my back on my inboxes completely?” To save your own life, create your own list of “tricks” and of rules to impose on yourself. Some of mine that work: • Switch gears: When tired of “project A,” switch
. . . → Read More: Things Are Good: Keep Sane by not Working
By Zoom!, on June 11, 2012, at 9:55 am
I got laid off last week; today’s my first day of unemployment. There were three weeks remaining on my three-month contract, but we started running out of international tax returns a couple of weeks ago. One day the work cart was empty. They sent us all home without pay for a day, and warned us layoffs were looming. They said the shortage of work was due to a combination of factors, such as the downturn in the world economy and the increasingly automated tax-filing environment.
It’s only three weeks out of my contract, and three weeks isn’t going to make
. . . → Read More: knitnut.net: I got laid off again
By mollymew, on May 26, 2012, at 11:18 pm DRIVIN’ ROUND WINNIPEG:I HOPE THEY NEVER COME BACK TO LIFE: A lot of my work days are consumed with driving across Winnipeg. After 28 years of doing this job I think that I know more about the City than the average cab driver. Interesting stuff some times. Today I had another attempted car jacking when a perp attempted to open the passenger side door. Locked, ha ha ! Perp travels to the drivers side and tries to beg money. The perp responded to the proper English of “NO, go the fuck away” without any graphic details about how I (Read more…)
By Jasmin Mujanovic, on May 22, 2012, at 9:21 pm Now Available from AK Press & your local Infoshop!
The touchstone for many of the struggles currently enveloping us—from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement to the events in the Quebec—is the question of how far our conception of democracy extends and especially as it relates to the economic (dis)organization our respective societies and the world as a whole. A new generation of youth, in particular, have discovered that as it concerns “the free market,” the parameters of the debate are narrow, indeed. In fact, what our media and our governments increasingly insist upon is that no matter how
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Book Review: “The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics”
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on May 7, 2012, at 12:26 pm Below is a recent tweet from a new worker/NDP/union attack Twitter i.d. talking about how awful unionized workers are. Read it, then let’s de-spin it for sanity:
Average salary in BC $44k, average teacher salary $70k bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/ #Underpaid #Overworked #Lies #BCPoli #BCNDP #BCTF
via Twitter / @NotBCNDP: Average salary in BC $44k, ….
Firstly, teachers have at least a four year university degree, plus an extra year of teacher training. The average working person in BC doesn’t have that much training.
Secondly, the average years of experience for teachers is over 12. That puts them at
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: More Worker Bashing in BC, with Squishy Numbers
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on April 28, 2012, at 4:56 pm Ben Isitt is a Victoria city councillor, historian, professor, lawyer and optimist.
Rarely have I been so moved by an account of the struggle working people have in the face of this new world order of anti-worker 1%ism.
We are so effectively trained to accept the balance of power is heavily tilted towards employers and employer-friendly/funded governments that we miss out on obvious things like our own rights.
So let’s not tolerate any more mill explosions, indifferent employers and governments, and neglected health and safety training.
Here is the text of the speech I gave at Victoria’s Day of Mourning
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Let’s Have an End to People Dying at Work
By Jasmin Mujanovic, on April 26, 2012, at 5:53 pm Carrément dans le rouge.
Just a quick memo to Canada’s vocal, reactionary minority (with vast over-representation on online forums and comments sections): the students in Quebec do not care that you think they are: “spoiled brats,” “crazy,” “anarchists,” “communists,” and/or “French” (?!). Your moaning and complaining is absolutely and utterly vacuous. Why? Because the students, unlike you, are actually mobilized and organized and are standing up for their rights. You, on the other hand, are sitting down for plutocracy. They are expanding our conception of what democratic politics ought to entail. They are engaging in the fundamental
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Montreal Calling: On the “Quebec Spring” & its Enemies
By Zoom!, on April 23, 2012, at 6:16 am
At my new job, I phone people. Don’t you think that’s ironic? I’m phonophobic, yet somehow I ended up with a job that involves phoning taxpayers all over the world and asking them questions in an effort to sort out their residency and world income and so on. I didn’t even find out that that was what I would be doing until I showed up for training.
There’s more to it than that. I phone them and ask them questions, and then I process some of their paperwork. I have a big flowchart in a binder. If A then
. . . → Read More: knitnut.net: I actually kind of like my new job
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on April 18, 2012, at 4:00 am Before I get into my increasingly radical antipathy towards the NHL and NHLPA and their callous disregard for brain injury risks, I’d like you to spend a few moments watching this gratuitous display of intent to injure at a bantam hockey game in Kelowna last month involving teenagers. It will properly explain what I am about to say about the NHL and its embrace of callous violence.
More after the jump below.
When hockey transforms into a sick, disgusting decay in the direction of Rollerball to the point where teenagers are running goalies with elbows to the head, it is
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Boycott the National Headshot League (#NHL)
By matttbastard, on April 15, 2012, at 5:17 pm Via Ryan Grim (ICYMI):
Apparently Ann Romney forgot to mention to Willard that moms who don’t work outside the home do THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN THE WORLD!!!1 and already have ample dignity, thankyouverymuchyousupersexistsoand…
oh, wait — Mittens meant those moms — y’know, the ones who can’t afford dignity.
Sorry. They gotsta earn their Caddies (if not teh car elevators).
Related: Pay no attention to the ongoing war on women voting.
. . . → Read More: bastard.logic: Etch-A-Mitt Shakes Things Up Again: Welfare Moms Better Off With “The Dignity of Work”
By Zoom!, on April 10, 2012, at 6:09 am
CCOC (Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation) wasn’t just a nice place to work. It turned out to be a nice place to leave, too.
On my last day of work, they took me out for a lovely lunch and presented me with a swap box (!) filled with goodies like antique office supplies and a bird’s nest candle and True Stories of Hope and Inspiration. They also gave me a genuine CCOC recycling bag and an honest-to-God CCOC plunger.
Whenever a new tenant moves into one of their apartments, CCOC gives them a housewarming gift, which includes a
. . . → Read More: knitnut.net: Heartwarming goodbyes
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