The Ideal 25 Hour Work Week
The currently popular 40 hour work week is a fairly modern notion and it’s thanks to unions that we don’t have something like an 80 hour work week. Times have…
Work
Aaron Swartz, Intellectual Property and the Public Good
Should academic work be locked up like Disney artifacts? I’ve been quite inspired by this very good analysis of the context surrounding Aaron Swartz’s suicide. As news spread last week…
The Model Laborer of 1848
On July 22 1848 beside stories of fighting in Paris and markets in England, the front page of The Globe featured this column. As I was reading I thought this…
How Millennials Can Improve Everyone’s Job Satisfaction
Quack. It’s 9am, do you know where your millennial employees are? No? No worries. It’s all good. They’re not factory chickens. People who study characteristics of different generations have some…
A brave new world: Why moving beyond university can precipitate crisis
As students approach the completion of their university education some are excited to enter the “Real World”. Others are in no rush to “move on” – perhaps out of fear…
Politics, Re-Spun Talks with Jarrah Hodge from Gender-Focus.com About Feminism and Work
On December 3, 2012 Politics, Re-Spun’s Stephen Elliott-Buckley spoke with Jarrah Hodge from Gender-Focus.com, exploring issues around feminism and labour, and: labour unions the BC Federation of Labour temporary foreign…
First week of work, and a psychotic parrot episode
So far at my new job I’ve been immersing myself in reports and files and getting up to speed on the subject matter and my projects. The subject matter is…
Work is making us crazy
In 1991, Linda Duxbury of Carleton University and Christopher Higgins of the University of Western Ontario conducted the first national study of work-life conflict in Canada to “explore how the…
So Did YOU Get a 3% Raise Last Year?
So, did you get a 3% raise last year? The average Canadian did. See the first chart below. If not, you’re behind the average Canadian. And even with a small…
Bravery in a Time of Struggle
I was but wee when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It must have been quite trying: a feat of technological innovation, cooperative efforts by thousands of mostly anonymous people…
Keep Sane by not Working
Thanks to modern technology it can be really easy to always be checking email and taking calls. This is great for some circumstances but it’s always important to take a…
I got laid off again
I got laid off last week; today’s my first day of unemployment. There were three weeks remaining on my three-month contract, but we started running out of international tax returns…
Molly’sBlog 2012-05-26 23:18:00
DRIVIN’ ROUND WINNIPEG:I HOPE THEY NEVER COME BACK TO LIFE: A lot of my work days are consumed with driving across Winnipeg. After 28 years of doing this job I…
Book Review: “The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics”
Now Available from AK Press & your local Infoshop! The touchstone for many of the struggles currently enveloping us—from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement to the events in…
More Worker Bashing in BC, with Squishy Numbers
Below is a recent tweet from a new worker/NDP/union attack Twitter i.d. talking about how awful unionized workers are. Read it, then let’s de-spin it for sanity: Average salary in…
Let’s Have an End to People Dying at Work
Ben Isitt is a Victoria city councillor, historian, professor, lawyer and optimist. Rarely have I been so moved by an account of the struggle working people have in the face…
Montreal Calling: On the “Quebec Spring” & its Enemies
Carrément dans le rouge. Just a quick memo to Canada’s vocal, reactionary minority (with vast over-representation on online forums and comments sections): the students in Quebec do not care that…
I actually kind of like my new job
At my new job, I phone people. Don’t you think that’s ironic? I’m phonophobic, yet somehow I ended up with a job that involves phoning taxpayers all over the world…
Boycott the National Headshot League (#NHL)
Before I get into my increasingly radical antipathy towards the NHL and NHLPA and their callous disregard for brain injury risks, I’d like you to spend a few moments watching…