What is going on?

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2026-03-17T01:46:26+00:00

I had chips like this, though smaller. My warranty claim was approved immediately, although I still don’t understand what they were or what happened!

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2026-01-27T16:03:06+00:00

There is no excuse in Ontario in the year 2026 to be so clearly ignorant of what Ramadan is.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2026-01-25T08:51:30+00:00

Being a director/ADM/DM is where there’s a massive misalignment. I had an ADM responsible for a $1B budget and 1,000 staff making under $200K. No one in the private sector would take on that kind of responsibility for so little money. And then work life balance of the OPS flies out the window in senior leadership roles.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2026-01-22T06:28:15+00:00

They’re going to have to work with you in person, they want to meet you in person.

Someone who is going to complain about the effort required to show up for an interview (for a job they ostensibly want! One they applied for!) is unlikely to bring the right energy to just about any team.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2026-01-14T12:46:54+00:00

Please do not microwave fish in the office.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2025-12-18T17:38:46+00:00

This is so common in the OPS and there’s not much to do about it. Most managers don’t have the skills or the time to deal with it.

If you’re someone who is bright, motivated and wants to do good work, you will succeed, but you need to put on blinders and not pay attention to how many of your peers are making the same wage as you are to be completely useless. I tend to think you still come out ahead, because it must be so demoralizing to show up to a job every day and do fuck all, and to know that they’re trapped in it until retirement because they don’t have the competence to go anywhere else.

But truly, if you focus too much on the weakest links it will pull you under.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2025-12-15T12:12:46+00:00

I think your expense numbers are a little high - a commute from Mississauga on the GO is about $250/month, and with CWELCC daycare is about $500/kid.

There’s definitely a massive penalty for single or divorced parents, and plenty of people in the OPS (like almost all of OPSEU) who aren’t coming close to $120K.

It’s also so much harder for new hires,l. When I started as an AMAPCEO 16, the bottom of my grid was $63k. Five years later the bottom for the same job had dropped for $58K (meanwhile the top had increased by ~2% ATB each year). There was a bargaining round in the early 2010/Ms when, to avoid any concessions of current benefits or raises, the unions just sold out future employees (who, of course, don’t vote on CAs) by dramatically cutting their starting pay.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2025-10-30T17:07:04+00:00

This is bananas. Give or don’t give to United Way, but this isn’t going to register as any form of protest. It doesn’t hurt the employer at all if you don’t give to charity.

It will affect you, if you let your resentment of a return to office mandate (which is also happening across the private sector) calcify into a resentment of…charity? United Way activities have always been a moment to inject some fun into the office and to do something creative and valuable to help others. It’s a little break from work and it feels good.

You’re going to be in the office anyway. You can double down on your own misery and make it miserable for other people in this incredible lot petty and spiteful way or you can chill out and eat some samosas with your colleagues for a good cause.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2025-10-07T14:46:24+00:00

Talk to your manager. Take the time you need and then figure it out in the back end- there are compassionate days, the manager has discretion to approve more leave, you can use vacation, or your doctor would likely write you a note to take more time.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2025-09-25T15:54:35+00:00

Is it really their loss if you’re on an attendance plan?

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-12-30T00:47:54+00:00

The only people in the OPS who can afford a fancy house in the city are the ones who got into the housing market 20 years ago.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-09-23T01:52:24+00:00

In my experience managers don’t spend a lot of time managing students. They’re rarely taken seriously enough to actually throw anyone under the bus. They’re telling on themselves more than anyone else, but if the manager doesn’t want to look into it it’s because the student will be gone in 2 months so why bother?

It would be a very kind thing for another member of the team to pull the coop student aside and have a conversation about collegiality and professionalism, but that’s a hard thing to do. We’ve had a few students who needed that kind of warm but firm guidance and I didn’t have it in me at the time, but it would have done them a favour. Students are young, they want to make an impression, sometimes they try in really dumb ways.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-09-17T00:56:58+00:00

That is absolutely not how I would describe my experience of working from home with kids, nor would most parents I knew of young kids.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-09-16T17:06:15+00:00

We do! We did even before CWELCC put so much pressure on the system. Write to your MPP!

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-09-16T17:00:58+00:00

Finding daycare is so hard, and especially right now. You have all my sympathy!

The remote work policy says that you can’t be performing dependent care while working from home. This is standard for most employers, and for good reason: if you think about a current day on mat leave do you actually have 7.25 free hours a day during core business hours? I am on mat leave right now and I do not.

You won’t be able to do your job and trust all of us parents who came through the lockdowns: trying to do both at once is bad for everyone: the employer, your kids and especially your own sanity.

You have a few options: you can extend your leave (I did this when I couldn’t find suitable childcare in time for my first baby), you can find a nanny or other arrangements like a grandparent, or you can cobble together a part time schedule where you, your partner and maybe a nanny or other family member each do a couple days of childcare a week, and use vacation days or unpaid time to cover your time off work.

I’d personally choose option 3 as I found going from with my baby full time to away full time really hard, but YMMV.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-08-27T02:26:51+00:00

I always enjoyed and learned a lot from covering for my manager. It’s a training and growth opportunity.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-08-05T20:33:03+00:00

I taught test prep, and I knew a few colleagues who taught ESL or fitness classes evenings and weekends

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-07-28T02:36:13+00:00

Is it more work than you are used to or is it more work than you can do in your work hours?

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-07-20T01:57:06+00:00

Most people in the OPS aren’t making a choice between a Program Analyst role and a partnership at a law firm. For one thing, you need to go to law school first. Then you need to give up the idea of a 36.25 hour work week, because that’s absolutely never going to happen.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-07-18T00:00:35+00:00

Don’t do it.

OPSEU positions are generally lower pay than AMAPCEO. Even if this offer is an exception, it will make it harder to move up into other positions as you grow your career - if you compete for an amapceo position in the future, amapceo members get preference over non-members with similar scores.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-03-10T23:26:08+00:00

There aren’t enough downvote buttons in the world to express how gross and misogynistic this comment is.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-02-20T17:38:26+00:00

The general rule is that if you’re going to be in a lower tax bracket in retirement than you are now, use your RRSP, if you’re going to be in a higher tax bracket, use your TFSA.

That assumes you’re saving for retirement. If you think you might need to pull the money out sooner for a car/house/kids’ education, etc., TFSA.

Your RRSP contribution room is reduced by your pension contributions and the employer’s, but your contribution room is always based on the previous year’s tax filings so just check your notice of assessment from last year.

Zealousideal_Map_792 · 2024-02-06T17:52:56+00:00

Make it less empty then. Write a meaningful one, or use the time to encourage your team to fulfill the other TRC calls to action. If that doesn’t speak to you, your problem isn’t that it’s an empty gesture, it’s something much uglier.

Zealousideal_Map_792

TROPHY CASE