Slight rant you can call it!

[Michaelaw]

I meant Iggy, (though I'm a bad ranter... Too emotional) that as an employee of most companies in Canada you either get a day off with pay or if you work, you are compensated with extra coin, ie time and a half, double time etc for public holidays. Though I'm a freelancer, the government has pushed us into a slot called casual labor so they can apply all said money collections, UI, CPP, income tax what have you, nice for them but because the country is busy celebrating the holiday, my services are not needed...Too bad for me, I'm not compensated in this case for Good Friday or Easter Monday. I didn't get mail on Friday nor will I on Monday. It's a pointless rant I suppose but it irks me that I lose close to six thousand dollars this year mostly due to what others believe. Otherwise I stay afloat like the rest of us

[Michaelaw]

Casil...

I admit I went sideways bringing Big Brother into it. As a freelance you work when the work is there. This can mean 14 days straight followed by one day off and many nasty turn a rounds with only two or three hours sleep. I put up with this because I know that the industry will tank throughout the year. People don't hold conferences during holidays and usually tend to hedge three or more days either side of said holiday. In the case of Easter this year it's a four day event That I'm flat lined for plus three days either side of really slow activity. I guess I'm getting old and cranky I should just pull in my fins and take a job at London Drugs selling cameras or home theater...People shop 24/7 365

[Michaelaw]

And to top it off I did have a four hour shift tomorrow covering some persons butt for the holiday but....Just got the call that his boss told him it wasn't a holiday and he had to work the shift. Sure hope this guy phones the post office

[Greg_Nuspel]

Hey I thought ranting in BC was a union position, being union you're not allowed to do this on holidays

[casil403]

Casil...

I guess I'm getting old and cranky I should just pull in my fins and take a job at London Drugs selling cameras or home theater...People shop 24/7 365

MAW...lol...aren't we all.
I can see you as a Walmart greeter actually....
Actually MEC has greeters now too (found this out on the weekend) so you could be a "green, eco-friendly" greeter!

[Bambi]

MAW...lol...aren't we all.
I can see you as a Walmart greeter actually....
Actually MEC has greeters now too (found this out on the weekend) so you could be a "green, eco-friendly" greeter!

MAW as a Wal-Mart greeter is a great idea. Maybe Kat could go get pictures.

And MAW I can assure you that in our little branch of health care there is neither excess nor useless spending. 90% of it goes to salary and the rest to operations.

[Marko]

Also being a freelancer...I can see MAW's POV easily. Who is paying for government workers to take their days off? It's you and me....(isn't it?)
Given that we freelancers also pay and pay and pay...it might be nice if WE also had paid holidays.

In terms how much all this costs....(sorry for the threadjack) I was curious...what is the largest expense that taxpayers pay for?
I was thinking about this the other day...
How much does medicare cost?
How much does the Canada pension plan cost
How much does unemployment insurance cost

and do those costs pale in comparisson to how much it costs to run the government itself...all the salaries of likely hundreds of thousand of employees in all departments....ok

[Bambi]

well the truth is that everyone is paying for everyone. I also pay taxes so am contributing to my own salary. When I buy a product I am paying towards many people's salary as well.

Picking on government workers is almost too easy. Most work very hard and are underpaid compared to those that work in the corporate world. However, it provides more time with families so in that regard, it's worth it.

[Marko]

Most work very hard and are underpaid compared to those that work in the corporate world. However, it provides more time with families so in that regard, it's worth it.

I cannot speak with authority about any particular government worker, but i would highly highly doubt that most work very hard.....I'm gonna get myself in trouble....but....there is no real reason for most government workers to work hard. Why? because it's Very difficult, if not impossible to fire a full time government worker that is mediocre. Their union is too strong. They may get transferred to a new department many times during their careers but they won't ever get fired for being mediocre. If there is no serious consequence for doing mediocre work, VERY few people will step up to be better than average.

I'm sure you are NOT one of these workers bambi, but I would be very very very surprised if you disagree with the above premise.

My (past) experience with unions and unionized workers is that the majority or my colleagues did mediocre work at best. Many did horrible work...but they never beat anyone up, or sexually harassed anyone so they could not get fired. I see no reason at all why government workers should differ from this pattern on average.