job interviews/ Conversation Cafe

 Jan. 9, 2024 Job interviews: I attended these in Jun. 2019.

The Office Supply store:   I'm sure a lot of you are thinking "Staples."  Yeah, but you don't know which location I attended.

Pros:

1. It was close by.  I take 2 buses.

2. The pay: I think it was $15/ hr, minimum wage.

3. I do like the products they sell, and that they recycle pens, batteries, and tech there.

I am interested because I'm always reading the business news about how to be more productive and help customers be more productive.

Cons: none.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.

$1 store: 

Pros:

1. The pay was $15.90/hr.

8 hr shift- unpaid lunch break.

2. There are benefits: health, dental.  After 1000 hrs, RRSP.  5% off check and match it 100%.

3. I would take 1 bus to get there.  1 hr ride.

4. I like the duties.  There are 10 aisles.  I work a zone of 2 aisles: I sort and put products there.

1 worker sweeps and the other 1 mops.

I don't count the till at the end. 

Cons: 

1. The hours are part- time, casual, on- call.  Mainly weekends and evenings.  There isn't  consistent hours.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.

Bar and restaurant:

Pros:

1. It was close by like 2 buses.

2. The hours are part- time, full- time, and daytime.

3. I get a free meal on shift. 

4. The pay would come with tips.

5. The job is a kitchen helper.  I can do the duties of chopping veggies, portioning meat, and cleaning the kitchen.

Cons: 

1. It may be too hard for me.  It would get too busy.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.  I probably wouldn't last.

Feb. 6, 2024 Sports clothing store: There was this small job fair.

1. This is at West Edmonton mall.  At the time, I only had to take 1 bus an 1 hr ride to get there.

2. The pay is $15/ hr.  There isn't any commission.

3. There is a 30% off discount.  There are 4 times a yr when there is a 50% off discount.

4. I can do the duties of selling clothes.

Cons: None.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.  I wasn't really that interested in selling athletic clothing.

Full- service breakfast and lunch place: On the same day of the Sports Clothing store job interview, I attended this interview.  I may have applied for hostess or a kitchen helper position.

Pros:

1. It was in downtown so it was close by.

2. The pay is $15/ hr.  The servers tip out 6% of sales.

3. They serve good food.  At lunch, they serve burgers, crepes, and salad.  There are 3 cooks.  In the front there is 1 hostess and 3 servers.  

Cons:

1. The place can get really busy.  They seat 130 people and can get 200 customers.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.

Feb. 28, 2024 Printing company: They print a lot of advertising for companies.

Pros:

1. It was 2 buses to get there.  It was 1 hr ride.  That's average.

2. The hours are 8am-4:30pm.  30 min. lunch.

3. They didn't tell me what the pay was.  There will be benefits after 3 months.  RRSP after 1 yr and 5% match.

4. I can do the job with filling out business forms, set up accounts for customers, posting payments.

Cons: none.

My opinion: They asked me: "Do you think you're a lucky person?"  Yes, I do.  The point of the question was to see if I was a positive person.

I didn't get hired.  The company didn't seem that interesting to work at.

Mar. 12, 2024 Full- service bar and restaurant: 

Pros:

1. This is in downtown and easy to get to.

2. The pay is $15/ hr.  The tips are 40% off of all sales.  

50% off meal when you're working.  25% off meal when not working.

Cons:

1. The job is 1 or 2 shifts a week, on- call.  

2. This is at night until 11pm which is really late.

3. This seems really hard.  There are 2 servers.  You have to know the menu, and wines and whiskey.

My opinion: I didn't get hired, but the shift is too late and it seems too hard.

Vaping equipment store:

Pros:

1. It was 2 buses to get there.

2. The pay is $15/ hr.  There is a 5% commission per order.

3. It was part- time.

Cons: 

1. The job was like a telemarketer.  I call stores and ask for the owner or manager, and sell our equipment to them.

I have worked at telemarketing and I couldn't sell tickets or ad space in a magazine.

I probably wouldn't sell anything here.

My opinion: I didn't get hired, but I wasn't really interested.

Mar. 21, 2024 The Registry: I have never attended an interview at a registry before.

Pros:

1. It was downtown.  2 buses.

2.The hours are Mon- Fri. 8am-6pm.  Sat. 10am- 3pm.

3. The pay is $15- 17/hr.

4. The duties are working on the computer.  I bill and send them to the clients.  I look for land titles.

Invoices, emails.

5. He asks interesting questions like:

What was the toughest decision you made last year?

Cons: 

1. It might be hard and a lot to learn.

My opinion: I would work there if I got hired.

Cafe and Bistro: 

1. It was 1 bus and walk 10 min.

2. The hours are part- time.  Tues and Wed. 9am-4pm.  There is dinner on Fri. and Sat. evenings.  Sun. 10 am- 3pm.

3. The pays is $15/hr.  There are tips.  There is a free meal when at work.

4. The duties are baking cupcakes, cookies, and gluten free food.  The make everything from scratch like ketchup and sauces.

This is a cook position.  There are 3 cooks at a time.

Cons:

1. This may be hard.

My opinion: I didn't get hired.  The place closed down in 2022.

This week's other 2 blog posts:

"Will remote work continue in 2023? Companies are starting to pick sides"/ "Back to the future of work: Three predictions for productivity in 2023"

https://badcb.blogspot.com/2024/04/will-remote-work-continue-in-2023.html

"Going back to the office is fine — but the commute is still atrocious"/ "Remote work saves commuters 72 minutes a day, study finds"

https://badcb.blogspot.com/2024/04/going-back-to-office-is-fine-but.html

My week: 

Apr. 2, 2024 The bank: My family and I were doing some banking.  I got a second bank.  My dad told me to get my statements emailed to me on my online bank account to save like $2 from them mailing it to me.

At first I called the bank, but I was on hold for 5 min.  They didn't tell you how long the wait was.  I decided to go there in the afternoon.  You have to wait, but you know how many people are in front of you.

I waited for 10 min. and I was with the CSR for 10 min.  He was also training this woman.

Change your PIN #: When I got home, my mom told me about the new debit card.  They give you one with a PIN number.

You should go to the ATM machine and change the PIN number with a one you created.

I transferred my blog: I'm on Blogger (part of Google).  My blog is on my dad's email account.

This wasn't really that big of a deal.  There are a couple of times where there is some conflict.

2 days ago, I really thought I should transfer my blog to my account.

I went on the internet and did some research.  I tried to, but I was stuck.

1. I Facebook messaged Dan L and left a message on his phone.  He didn't get back to me.

2. I emailed Jason from the Edmonton Filmmakers and Screenwriter's group.  He helped me with my printer.  He said he was too busy.

3. I went to Stanley A. Milner library and this woman in her late 20s or 30s who worked there,  helped me.  I printed the instructions and then I was able to transfer my blog.

Apr. 3, 2024 Forest Terrace Heights Community League meeting: I have never been to one before, so I attended.  I ate 2 donuts from Tim Horton's.  There were 18 of us.

Pros:

1. The meeting was run efficiently.

2. We discussed what was on the agenda: about the neighborhoods and the events.  I learned about some new things happening.

3. They were joking around and kind of fun.  We did stay on topic.

4. I met all these new people.

Cons: none.

My opinion: I would be open to attending another meeting because they hold one monthly.

Corner Gas: This reminded me of this TV show and the promo.

Cut to the town meeting:

Lacey: The Valentine's Day dance will be on or around Valentine's Day.

Apr. 5, 2024 Conversation Cafe: This is from Creating Connection.  I have been 2 events.

Aum Cafe: We met here in Bonnie Doon mall.  I had the brew coffee for $2.25 (with GST) and with milk and sugar.  The coffee was average.

There were 14 of us.  There were a couple of names I didn't get:

Bonnie

Mike

Heather

Jan

Angelique

Cindy

Kyle

Andy

Christine

Vicky

Terry  

We talked about a book and being a health food junkie.  We talked about health foods we like such as fruits.  A lot of people said they don't like seafood or shellfish.   

https://www.meetup.com/creating-connection-edmonton/events/299943460/?recId=71564cdd-75b9-47c9-b426-3cbbeb5796e8&recSource=keyword_search

Artesenal: I walked by this store at Bonnie Doon mall.  I tried a little bit of the dark chocolate.

I also tried a small cup of brewed coffee that's from Indonesia.  There wasn't milk or sugar.  This was average.

"Going back to the office is fine — but the commute is still atrocious"/ "Remote work saves commuters 72 minutes a day, study finds"

Mar. 11, 2022 "Going back to the office is fine — but the commute is still atrocious": Today I found this article by Pilita Clark on the Financial Post: 

It rained and rained in London last Tuesday. There was a Tube strike. The buses were packed. The roads were choked. The news from Ukraine was sickening.

It was a bleak backdrop to a day that some companies, including mine, had hoped to make special.

This was March 1, the day we were all due back in the office after nearly two years of mostly remote work, and serious attempts had been made to keep us there, starting with the office canteen.

“How much is that?” I asked as I ordered a morning coffee. “Nothing,” came the reply. Hadn’t I read the email?

It turned out that while I had been on leave the previous week, it had been announced that food and drink would be free in the canteen in March and April to help returning workers reconnect.

Mildly stunned, I watched as colleagues loaded their plates with piles of free breakfast pancakes and fry-ups.

At lunchtime I joined them, scoffing a large free chicken wrap and another free coffee as I wondered if it might be an idea to follow it up with a free oat slice.

Other treats and activities had been organized. 

A film club with free popcorn. 

Welcome drinks for new joiners. 

Most astonishing of all, free back massages.

From what I have read, this puts the FT up there with the likes of Goldman Sachs, which put on free breakfast, lunch and ice cream last year in an attempt to lure staff back to their desks.

This month, free doughnuts, mocktails and meditation lessons will reportedly be on offer at the Bank of Queensland’s offices in Australia, where other workers are being offered free coffee and lunch delivered to their desks.

These are all excellent developments but I am not sure how well they will work. Delightful as free food is, it is up against a formidable rival in the battle to get workers back to the office: the commute.

The number one reason work-from-home employees around the world say they are dreading the return to the office is the time, expense and discomfort of getting to and from their desks each day.

A striking 74 per cent of professionals in the U.S. say the commute is what they dread most about going back to the office, the Korn Ferry consultancy said last week. That’s no surprise considering the average one-way commute rose to a new high of 28 minutes in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, up from 25 minutes in 2006.

No wonder another survey done for academic researchers last month showed U.S. workers think 

the absence of a commute is the top benefit of working from home, 

far outweighing more time with family, 

more flexible work schedules 

and less time spent getting ready for work.

Research suggests commuting is even more loathed in the U.K., home to some of the most expensive train fares in Europe if bought on the day of travel.

As it happens, my own journey into the office last week was remarkably agreeable. A kind bus driver let me on without paying after I brandished a travel pass that didn’t work. I managed to find a seat, even though the bus was jammed with passengers stranded by the Tube strike. Best of all, I sat behind a woman who failed to solve the day’s Wordle puzzle nearly as quickly as I had that morning.

Alas, plenty of commuters had a worse experience. Some had been unable to board crowded bus after crowded bus and ended up walking miles in the drizzle. Others gave up and went home.

The Tube strike caused much of the trouble, but by no means all. It began on the same day as the highest train fare rises in nine years took effect in England and Wales.

For some of my colleagues, that means a daily fare of £28 ($47), or £20 ($33) outside rush hour, on trains more congested than they were pre-COVID.

They might have paid this much without too much complaint before the pandemic but, after two years of experiencing a commute-free working week, it hurts.

I suspect it is going to take a lot of free doughnuts to ease the pain.

Going back to the office is fine — but the commute is still atrocious | Financial Post

Jan. 26, 2023 "Remote work saves commuters 72 minutes a day, study finds": Today I found this article by Michael Sasso on the Financial Post: 

Working from home is saving commuters around the world 72 minutes a day, time they’re splitting between their jobs, leisure and caregiving, a new study shows.

Remote staff are saving the most time in China, where forgoing the trek to and from one’s workplace is freeing up 102 minutes a day, according to the study published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

Serbian workers saw the smallest savings of 51 minutes, 

while those in the United States also saw a comparatively low 55 minutes spared.

The team of economists from Europe, Mexico and the U.S. — including Stanford University’s Nicholas Bloom — calculated daily commute times from surveys of workers across 27 countries in the past two years.

When accounting for those who never worked remotely in that time period, the economists estimate that work-from-home saved about two hours of travel time per worker, per week. 

That will be cut in half after the pandemic ends given employers’ plans to bring staff back in, the researchers say.

That amounts to 2.2 per cent of a 46-hour workweek, with 40 paid hours plus six hours of commuting, the paper found. 

As such, the private value of the time savings is around 2.2 per cent of after-tax earnings in the post-pandemic economy.

“Commuters strongly dislike unpredictable travel times, 

and automobile drivers strongly dislike congested road conditions,” the economists said. 

“Thus, long commutes, unpredictable commute times, and congested road conditions push the private value of time savings above the after-tax wage.” Likewise, the inverse is true.

Workers are hardly sloughing off. 

Businesses are the biggest beneficiaries of the travel time savings, with workers

 devoting 40 per cent of their saved time toward primary and secondary jobs. 

About a third went toward leisure activities 

and 11 per cent went to caregiving, 

the study found.

Bloomberg.com

Remote work saves commuters 72 minutes a day, study finds | Financial Post

JANUARY 29, 2023

Remote work has a lot more benefits! Check this article out, it describes the most important ones: https://kanbantool.com/blog/unsure-about-remote-workers-well-theyre-here-to-stay

1. JANUARY 27, 2023

   I'm all for it providing the company doesn't have a reason to have the employee on the job, unless it's a government worker, then they better be at work when being as there is little trust in them doing a day's pay especially when they are not being monitored.
2. Comment by Fred Savage.

   JANUARY 27, 2023

   News flash -- remote working saves employees a lot more than 72 minutes a day as time theft is revealed! EDITED

"Will remote work continue in 2023? Companies are starting to pick sides"/ "Back to the future of work: Three predictions for productivity in 2023"

Dec. 29, 2022 "Will remote work continue in 2023? Companies are starting to pick sides": Today I found this article by Jo Constantz on the Financial Post:

If the U.S. job market continues to weaken next year, companies will be emboldened and may pull back on letting employees work remotely.

Executives generally fall into two camps on working from home, which surged during the pandemic when workers gained leverage during a tight labour market. Some believe it has advantages, like happier employees, while others say company culture is built in the office.

“There’s a genuine divergence between organizations,” said Melissa Swift, a workforce transformation leader at consultant Mercer. “You’re starting to see companies pick sides.”

That said, remote work looks like it’s here to stay. Gallup projects that about 75 per cent of remote-capable workers will be hybrid or fully remote in the long term.

Here are the top reasons why experts say remote work will continue in 2023:

1. Retention

Allowing remote work is crucial for retention.

Hybrid work boosted employee satisfaction and productivity, slashing attrition by 35 per cent, according to a study published this summer by researchers at Stanford University, the University of Chicago and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.

“Employees experienced new levels of fulfilment working from home, and it has been hard for companies to justify walking that back,” said Caitlin Duffy, research director at consulting firm Gartner.

Meanwhile, turnover has become an expensive problem as quit rates remain above pre-pandemic levels. In a labour market that remains tight, many companies can’t afford to hemorrhage talent. That’s especially true for high performers, even if the economy sours, according to Prithwiraj Choudhury, an associate professor at Harvard Business School.

“In any economic environment, top talent always has outside options,” said Choudhury, who studies remote work.

2. Recruitment

Remote work opens recruiting to a bigger geographic area and a larger talent pool. That’s a major advantage, especially for specialized roles where qualified candidates are hard to find. It also gives employers, such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which has struggled to convince people to move to Washington, a better shot at winning talent from tech hubs on the West Coast.

Offering work flexibility can also support a company’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. That’s especially the case for groups, like disabled workers, who were often shut out of the labour market. Working parents and people of colour have also reported tremendous benefits from remote work.

3. Recession cost cuts

Rather than reversing the shift to remote work, a recession might accelerate the trend because it can reduce the need for office space and help companies cut costs, according to Choudhury.

This summer, Yelp Inc.  closed its New York, Chicago and Washington offices with plans to put the savings toward hiring and employee benefits. Not long after, Lyft Inc. rented out about half of its office space in San Francisco, New York, Seattle and Nashville. Other major companies, such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., have scaled back office expansion plans.

Employees who are allowed to work from home are willing to take a pay cut in exchange for greater flexibility and lower commuting costs. 

Work-from-anywhere policies also allow bosses to keep labour costs down by hiring in states, such as Idaho, Louisiana and Kansas, that have lower costs of living.

4. Reversal risks

If a company does an about-face, executives risk damaging their reputation. Just look at Twitter. In an effort to shake up the company last month, new chief executive Elon Musk ended the company’s remote work model. But so many employees opted for severance instead that he had to soften his stance to coax some staff back.

Taking maximum advantage of leverage in this way isn’t a good long-term strategy, according to Ben Granger, chief workplace psychologist at Qualtrics.

“Future candidates can see the comments from employees who left,” Granger said. “They can read the articles. Leaders would be wise to think about that.”

Will remote work continue in 2023? Companies are picking sides | Financial Post

DECEMBER 30, 2022

in short ...its a crap shoot

"Back to the future of work: Three predictions for productivity in 2023": Today I found this article by Julia Hobsbawm on the Financial Post:

What will the workplace look like a year from now? The snow globe of work has been undeniably shaken to its core since the arrival of COVID-19. And the swirling mist is far from settled. But one thing is clear: The working assumption that office life can “go back” to what it was before 2020 is just wrong.

Three out of every four workers say that working hybrid is now non-negotiable for them. The coming year will see a return of a kind for the office, but one which is organized in a very different way. Here are three predictions for a healthier, happier and more productive workplace.

An end to flex-shaming

Early in 2022, the British HR expert Gemma Dale coined the phrase “flex-shaming” in a LinkedIn post. It captures well the bad faith some leaders showed to workers who aren’t physically in front of them. 

Among the most famous is David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., who in 2021 called working from home “an aberration we’re going to correct as quickly as possible.” 

In October, Solomon told CNBC that about 75 per cent of its people were in the office on any given day of the week pre-pandemic and now it’s about 65 per cent. 

Even if bosses think they can impose their will, legislative changes around the world are favouring flexibility. Over a billion people from Greece to Thailand are already being affected by changes in the law to facilitate remote or hybrid work. 

What matters is creating a culture of trust and transparency between bosses and employees to reach solutions, not as dry policy but by mutual agreement. There’s no place for flex-shaming in 2023.

Softening hybrid’s hard edges

This is not to say that hybrid work is a picnic. Recent global data from property consultancy JLL show that compartmentalizing between office and home is a major problem. 

Some 25 per cent of hybrid workforces feel socially isolated 

and 59 per cent expect wherever they work to pay attention to their health and well-being. 

Anxiety around social cohesion and productivity in hybrid offices is gaining traction: Marc Benioff, the founder and chief executive officer of technology firm Salesforce Inc., who also sits on the board of the World Economic Forum, recently told a company-wide Slack forum that new hires weren’t being productive enough, and asked “are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture?”

Joanna Swash, group CEO of the call answering and live chat company Moneypenny, who has built a pub in her Wrexham headquarters in Wales to make her office as attractive as possible nevertheless told me on my Nowhere Office podcast that “I’m a big believer in the office, but I’m also a big believer in wherever somebody’s working, it’s got to be the right environment for them.”

In other words, iterating workplace by workplace is the only way forward. Speaking recently at the Global Drucker Forum in Vienna, Frauke von Polier of German manufacturing group Viessmann, voted European CHRO of the Year 2022, said that piloting changes for as little as three months or as long as a year should become the new normal until things settle down.

The workplace as social space

In a recent LinkedIn post von Polier said: “How do you ensure that your culture is reinforced? Well, you start from the top and serve food to the people … and of course, dessert must be for free!” 

Since joining Bloomberg Work Shift as a commentator, I make a point of coming into the London office frequently to check in with colleagues and the elevator comes to the same floor first. 

It’s called “The Pantry” and is designed as a social hub for meeting, snacks, hot drinks and exchanging face-to-face contact before people continue on to workstations or meeting rooms. The Instagram @bloombergpantry is labeled “where our purpose & our people meet.”

Although data shows that 84 per cent of the reduction in office space 

is associated with hybrid working, 

the repurposing of both offices to be more social, 

plus an investment in the experience of work, is growing. 

The U.S. Office Occupier Sentiment Survey from property firm CBRE  shows that 36 per cent of leaders are curating workplace experiences and events as part of their strategy to create community and increase presence in offices. 

I expect this percentage to grow. People need a reason to come to a place which goes beyond mobile technology they can access from anywhere. 

That reason is simple: Other people.

While the base of work’s snow globe has shifted from place to person, we all do need to work and meet somewhere. Here’s hoping 2023 is the return of the office in its new, improved form.

Julia Hobsbawm is a columnist for Bloomberg Work Shift and a speaker, broadcaster and consultant on The Nowhere Office email: jhobsbawm@bloomberg.net

Back to the future of work: Three predictions for productivity in 2023 | Financial Post