Overtime Pay

I was in a conference today and I am usually good at zoning stuff out. But today was different. Near the last 15 mins of the speaker's talk, he was talking about overtime pay. From what I heard today, it is some very interesting thing that everyone should know about. Only people who are professionals and truly only manage or supervise at their jobs will not benefit from this blog. It also shows how some people just believe in what their superiors tell them for the good of the company.

So the speaker today that caught my attention name was Richard Nixon. His name was interesting I guess since it was the same as the past President of the USA, but that was not what caught my attention today. It was his topic about Overtime Class Action Lawsuit: Is your organization next? He basically summed up what is happening out there in the workforce.

So to start it off, Professionals under the Employment Standard Act says that these group of people are not entitled to overtime pay when you are working on things that are related to your profession. Sorry to all the lawyers, engineers, doctors, accountants out there, to be more specific you will have to look at the ESA. But there is an exception where if you are a lawyer who wishes to work at McDonald's and works over 44 hrs, then you are entitled to overtime pay. If you are a manager doing non managerial work that your employees do, then you are entitled to overtime pay.

Also another thing that came to my mind that was quite interesting is that, if you decide to work overtime and kept track of the hours you worked which differ from the employers. Also, if your hours were not reported to management, you are entitled to the overtime pay. I learnt that the employer must enforce the hours of work and recognize what the employees are doing.

So after 44 hrs of work you should receive overtime, but I didn't know that by law the maximum work week should not total more than 48 hrs. I know there are exceptions to all things and one of the exception is if you are required to work due to an emergency. But no one should be working more than 48hrs including the professionals.

So when I was working at my previous jobs, I notice management work an insane amount of hours, and mostly totaling more than 48hrs, and although they were managers, they were on occasion doing non managerial work, which qualifies them for overtime pay. I am sure if all these people at their work place came together and put together a class action lawsuit, the employers would lose. The speaker today, truly believe that the employees should be educated, and should not be taken advantage on. At first I strongly believe he stated this because he wanted more lawsuit cases, but he really wanted to educate more people because his daughter was taken advantage of by a reputable canadian financial institute.

Mr. Nixon made a good point that, what if the company wants to pay the overtime, and the employee is willing to work these extra hours, what is so bad about this case? So after working numerous hours, you tend to be tired and burnt out. In some professions people's lives, depend on your job, and also your safety. So one construction worker was killed on the job, and the first thing they looked at is his, work hours for the past 20 weeks, and he worked around 50-70 hrs a week monday to saturday. So I guess he has a point, and I in other industry I guess you might miss something, and might lose millions of dollars. I'm sure there are other reasons why working too much is bad.

If you are to leave your company on bad terms, or if you believe in the principal that the law exists for a reason, you should let your employer know that they should be following the labour law. Whatever you decide, I hope this blog has help opened up your eyes. And Sorry I don't have a direct link to the ESA. I encourage you to read up on the ESA or the labour act.

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TV/Movie Quality and Experience

When you go buy a television now there are some numbers like 1080p and 720p. That is the amount of lines you see on a screen, the larger the number, the clearer the image is. That is also what people refer to as HD. With the days of regular tube televisions (the bulky thing) the max lines that are available to your viewing pleasure is 480 lines. So enough with the definition of what the technology is.

There seem to be a general push in society about things that are visually appealing. So a clearer picture is something good. Many televisions shows, even youtube has started pushing out HD content. I am actually curious what everyday, people who don't care much about what they watch care about this high definition phenomenon.

One thing that comes to mind is people who watch things off youtube. I think the content being played is far more important than any other factor. If you truely enjoy a certain show, or want to watch your favourite actor/actress then I think those people will watch it off anything like a small screen on youtube, very pixelated picture quality.

Another medium which has pretty bad picture quality are those pirated movies that people film with their camcorders in the theatre. Sometimes depending on the film which requires lots of big sound to get the perfect exploding effect, or a hair pin dropping, or someone chasing a character in a horror film requires the full movie theatre experience. When a person watches something like that off youtube, its a total different experience, and might have a different opinion about the film, but again, down to it, when the story is not so great, no matter how well the sound and image is, it will be a bad film.

I've inquired from a few people people and they cannot tell the difference between the high defintion video than that of regular non high defintion. I don't know what the reason for this is, and cannot come to a conclusion or a theory behind this. But I personally enjoy watching things with more details during a sporting event and even a movie. The only good thing for people who cannot tell is that they won't have a bias opionion about the quality since they cannot tell the difference, because once you start liking the good quality stuff all the time, its hard to go back.

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Taxes

Everyone must do their taxes. Is it part of you duty of citizen? I think it is, to help pay for CPP and EI and support all the social things the government helps provides. Lets not get into the debate of how well or what they provide, I'm sure that is another blog on its own. We all benefit from the money you make from paying taxes. So why would I suddenly write about doing taxes? It seems to be there is big money to be made from doing people's taxes or selling tax return software. Most people I know don't do their own taxes. I do my own taxes electronically and after looking at the process I can basically figure out how to do it on paper, not that I would go back to paper format. So why do people not do their own taxes is my biggest question.

In High School, do they teach you and the reason why you should be doing and paying taxes? I didn't take business in high school so I do not know the answer to that. But I know someone who goes out and tries to educate younger people about learning about insurance, and how there is a profession and the use of it. Do they do this about tax? Some times I wonder what they teach in high school. Perhaps I've been out of high school for so long that the circulum has changed so much they do now. For sure I didn't have to make a website, or have to know flash or photoshop.

With computers, the tax software has made filing your taxes quite easy with many senarios. Also the CRA website is very helpful with examples and clear explanation. Basically what I know about doing taxes and what I can claim is from my exposure to these 2 mediums. I can pretty much figure out why they have an interview process. Just like how if you were to goto H&R block. If you don't have complicated investments or business, it should be a simple enough for anyone to do that has graduated from High School.

Also, wouldn't it be beneifical for someone to know about taxes so they can either take advantage of certain things they can claim, or how to save themselves some money by better tax planning. The only down thing is that, if you file something wrong, you will be peanlized and you will owe back government some money and the interest. Or if its the other way, you will receive less money than what you are suppose to get. People should give try to do it some where online, and if they usually let someone else do their taxes, they can see if they can save a buck or so, then also gaining something from educating themselves.

Also, if you knew more about doing your taxes you can cheat the system. Isn't that what sometimes an accountant who knows the rules can play around with your numbers and add it as an expense here and there. So I mean that can also be good, or how much RRSP you should buy to maximize your return. I am in no way a tax expert, everything I know about personal taxes I can read about on the CRA website and they have a good alphabetical index.

I just got fed up with someone telling me that they let someone else do their taxes, when its just their income from their job, and buy some rrsp and tutition. Its not as hard as you think it is. And electronic software has made it so much easier. I even thought maybe there is a generation gap for people who actually do their own taxes, but I don't think that is the case. People's parents reminds their kids when they do it, and take away this responsibility or the knowledge. Oh well, I don't think this trend is going to change unless something is implemented earlier in people's lives and if you hold their hands to show them how easy it is, that might trigger something.

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Travelling behavior

When i was walking around downtown Toronto sometimes i wonder if people are tourist or just everyday torontonians. One main thing that tourist have around their necks or hands are cameras and a map. But again now everyone brings a camera with them since they are so compact. Most other people walking around with backpacks are students and people wearing a suit and skirts are usually people working in the offices.

when you goto a new place knowing its mainly for tourists do you get sucked into paying the entrance fee or buying souvenirs? I certainly do. I feel that since i am not there many times in my life i should have the experience of visiting or doing a certain activity associated with the sight. Its something memorable in either a positive or negative way that i can talk about and it also adds to my knowledge and feel like Ive experience something that is not part of our everyday life.

Does your spending habits change when your on vacation? You spend more freely? And have the mentality of trying to get the most out of the new environment without holding back? I think when you don't have alot of money to spend you shouldn't really be travelling unless you are doing one of those working and living in a new city type of travelling trips. For instance eating out might be expensive but its some specialty food you cannot back at home and your willing to try this, i would definitely go and try this new thing.

I like to roam around the city and try to see what the locals do and see how life is. Also at the same time visit all the popular sites. I really don't like tour groups since the time travel is really limited and you really have to follow a schedule. Alot of times i get lost but that seems more adventurous and leads me to new things that i didn't expect to see.

Language barrier seems to be a big problem in some places but Ive made it outta those places alive but i couldn't really experience the local food and had to figure out alot on my own. I'm just curious of how everyone is when they are traveling?

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Canadian Identity

In many other countries there is mainly one dominant culture group. In russian over 90% of the people there are russian and same in majority of the countries. This leads to what is it to be canadian? USA has sorta the same problem, but most people consider themselves american instead of their own heritage. This issue in exisits more in the majority cities such as Toronto and Vancouver where it is like a melting pot of cultures and ethnic groups. From school, I learnt that canada cannot sustain the birth rate and rely heavily on immigrants. This issue is also the strength and weakness of canada. If someone asks me what is canadian, I really can only say hockey is one of the things that everyone in canada can say is truly canadian. Is there canadian food? nothing really quick comes to mind.

It is great that Toronto especially has such a big diversity. So If I was to show someone Toronto, I would show them greek town, little italy, chinatown, little india, but are canadian restaurants just like tim hortons, and fast food places which exists all over Canada and the US? I think if I asked anyone about what nationality they are they would say where they came from originally. Also, many people always refer to the phrase back home, so canada isn't really their home in a way. Another example of diversity is just driving north of toronto, many stores have their business signs in a different language.

I don't think this trend will change and that is the backbone of canadian culture. Although I don't see this type of diversity outside the major cities of canada.

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What is the definition of sucess

Today I was sitting at a conference and I was thinking what does it really mean successful? I was in a room filled with lawyers, they all have their Louie Vutton handbags and their high paying jobs, and doesn't seem like they are worried about the recession at all, since it was a packed house and there is no sign of less people attending conferences.

Then I compared myself to these lawyers in the room and asked myself if I was successful. Do I have a good paying job? Do I wear fancy clothes? Do I have expensive accessories? I don't have any of those, but I still consider myself successful, not having to suffer, and having good friends and family around me.

I looked up the definition of successful on dictionary.com and found a meaning that would relate to my posting
- having attained wealth, position, honors, or the like.

I guess to the world being successful means having those things above. From my personal definition I believe doing what you like and being happy doing it will lead to success. Relative to the millionaires and billionaires I will never obtain that much amount of money, but that doesn't make me not successful. I earn enough to support myself and pay my bills. I set out to complete my degree and that is an accomplishment being the first in my family to graduate with a university degree. I guess to me, these accomplishments mean something and which makes me successful. I don't need a dollar amount to tell me that I'm important and don't have people looking down on me because I do not have money.

From students to retirees to all the people working, everyone should have a different definition of successful. It should be more goal orientated and less about how financially well off a person is. Money is not the only factor that should determine how successful you are. It is all about yourself and how you life your life, if you are happy then you are on your way to success.

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Social Networking

If you saw the title you probably think that I was going to post something about social networking websites such as facebook and myspace. I been pondering about transportation and how important it is. I believe that a good transit system brings better human social networking and how a city can benefit from it.

In the news we always hear about the government bailing the car companies out with billions of dollars, but instead of bailing out these companies, why not invest more on public transit, although I think it is too late now, because I think new communities are developed around owning a car and driving from point A to B.

I am making a very generalized comment from just observation and not really doing much research. What do the world's busiest citys have in common such as London and New York? A massive transit system where cars don't rule the street. With the ease of getting to any location, you can build hubs around the stations, such as restaurants, markets, and many other stores and businesses. With the development of all these business, it has the potential to grow to be a downtown of its own, and create jobs, new retail opportunities and that will hopefully expand to its own hotspot.

It is also better for the environment where people are not reliant on their cars. The greatest benefit is also the ease people can get together without driving a long distance. I just hate how I have to drive to a subway station and park my car there, and how much more convienet it would be if I can just take a subway and not worry about parking fees, and if your too tired you don't have to worry about traffic, or the bad drivers on the road. But I guess if you really dislike sharing a space with strangers then there isn't any benefits to riding public transit. As people move on with their lives, they tend not to stay in one place and move around, and then all your friends are no longer within a 5-10km radius. This to me is a big problem and I think better transit system can help.

I've been to 3 cities with major public transit infrastructure and there are just people all over the streets and makes the city more lively and exciting. Those places seem like there are just so many things to do. I don't know if it has to also do with the climate in those regions, but I don't think that is a problem, but would also help because then people wouldn't have to drive when its winter time and New York, London, Tokyo all have snow and cold winter conditions.

Down to it, I think I will benefit socially with a better transit system. I would never have to worry about a snow storm and places closing early. There would be more stores and retail business around my house. People would be more outgoing and walking more and have the opportunity to do more and would have healither people instead of being couch potatoes.

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