Open for Business – What About Me Time?

No question about it, we live in an always on world. Thanks to the Internet, laptops, wireless networks, smart phones – even smart dashboards in our cars – the world is available to us – always.

That means in order to compete in today’s wired world, businesses have to be open all the time too – despite all the technology, someone has to be around to make sure things run smoothly.

Is this a good thing?

That’s one of the questions politicians in Canada’s biggest city are debating today – sort of.

The City of Toronto – as many municipalities – has rules governing who can be open on statutory holidays (like Christmas) and who can’t.

Currently, only retail stores and restaurants in designated tourist areas are allowed that privilege, but today city councilors are voting on whether or not to strike down this law, allowing any retail establishment to be open 365 days a year.

Working in retail isn’t the most glamorous life, often fraught with the lowest of wages, schedules which change on a weekly basis, few (if any) benefits, and constant pressure from bosses to sell – even when no one comes into the shop.

Retail workers are often seen as entry-level, low paying gigs easily filled by the masses who don’t have any experience and need a job. So retailers often treat their employees poorly, because they expect high turnover.

Not that all retailers are bad to work for, but just type any big box retailer into any search engine, and your computer screen will fill with horror stories from badly treated employees.

For most in the retail sector, they work for minimum wage, part-time, without any benefits or vacation time. That puts them into a terrible catch-twenty-two come holiday time – they often want to work the holiday, because they need the hours for their pay cheque to pay the bills, but at the same time, they could really use a break, and much needed time with friends and family.

So our constant need to do business thanks to our technologically-driven world, is creating a burned out lower class.

Is this a good thing? Do we really need to be able to go shopping anytime, all the time?

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Signs of the Times – McWomen

One of the surest signs the economy is actually doing better – as the Bank of Canada and many economists claim – is an increase in jobs. The more people working, the better the economy – right?

Not necessarily – just because there are more jobs, doesn’t mean the economy is back to its former glory. Long gone are the high paying jobs which pay the bills, replaced with many so-called “McJobs” which don’t.

Case in point, recently Canada’s bean counter – Statistics Canada – released figures showing that for the first time ever, there are more women than

Image by DerrickT via Flickr

men in Canada’s workforce.

The survey found that about 7.1 million women were earning wages in the first half of 2009, compared to only 6.9 million men for the same time period.

Women outnumbered men in both the under and over 25-years-old demographics – another first.

Labour groups and women’s organizations are the first to point out that these numbers don’t reflect changes in attitudes towards women in the workforce; rather, they are due to layoffs in male-dominated industries such as manufacturing, automotive and construction sectors.

Women on the other hand are more likely to take up many of the part-time McJobs in retail, as office temps (you don’t hear many men call themselves “a Kelly Girl”), and other low-wage earning jobs.

Just last month, Canada’s national banking regulator, The Bank of Canada boldly declared the recession over. Far be it from over, when the jobs that are out there are slim pickings for earning a decent wage to support oneself.

How can one put food in one’s tummy, clothes on ones back, and a roof overhead working for minimum wage?

Many families are still reeling from the economic depression we’re still in – despite the declarations of it being over by the Bank of Canada.

Canada’s national bank should be called on the carpet for its undignified premature announcement. Although they are trying to end the fear to spend, which would encourage growth, to stimulate the economy, they are actually deepening the wounds created by this bleeding fiscal mess.

By prematurely announcing the end of the recession in Canada, they have demonstrated to those who are still living through it that the government has absolutely no idea what is going on, or how to really resolve it.

They also alienate those who are struggling, by showing a complete lack of concern for those in need, and in turn push those who are desperate for government assistance away.

It is time the government of Canada stopped pumping out propaganda, and actually came out with a strategy to stimulate the economy, and create real, long-term, sustainable jobs, that aren’t simply McJobs, but real ones, with real futures for both men and women.

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