Personally, I do not want to be called “madam” by anyone unless a) I am running that brothel again, or b) your name is Jeeves and nothing would give you more pleasure than bringing me slippers and a fine cognac.
There was almost drama this morning, and for once it wasn’t happening TO me but rather AROUND me. Some stupid giant SUV at the mouth of the bridge was not playing along, and absolutely refused to let the next car into the line. Well, the car wasn’t having any of this – he forced his way in. He had to gun it twice to get ahead – remember, SUV did not want to let him in no way no how – but Car managed to maneuver into the line anyway. SUV swerved, both drivers shook fists and gesticulated madly, and SUV kept trying to edge back ahead of Car, almost causing a multi-vehicle accident at the same time. I don’t understand why some people are so oblivious to the one-two-one-two – it’s logical, and the only way to make sure traffic is flowing. I nervously kept an eye on both Car and SUV all the way into town, because SUV kept trying to catch up and either get beside or ahead of Car – I half expected the nicely dressed business man to pull out some sort of weapon and bust a cap into Car for his insistence that SUV follow the bridge rules. I would think that perhaps I watch too much TV, but I don’t really watch any so my overactive imagination is at it again. Anyway, it was really stupid. SUV was clearly in the wrong, Car was nuts for forcing the issue, and hey, it gave me something to watch.
Meat made things better. None of my problems are solved and I’m on Day 4 of that headache, but last night we went out and had ourselves some MEAT and I felt better. I fell asleep very early again and couldn’t get out of bed this morning – I think I need to actively avoid the bedroom when I get home from work until it is time for bed for realz yo – but I made it into Space for another day of whatever the hell it is that’s going on.
I know at some point I’ll be able to look back on all this and laugh, but when I’m right in the middle of it all it’s hard to get my giggle on. For the record, I *have* brought up the “employee” vs “independent contractor” thing many times – just a normal part of my boat rocking – but I am brushed off every time. I’ve been reprimanded more than once for attempting to work from home occasionally, which I KNOW they shouldn’t be able to do – given that I’m an “independent contractor”, I should be able to work in my underwear on the roof of the Hotel Vancouver if I damn well please as long as I’m getting my work done – but my inquiries are ignored and I still have to have a little chat with the Space Board every once in a while about my attempted flexibility. Funny, right? You say I’ll be able to laugh at this soon? Do you promise? Hell, even if you did, I’d be naive to believe you!
I’ve become one of those people who spend too much time on Facebook – my past is coming out of the woodwork to haunt me, and I’m equally fascinated and terrified by all the people I used to have crushes on (and those I have crushes on now).
delicious juice dot com 
I must be having a sympathy headache. I’m on Day 4 as well.
OH the stories you’ll be telling all the whippersnappers in 50 years… but until then, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that some magic starts working up there…
I wasted so many hours on friendster and myspace that I’m absolutely horrified to locate loads of NEW people on facebook that did something tangential in my life. There’s a guy from preschool, and my childhood neighbor.
I’m a totally legitimate “employee” at work, but there are no actual employee contracts that say I can’t get fired or laid off or anything. it’s an “at will” system where I can leave any time I want, and they can decide the don’t want me any time they want (if they claim to have a good reason, I assume).
On that note, I should make sure I don’t give them a reason. stupid facebook.
This has gone on enough. Run, don’t walk, to your nearest Ministry of Labour office and get a copy of the Employment Standards Act. Or try http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/stat/E/96113_01.htm
Learn it back-to-front.
Then check out what the British Columbia Ministry of Labour says. Print out the .pdf provided by the ministry at http://www.labour.gov.bc.ca/esb/facshts/pdfs/employee-or-contractor.pdf
and give it to the space bosses.
File a claim with the Ministry of Labour. The Station is probably breaking a couple more laws regarding things like hours of work, vacation pay, etc., and they should be forced to comply. It sucks to be Space Bosses when the inspectors show up and demand paperwork and answers. It’s been told that Space Bosses can soil their spacesuits when Ministry inspectors declare all “contractors” as employees and start handing out orders and fines and back wages.
Oh, and look for a new job, because you can still screw them from your new station on the second moon of Alpha Centauri.
I may have mentioned this before, but the lovely commentor (sorry, already forgot her name, but I think it was a *her*), I’ve been in a similar situation. My EMPLOYER just wanted to call me a contractor so she wouldn’t have to pay taxes!!!
I spoke to someone at CRA. Then a nice man called me and asked me a few, simple questions, such as: Who sets your hours/shedule? Whose tools do you use? How did you find out about the position? etc.
When he was done (it was painless, really!) he said, well, you’re an EMPLOYEE under such-and-such a regulation, blah blah.
The really great part? Not only was I an employee, so entitled to EI benefits while I looked for better work, my EMPLOYER who tried to say she wasn’t, had to pay all the taxes that normally get taken off each paycheque out of my money (if I’d still worked there, apparently I would have had to pony up the dough, which seems odd…)! HA! She was pissed, dude, it was AWESOME!
DO IT!!! CALL THEM!
Whoops, when I said “taxes” please read that as EI, CPP, etc, etc…
Lisa, it’s hilarious, actually — it’s the employer’s responsibility to do the deductions, so the employer has to pay both the employer and the employee’s portion of EI and CPP if they haven’t been paying them even if you still work there. And I suspect that Kimli isn’t the only employee who the Space Bosses have been exploiting in this way — they clearly don’t want to or know how to do a real payroll, or are too cheap to hire an accountant, even though florists and street vendors somehow manage to do just fine at it — so they would have to pay ALL of their employee’s back-EI, plus possibly penalties for willfully ignoring the law and violating their employee’s human rights (and this on the anniversary of the Charter… I lay my hand on my forehead and sigh… OH THE IRONY!)
(And I should say… They’re probably not really bad men, they’re probably just a bunch of uninformed nerds who really enjoy feeling important and having staff — but who have no idea how to actually manage an office. This is probably also the reason that they can brush off the employee/contractor thing: because they don’t actually know the serious amount trouble that you can get into with the revenoo agency.)
(But they should know better! You tried telling them! They didn’t listen! Don’t let their cheapness effect YOUR canada pension entitlement! One day when you’re a little old lady you’ll thank yourself as you chow down on something that ISN’T cat food!)
Yeah, I’m stopping now.
Every time I go to the local Fresh Choice, the bus boy (middle aged hispanic man) says “HEY LADY!” It makes me feel old and prematurely aged ;( I also work in the “food service” being a cashier at a cafe, and I would never yell out HEY LADY, I try to use “miss” or “mam”, but MAM has an old feeling to it as well, so I like to use miss as much as possible, when I can’t get away with only “excuse me” (when the person doesn’t respond or turn around).