lilfunky1’s blog

Sometimes I can’t believe people.
This would have been one of those times.

My boss tends to go on vacation a lot, and when she does, during a pay-week, what just happens is that the accountant would write up our pay cheques based on the estimated number of hours we are expected to work, and they will be post dated to the day we are to be paid.  Then signed, and kept in a super-duper secret place that only the accountant knows.  Because… post-dated cheques are SO dangerous before the date they are cashable.

Anyways, my coworker had an issue with the cheque that was first written (and signed) around 10am, and asked for a new one to be written with a different amount, basically asking for some vacation time to be put onto the cheque as well.  And so instead of writing a second cheque for the vacation pay (which is what I would have asked for) they just revised the whole thing, voided & shredded the old cheque and all the still-unsigned cheques were brought to my bosses house to be signed.

Well, when the next week rolled around and it was pay time for everyone.  Everyone got their pay cheques.  Except for my co-worker who needed a revision.  Lord knows it was not in the office, seeing as how myself, my coworker who was not paid even though she should have been, and the accountant basically tore up the office looking for it.  The accountant sent three seperate e-mails to the boss wherever she was vacationing asking where the missing pay cheque could be.  No dice.  We called the Nanny who works out of the boss’s house to see if she knew where it would be, every “work” space is locked.  No dice.  Coworker had to just go to the bank, and get a friendly and very shocked & appaled bank manager to put a freeze on her account, so that it didn’t go into deep over-draft because there are automatic payments that are scheduled to start coming out at midnight that night.

Can you imagine?  A boss who can just FORGET one of their employee’s pay cheques?  So we get paid on Thursdays. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday this woman had no money, and all the payments that were to go through were late.

Monday comes around and she just simply apologizes.  “Oops.  I forgot it in my breifcase that was locked in my office at home.  Well, here you go!”  A bigger man would have at least offered something extra.  As I keep hearing in “the biz”, a “token of good will” should have been offered.  Lunch?  Maybe a few extra bucks for your troubles?  Nothing.

Nothing.

I was saying take the company to the Labour Board.  Because one of the employee’s protected rights is to have their pay on time every time.  Maybe next time.

02-06-08_2135, originally uploaded by lilfunky1.

The… worst… and… FUNNIEST set of signs I’d ever seen before in my life. I can’t remember what the “Be Tight Fisted” advertising is for, but it was a photo taken inside of a Seven-11 while I was buying my Ironman slushies. Seriously. With a mind like mine… it doesnt’ take much!

I wonder what the effect and the dangers of ozone are in existance because of what we’ve done to the environment. I do know that my boyfriend’s house who has a dog who sheds like crazy, and now a cat, that it’s difficult to breathe. My boss has a glowing crystal/rock in her office that I’m not convinced does a whole lot, but it apparently does. Air cleaners don’t sound like they do a lot since my theory is they only clean the air close to it, and in order to do something actually substantial you would need many air cleaners throughout the house. They also use up a lot of energy I would assume, which would cause them to be bad for the environment.

But at the same time, I think I would want one just in the laundry room (an air cleaner/purifier that is) because my father happens to do a lot of smoking in the laundry room and in the garage (that is entered through the laundry room) and being that I’m allerigic to tobacco smoke… it hurts to go through there sometimes.

more cat pictures

I will forever be in love with jokes about math.  I’m Chinese.  I don’t think it can actually be helped.  Especially when it involves cats being what they are, flexible beyond belief!  I kind of wish I could do that, even though I’ve stopped going to yoga. I should start.

Meh.  I didn’t write this, found it on Craigslist.  I agree.  Therefore, I will repost.

I am so tired of reading posts on here from ‘employees’, headhunters and so called HR managers who think they have a monopoly of common sense on here. In fact most of them don’t have a clue.

Before I start, let me first say that I have a great job with an excellent company but it took me a long time to find it.

1. Start with a well defined job description. OK fine, if you are a fry cook at McDonalds or a janitor, no need to spend hours laboring on it, but if you are in a traditional office environment, spell out what the person would be doing — sure there will always be some differences, but don’t put together some boilerplate job description and then either (1) don’t follow it because you are wasting everyone’s time (2) copy someone else’s description because it shows you are lazy or (3) be vague because we need to know what the job entails.

2. Be open to receiving e-Mails from candidates. I am not saying that you allow a candidate to send tons of emails but at least let them know that they are being considered. Auto-replies saying that you got their resume don’t cut it. I don’t know how many times I have talked to hiring managers who either had truncated copies of my resume or didn’t get it at all until I routed it myself to the proper channels.

3. Be honest with your salary range. If you want to hire a widget engineer making $80,000 or so a year, tell them that - don’t waste their time saying it’s “market” rate or some bullshit. Conversely, if a candidate applies for a job, qualifies and is willing to take the rate, let them apply. If they get it, then deal with it. Job churn is typical - if you create a good culture, they’ll stay. If you act like a jerk, then they’re gone.

4. Spell check and grammar check your job listing. It may be bad for job seekers to have errors, but if you do it yourself, you look no better than them. Show that you actually give a rat’s ass about the role and do it right!

5. Give a timeframe for when this job will need to be filled by. Sure, the economy may tank and you might not be able to hire on time, but at least give people a clue if this job needs to be filled NOW or it’s just a long term “Yeah we need this guy/gal” post in the hopes that someone bites.

More to come later… Good luck!

I wonder some times what people think of their own personal Debt Management skills. I know for me, I’m doing pretty decently (with lots of help of course) since, I’m not in any real major debt. The only debt I owe is for my car & insurance (which my parents pay for, and I just give them the money for it, so it’s not actually MY concern) and my credit cards, which I pay in full at the end of every month.  I mean, it’s quite obvious that I live well within my own means, and that’s based upon a few factors.  1.  I live at home with my parents.  I give them a sum of money every time I get paid which is about half my take-home paycheque.  This money includes my car payments, my insurance payments, and the rest will fall under “food/rent/utilities etc.”  2. I use credit cards wisely.  Since I pay them off every month, I don’t pay any interest fees.  I always make sure I have enough money to spend before I actually spend it, therefore the only reason I really use credit cards is to gain a better credit rating for a future large purchase (like a house) and for the reward points for various token prizes.  3. I am thrifty.  Call me cheap.  Call me frugal.  Call me whatever you want.  I want to buy things only when they are on sale.  And I must rationalize all my purchases under if I really NEED them or not, or if it is just a passing fancy. (And you’d be surprised if you start to think about it, just how much is a “passing fancy”!!) In the end, I learned all these skills from my parents, and I’m very happy that they taught me the money-managment skills that I have today.

19-06-08_2117, originally uploaded by lilfunky1.

I found this hilarious. I was in Phil’s building with his friend Allie whom I just met, we were running between two apartments up and down the stairs and I saw the used condom. It’s the landing between the two floors, and it’s on the tiny ledge that is covered by a grate. So if you look at the photo, the right side is the concrete ledge, and the left side is actually the metal grate covering the big hole that goes down to the next floor.

If you looked at a bunch of mysterious spots on your legs, would you know enough about bed bug bites symptoms in order to make a diagnosis? I sure don’t at this point in time, and my friend Phil definitely did not! He was infested, as is much of Toronto apparently. And it’s an epidemic. And it SUCKS. My building when I was in college had them too. These teeny tiny little bugs that would live in the cracks of your wooden furniture. And the only way to get rid of them is to take everything apart, spray everything, wash everything, and either heat or freeze everything.  I remember my co-op was giving people rolls of quarters so they could wash & dry every stitch of clothing and bedding they owned.  While the beds & desks were all taken apart before the apartment was sprayed.  And for apartments that were infested more than once in a term, their wooden beds were exchanged for metal-framed ones just so there was less of a chance of the bugs to come back.  All I remember at this point is, there were a lot of doctor’s notes going around, and a lot of trips to the pharmacy.

more cat pictures

I can’t wait for the summer olympics. I’m wondering how China will do, I remember that when the announcement was being made between whether Toronto would get the 2008 summer olympics or if it would be China, that many people who were more practical, wanted China to get it (even the Torontoians) because it would be better for them, rather than us. But now that there’s been various contraversy in the news about China a lot of people I am now hearing are reverting to thinking Toronto would have been better.

And while I agree, that I would have loved to have had the olympics in Toronto, I’m still glad that China will get to show the world what they’ve got.

For one thing, my planned Saturday-Tuesday Canada Day holiday was extended, when I called in sick for Friday as well.

The sucky part is, I was actually very sick that Friday.

The even more sucky part, is that a. my boss was grilling my co-worker in the “Do you REALLY think she’s sick?” type attitude saying basically that I am capable of lying and cheating to get an extra long vacation… and b. that an off-handed comment of “Oh, a bunch of my friends are going to Wonderland on Friday” weeks before was rearing it’s ugly head with one of my yappy coworkers who got it in her head and started INSISTING that I must have called in to go to Wonderland (which I don’t even like going to)

So now the hunt continues for a way to keep my yap shut.

All I can think of is the fact that Thursday night on the 26th of June I was sick with migranes, disorientation, chills, fever, and violent shivering/shaking.  Friday I couldn’t get out of bed without falling over.  Saturday I had chills and fevers.  And Sunday was the first day I was able to venture further than my bathroom.

Spent Sunday, Monday & Tuesday at Colin’s house but even then, I was sick on and off the whole time I was there, and Colin had the same thing I did… and he seemed to get progressively worse and worse as the weekend wore on.

So boo to work.  We should just…. not do it.

20-06-08_1819, originally uploaded by lilfunky1.

I saw this… I can’t remember actually. June 20th. I was probably at Jana’s house and was walking up. This one little house had many signs similar to this posted all over their yard. I guess they’d had many problems with people trashing the yard since it looked pretty trashed to begin with! My suggestion would be to make your yard look tidy and people will stop using it as a dumping ground!