Live~NRGY

Mark Root Source – If we want more engineers, maybe we should make it cheaper to become one

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/if-we-want-more-engineers-maybe-we-should-make-it-cheaper-to-become-one/article6957907/

‘A bit of a mystery’: Canada’s whopping job growth may not reflect reality
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/01/04/canadas-job-growth-blows-forecasts-out-of-the-water-again/

Temp employees more likely to succumb to workplace hazards
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/06/16353344-temp-employees-more-likely-to-succumb-to-workplace-hazards?lite

Question – What’s the common theme here – common denominator ???

Answer – The ECONOMY

While you may have an interest in whatever discipline in school and University, it’s the economy that makes you live. If there’s no demand for Liberal Arts or Photography with Kodak Film or Priests then no matter how much you like and want those, it ain’t gonna pay the educational past due bills and current living expenses past due ones too. So Universities should focus, but not entirely forget about what matters most. Lining up people for employers who need them now or down the road with qualified candidates. And yes, incentives do help for students and employers. Employers who are clamoring for next to impossible to get their hands on qualified people should step up to the plate and pay for the education of the people they so desperately need. Just like the good old days.

Here’s my philosophy when it comes to education and work. It’s much better to have Real Life experience in whatever domain of work(you’ll know what you like/dislike and in short order get rid of the that which matters little in your life) and be paid a minimum wage to learn experience than to pay a fortune for a next to impossible to get job once you have an educational degree on paper that’s worthless in REAL LIFE. Once you figure out exactly what works then it’s a matter of FIRST THINGS FIRST – focus on getting experience in that domain and then getting the degree to support your passions and last but not least – a dream job that pays what you feel you are owed. Case in point – in the fallout from the Nortel Networks disaster and dot com tech bubble blow up, it was horrible to go see houses up for sale with foreign PH. D workers from all these companies having sold everything inside their houses, living on the floor like dogs and animals while hoping they could sell them off before they lost them to foreclosure. No jobs, no money, no degree could save their asses. Stark lesson to see in Real Life.

Now the question of what’s up with this statement.

…”It’s a bit of a mystery why Canadian employers have been doing so much hiring without a lot of output to show for it”…

Here’s what’s happening down at the grass roots level of a changing economy and employers not willing to put all their eggs in one basket.

Temp employees fit the bill quite nicely. Hire when you need them, dump them when you don’t and no long term investment commitment with expensive WCB programs, health benefits, retention perks and zero incentive training programs. Sounds great in theory on the bottom line doesn’t it

Except for one small important thing – Hell shows up in the details in these cases. You get ZERO temp employee loyality, ZERO employee honesty, ZERO employee safety participation, employee theft hits the roof, employee drug use at work at all time highs, possible drug dealing at work and using it as a cover to deflect suspicion.

If that isn’t bad enough, you get into situations of employers & employees going the cash route instead of the legal wages and income tax route leading to all sorts of trouble with governments which leads to penalties, more environmental work stress and possible business survival and/or bankruptcies. That’s the money side – the safety side involves not wanting to report accidents because they become bureaucratic nightmares with additional penalties of their own. Then there are property taxes, insurance and just taking care of inventory and it’s shrinkage going out every available hole.

So what do a large majority of employers do – they take the easy way out – they use and burn you and drop the next candidate in your place. They keep at it until their hands are forced to change the way they do business. This practice is as old as prostitution itself. However now it’s more sophisticated – employing smartphones, GPS geolocation, hidden cameras, public cameras, Web, Email, Chat activities, background checks, criminal records, networks of internal/external rats, snoops and tattle tails(friends, family) to spill the beans. It’s an extremely well organized network to keep you in check and to track everything you do. In other words your ass belongs to someone else if you have something to hide.

Last but not least – there’s the competitive marketplace(companies and competition) that smells opportunity to profit from your situation.

So how hard is it to become more competitive and actually generate positive numbers to GDP. Simple – stay honest and focus of making moral/ethical sound solid choices. Yep, it’ll take time, blood, sweat and tears. But in the end, you’ll still be standing up while everyone else is in for a whooping from the system.

The last note here is that all temporary employees are ultimately responsible for their own safety. You’re most likely working for less than desirable standard fair market rates. So should you risk your life based on no safety training. If in doubt – refuse and walk away. There’s another job at the same rate available somewhere else guaranteed. Let the employer have the headache of seeing the folly of using shortcuts that ends up doing them in. They’ll have no choice but to change their ways.

Off-shoring the jobs won’t work either. In this day and age of the internet – too late to turn back to slavery. Witness how China has changed it’s policies because they know better. Those days are long gone and for whatever it’s worth – continuing to shrink in a globally connected world.