Because I spent the past year more or less in a sandbox, I was not aware of the fact that the employment rate has gone up. But I'm not too embarrassed: 65 per cent of Canadians polled on the CBC site haven't noticed any signs of its growth (perhaps they were all on mat leave too, like me). Either way, according to Job growth: Do you see signs of rising employment? the labour market has improved since July 200. Employment has risen by 1.8 per cent.

I decided to investigate a little further. According to Job numbers climb, unemployment rate steady: StatsCan, jobs that have seen the numbers go up in May were in warehousing industries, health care, social assistance and public assistance. The
Toronto Sun reports that Canadian companies have also hired more people than they fired, for the fifth month in a row since the beginning of the year. There are more full-time jobs and the private sector that fuels national business is doing much better. Although our Southern neighbours aren't doing as well, we here in Canada seem to be recovering from the recent recession.

I don't know about you but I can still feel the remnants of the recession's chilly breath and, although I'm relieved to find out about these numbers, I do remain cautiously optimistic.

Jowita

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

Canadian workers often complain that we don't get enough vacation time. When compared with some of our European counterparts, who often start out with four weeks of vacation and quickly move up to eight, the Canadian two-week minimum seems a bit stingy. For some zealous workers, however, even two weeks of R&R is too much. Welcome to the life of a workaholic.

The Globe and Mail has revealed that a non-stop workaholic might not view a little vacay as a welcome treat. Finding ways to fill up one's free time while attempting to stop thinking about work can actually lead to real misery.

I wonder, though, whether some of us are teetering on the brink of "workaholism" because our employers are pushing us closer and closer to the edge. How many of us are expected to take calls and answer emails while we’re in the middle of feeling the grass between our toes? Yes, we're on vacation but work never really seems to go away. And how many times have you heard someone say, "I was away from work for two weeks and now have 2,000 emails to sift through?" Returning to work and finding a list of clients waiting to hear from you, a bunch of reports to catch up on, and a pile of papers all marked urgent can make you want to swear off vacation for good.

With companies having tightened their belts and pared down their list of employees during the recession, it looks like room for vacation may have shrunk too. Sure, you can take your two weeks off -- just make sure you're ready to put in some overtime when you come back.

Veronica

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

I do admit that I drag my feet to work on Monday mornings, but I never thought I was taking my life into my own hands until today when I almost got flattened by a school bus. You see, I walk along a one-way street -- eastward in the morning and westward at night. Twice a day, I am faced with the difficult task of crossing the intersection where two one-way streets come head-to-head as cars from both lines of traffic make their way south.

I'm as experienced at crossing the street as I am at working on Mondays. I enter the intersection with great care and by now know that Mondays are eventually followed by a Friday, But what happened this morning upset the order of things. As I was cautiously entering the dreaded intersection, a big -- what I always thought of as friendly -- yellow school bus charged at me.

The bus did stop when the driver saw me waving a threatening fist but left me a little shocked. It has shaken all of life's truths -- school buses are not necessarily friendly and, if you're not careful making your way to work on Monday, Friday may never come. Of course, there's only one solution to this problem: forget about coming to work on Mondays.

Josée

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

Last week was my first day at work after a year-long “break” during which I cared for my new baby. To use a cliché, raising a baby is (hard) work but I was getting a little desperate after having to belt out the Itsy Bitsy Spider on request for the 10,000th time in a row… So I was looking forward to being back at 9 to 5, believe it or not.

I left the house in plenty of time. I live right on the subway and streetcar lines, but at the end of my journey, there I was, sprinting to the office like a madwoman to make the finish line. What happened? Well, the streetcars were all late and half of them were not in service. We got stuck in traffic. It was raining. I was sliding all over the place in my summer rubber-soled shoes. The umbrella capitulated in the wind. It was great. Not.

Anyway, I did make it but, once at my desk, I found out that some of the systems were down, people couldn’t log in, the Internet wasn’t working, and – the biggest shock! – I didn’t exist (in the system). “I don’t exist,” I announced to my co-workers. “Well, I guess you won’t get a paycheque then,” quipped Kathy O. and we laughed and laughed.

I’m happy to report that I do exist after all and that I’m now contentedly installed back at Possibilities. That disastrous morning is already fading into the ether of the past. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m having an okay time readjusting, and all I can tell you right now is that yes, I’m fine. I do miss the itsy bitsy spider that climbed up the water spout, and it’ll take a while to get used to good ol’ perils of public transit, but it’s still great to be back.

Jowita

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

If you've got a bee in your bonnet to work the land, living in Canada's largest metropolis isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. Although farming opportunities don't exactly abound here, the movement towards local food, means more and more city dwellers are saving money on food by growing their own. And a few even make money off their enterprises.

For instance, some Toronto beekeepers bring in extra cash by selling honey. The big smoke is apparently a hive of beekeeping activity with city dwellers sheltering the stinging insects in their backyards, balconies and rooftops. Toronto even has a Pollinator's Festival where you can learn all you ever wanted to know about the life of a honey bee.

If you're turned off by the idea of donning a full-body beekeepers suit, don't get discouraged. You can raise less dangerous (not to mention less sugary) crops without stepping out of your eighth-floor apartment. Just set up a vertical, hydroponic, high-yield "edible window garden."

Of course, if you're feeling cooped up in your condo or apartment, a windowfarm won't do -- you'll need an earthier option. Luckily, websites, such as Shared Earth or Sharing Backyards, can link you to land owners willing to let you farm their backyards or plots of land for a portion of your crops.

And, if you want to make a serious living growing food, consider managing a franchise for Young Urban Farmers, which installs garden boxes containing healthy munchies, like radishes, carrots and peas, for clients.

There are even options for small-scale chicken farming if you're willing to flout the City of Toronto's prohibition against keeping hens. A clandestine farmer, going by the name of Toronto Chicken, is doing her darnedest to promote chicken-raising here. (In fact, she's persuaded her city councillor to push to have the ban lifted.) Not only has this resourceful chicken lady set up a website about keeping chickens, she's lined up a number of "safe houses" that she and her brood can go to in neighbouring hen-friendly Brampton if things start heating up.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to smuggle chickens on the GO train, but my hat goes off to all those with the initiative to bring the farm to the city.

kathyo

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

As summer begins to unfold in Toronto, many of us are thinking about embarking on a little vacation to get away from it all. But what if, instead of scheduling in some R&R on your break from the daily grind, you sign up to do more work? Scary idea, isn't it? But for Brian Kurth, founder of Vocation Vacations, trying out a new job while on vacation from your current one is an exciting adventure.

Vocation Vacations is a company that specializes in career mentorship for individuals who are considering a career transition. With over 125 careers to explore, from alpaca rancher to pit crew member to wine sommelier, the program could be an avenue leading you to your dream job. It's an opportunity, however, that comes with a hefty price tag: most two-day mentoring blocks cost between $849 and $1099. Sounds like this might be a vacation for the rich!

Although the cost of the Vocation Vacations experience may be exorbitant, thus gearing the program to more affluent individuals who are trying on a new career for kicks, experimenting with different jobs is an idea worth pursuing. It's sort of like sampling a few flavours of ice cream before committing to an entire cone. While a job may look great on paper, you might find that it's not all you dreamed it would be once you hunker down to work. But if you start out with just a taste, you're not bound to an ultimately unsavoury position.

With more and more people holding multiple careers in their lifetimes, it would be great if opportunities to test drive different livelihoods were more readily available. In the absence of such opportunities, why not create your own? Volunteering or job shadowing, for example, can determine whether a particular career or industry strikes your fancy. By finding ways to sample a new job, you may find your favourite occupational flavour and be on your way to savouring a brand new career.

Veronica

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

It seems that every time the topic of job searching has come up lately, the question has been raised, should one "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God?"

I recently attended a session on how to complete an online application. Many large employers are using this method for screening potential candidates and I was interested in understanding the ins and outs of the process. The instructor stressed the importance of checking all the boxes that match the requirements listed in the job posting. If you don't, you're out of the game. In fact, there's no point applying at all. When you have the choice between lying about your skills and forgetting about the posting, lying becomes an attractive proposition, especially when you know that you can do the job and easily acquire the missing skill. Why should you exclude yourself from the competition because of an unbending and unthinking automated system? "The important thing is to get that interview," the instructor insisted.

My son, who has been trying to find a summer job for the last few weeks, was advised by his friends to beef up his resumé a little and come up with fake references. They even offered their phone numbers as reference contacts. That's handy!

A co-worker, who was unemployed last year, told me that she started leaving her M.A. out of her resumé from fear of being seen as overqualified and quickly disqualified. Can you blame people for omitting information that limits their chances of getting a job?

Whether it's omitting to mention important facts or manipulating the truth to make it look better (such as only including the year worked in your employment history even if it was a four-month stint or a part-time job), it appears that "that the current economic climate and the resulting competition for jobs could push candidates to bend the facts in their favour," research carried out in the UK deduced.

But, how much are you willing to bend the truth? Does it depend on how bent you are? There's a big difference between a little white lie that presents the facts in an advantageous light and a bold lie. Or, does it depend on how desperate you are and the implications of your lie. Saying that you know CPR for a lifeguard position is different than making up a reference to get a dishwashing job.

The hiring process is frustrating for job seekers. It is very competitive, often complicated and has become very impersonal. No wonder people feel obliged to play around with facts or to simply lie. Only your conscience can guide you.

Josée

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

In honour of Pac-Man's 30th anniversary, Google featured a playable version of the popular '80s video game on its home page on Friday, May 21. Pretty much anyone with a pulse and a computer gave the game a go at least once.

According to a blog posted by RescueTime, an automated time tracking and management tool, the average user spent 36 seconds more on Google.com on Friday compared with previous Fridays. Doesn't sound like much, but when you add it all up, Google Pac-Man consumed 4,819,352 hours of our time with a price tag of $120,483,800. That's a lot of quarters.

So, does this mean it's game over for workplace productivity? Should bosses start implementing means to keep employees focussed? Despite the seemingly outrageous loss of time and money associated with the Pac-Man game, I still have to answer those questions with a resounding "no!"

I used to work for a company that made each employee fill out a time sheet every day, indicating how much of our eight-and-a-half hour shift was spent on particular tasks. Half an hour doing email, two and a quarter hours working on a file for client A, half an hour at lunch, et cetera, et cetera. We were promised that the time sheets were merely intended to help figure out which clients were demanding most of our time, but I couldn't help but feel that it was management's way of keeping tabs on us. To be honest, I don't think it curbed the amount of time people spent watching YouTube videos or talking about their weekends. It only ended up making many of us resentful.

Being a conscientious individual, I sneer at the plethora of time trackers found online -- from Toggl to AllNetic to TimePanic. While these tools may be useful for self-employed people who need to track where their time goes, I would be miserable if my boss foisted one upon me. As far as I'm concerned, the end goal is to get all your work done on time. Having to account for each minute spent at work only breeds distrust between staff and management.

There are innovative ways to keep employees in the game. Standing over their shoulders isn’t one of them.

Veronica

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

Possibilities has come a long way from its beginning in the mid-1980s as a one-page newsletter that informed social services and employment agency workers about free resources. Initiated by Susan Stone, then working for the City of Toronto's Social Services, the newsletter almost died an early death. Thanks to employment agencies such as Goodwill, JVS and Costi, who recognized its value and organized a protest meeting, the PosAbilities newsletter survived.

And it's been onwards and upwards ever since. In 1997, Susan, who was still with the City, and Community Information Toronto (later Findhelp Information Services) collaborated to provide a database of employment, education and training information. Poss.ca was born as a companion site, an online resource that contained articles on employment and training.

As writers were hired and the site grew -- a French site was subsequently added, making poss.ca a bilingual magazine -- Susan began doing more community outreach activities. "I got to do more schmoozing and I liked that," she says. "It's almost like not working for me."

Even before she began Dear Susan, an online advice column which evolved into Employment Expert, Susan received emails from readers requesting advice about training and employment. "I guess people are always desperate for information," says Susan, who enjoys working with job seekers. "There's always a variety of questions and challenges."

According to Susan's former colleague, Wendy Molotkow, a program support worker with the City, Susan is highly regarded by front line workers, someone who is known as an "information junkie, a go-to-it person for information."

We can certainly attest to Susan's remarkable wealth of knowledge about Toronto employment and social services agencies. Whenever we wanted to know something about, say, Employment Resource Centres or daycare, she was the first one we asked. Susan attributes her knowledge to a good memory and a long history of working in the Toronto employment field. Before working on poss.ca, Susan was at the City for 30 years, as a caseworker, employment counsellor and project officer.

And soon Susan will be off to the G-8 where she'll be working as a server. "It's just a lark," she says. "I decided it would be fun to do and I have lots of energy." Susan, who gardens, cooks and creates cakes in her spare time, will probably take another culinary course. You may also see her when she drives to aquafit classes on her recently purchased baby blue Vespa scooter. She may no longer be working at Possibilities but she'll never stop being our Dear Susan.

The Poss Team

No comments yet. Start the conversation.