Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Labor Laws and Unscrupulous Senior Executives

Wow...

I'm now realizing just how bad some of the people are in the world at running things... and how little some people have in terms of knowledge.

Belittling people about their positions based on their work on something they have never touched before? Smells like harassment charges.

Screaming wildly in meetings, not wanting to listen or understand how the company makes money? Smells like low IQ, or not wanting to actually make money with the company.

Not setting foot in the office more than once a quarter, or showing a working way to make people want to work, and then complain that the sales department is not doing it's job? Grow up and do your job instead of complaining, MR CEO.

Fact is, someone who is more engaged in the well being of the workers and have an intimate knowledge of what makes money in the company, will be more successful than someone who curse the day they stepped into the office. And while it is possible to do so remotely, you have a better chance doing it with more frequent visits than once a quarter.

I was planning on waiting to see what EI had to say about things before looking, but it seems like I am about to find myself a labor lawyer and have my previous contract examined under Quebec Law.

Any Quebec Ex-Workers want to join in? :)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Setting Goals and Having Fun

Once upon a time, I was overheard muttering the following words:

"I hate Blogging.... I always forget to post regularly..."

Clearly, I was not overstating reality, or writing a large work of fiction when I uttered those words - they are simply true.

So this will be a general update and dump of my mind and emotions right now... so if you had expected something serious (or something in Swedish.. sorry Mom), please stop reading. I've been pretty casual and my mind I think have been cluttered up with too much relaxation to have been able to spawn a generally serious thought....

#Begin Dump/Mental Enema

Unemployment and Opportunistic Employers

Wow... yea this is one beef I've been wanting to squeeze out for a long time, but thought I'd be civil about it and give people opportunity to correct them self. But after pouring 4+ years of my life into something I did not fully believe in myself, I find it lacking that there is people out there in the world that think they can control things by screaming and belittle people around them.

I'm also sad to say I wish the former employer had never gone through with the sale of the company, and especially to someone who clearly had no clue about the important thing in the industry. Or if they did, they did not bother to follow what decent people would think they should care of anyway...

Am I vague enough for lawyers and anyone seriously reading this in the hopes of squash any claim to my potential 3k-4k of (in my opinion) missing severance? Well... I've moved on. So I hope both the CEO and the CFO can go about their master plan* of closing down the Montreal office and getting rid of the front people that actually make sure that there is any money at all going into the company. Oops... was that my outside voice?? Well.. guess Normes du Travail don't read my blog, so they should be safe.

(* No actual knowledge of any master plan exist - I just go on my observation and what I've seen of the action of the two. )


Opening My Own Business

I have to say that it's always been my dream to create something of my own, or run something for myself... something that depends on me alone (or as the boss) and to be able to set my own hours. What is getting painfully clear to me at this moment on, is that I will never be able to do this from within Quebec.

"But you can cater to Anglophones only..." or "Then why not move out from the province, silly?" are both things I've told myself could work.. but I'm a realist at heart, something some people seem to not understand. Realist, and a Swede. If I cant do something, fine.. let me wallow in my misery and after that find something else to pine about. Just dont make me pissed, cause we all know that the Angry Swede(tm) is a mighty force, only standing second to the mighty Mother Nature... (or an annoyed wife that wont take more bitching about how everyone should learn English so I can service them with my awesome company, despite region).


Job Opportunities

In my whole life, I've had the great (mis)fortune of always applying to one place and getting it. If I've applied to several opportunities, the first one would always be the one that first contacted me and ended up giving an offer I could either not resist, or was enough to figure "I can live on that" and see what happens.

When I came to Canada, it was pretty much the same... I was doing my hunting before hand, initiated my profile on the job search sites and was getting calls directly after, with the first company that was fast enough to make an offer be the one I got into. At the same time, informing everyone else that called that I was "off the market, since I already accepted an offer".

Now recently, I started hunting again... and my predictable pattern of behavior shattered when I applied for two jobs at the same time. You see - I was having some problems with sending my CV through my mail, and ended up writing both letter to two companies at the same time, sending it off at virtually the same time as well.

Some might at this point ask.. "So?", and would probbaly kill me when I mentioned that again, one company was fast in all the interviews and scouring through my history and references, and offered me a pretty nice position. I'm sure I would have had no problems at all in that new and exciting field... but at the same time I was having interviews with the second company. This second company took their time, and did not have an actual interview until two days after I got my offer... at which point I had to accept or turn down the first offer.

At this point, there are moments where I'm beating myself to a pulp for not going with the sure thing I had firm on paper. But after that interview with the second company, I was faced with the problem of either accepting a lesser paid job I had in my hand, or one that paid up to 25% more and required travel.

People kept telling me to take the job anyway, keep silent about the continuing process with the second job and then leave if I got it... but thats not me. That has never been me and I refuse to believe I might end up like that in the future. Not this Swede!

So there.. if I don't get this second job, I will go out and burn $300 I don't have on strong alcohol and really be hammered. T & G, feel free to drag me out and make sure the shots keep coming if that happens!



Depressed or Lonely?

I think the hardest part of getting laid off was coming to the realization that I don't have a social life and I'm a miserable fat guy, too depending on a computer to feel alive. My limited social life have always been work, or in the off chance I had friends nearby, the geeky friends I played various games with in a social setting.

So - should I be depressed or just feel lonely? Not very appealing options, eh? (<-- Blatant Canadian thing.) Bah! I'll just ignore myself and go frag some Spetznats Infantry or Tanks as an SAS Apache Heli Ace Pilot on my favorite Ghost Town server.


Movie Trailers that Rock

Well... what can I say. The Iron Man trailer is really making me want to fast forward to May 2, 2008.


#End Dump/Mental Enema


Well.. that was sufficiently depressing, wasn't it? :)

A lesson to learn: The Division Bell is mighty powerful very, very late at night and might make you write things you normally should not dump into blogs.