Canadian "vs." immigrant workers

Couple of days ago our GM (General Manager) called a meeting for all company's staff (cca. 15 of us). By the sound of it I thought that maybe company is shutting down after 10 years of being in the industry. Fortunately that was not the case. Subject of the meeting was that there is a lot of job down the pipe in a near future but next couple of weeks will be sluggish. Less jobs, less hours worked, less money.

One flag is missing. Coincidence?!

There are couple of reasons why I'm perfectly indifferent about it. Even though I'm still not sure in which direction to push (engineering, telecom, rope access or mountain guiding), this company looks like a company you want to stay in. I've heard the same from couple of different sources and for now it seems like is going that way. And the nature of the telecom industry is full of ups and downs. 

I banked enough money to survive for couple of months without working (without dental expenses, knock, knock!). System here is that everybody is pretty much paid hourly. If you have some decent hourly rate and work lets say 2 days a week, 8 hours a day, your income won't be taxed almost at all. With that money you make your way through the month. Of course there are big variations but I mentioned more than once, I'm talking about fresh of the boat guys with not too much living expenses. 

Last but not least, now I have much more time to do stuff I'm lagging behind. Most of those stuff will still be lagging because snow season is getting to its final stage and that means trying to use as much of it as possible. And unfortunately I found out too late that you have a free skiing day on your birthday on Cypress. 

One of the things I want to write about next is those mountains I'm boring people with and why are they so appealing to me. It will be a good opportunity to try to put into the words something that is a big part of my life for last 15 years. But let's go back to the subject of this post...

90 meter beauty with good kebab across the street

With a big disclaimer that my observations are limited to couple of dozen people, I would like to put to the table one "controversial" subject. A subject on which probably a lot of people won't agree with me but nevertheless. While talking to other immigrants I always try to light the spark of discussion (and probably sometimes be annoying). Most times conclusion was that Canadians are lazy, slow and simply inferior to the European working ethic. 

First and foremost we must level the playing field. Whatever conclusion is when comparing lets say John (Canadian) and Ragnar (Polish), we must be aware that we are comparing an average Canadian with probably above average Polish. Ragnar decided for some reason to move from Poland to Canada and probably has some kind of diploma. By making this step Ragnar showed some kind of eagerness to make his life better one way or the other. Ragnar's immigration status is not certain and he is willing to put an extra effort to be more valuable to the company. He is working in some less demanding occupation than his diploma is (let's say back home he was a doctor) etc. You get the point. 

On the other hand John is an average worker used to have a big job market at his disposal and no immigration or any other similar problem on his mind. He knows that if he gets fired he will easily find a new job and continue like nothing has happened. Of course this is enormous oversimplification of things but I think there is something to it.

"Deep" thoughts

My experience with Canadians is mixed for now. For example in company I'm currently working in, there are some great workers. One of them is my foreman a guy with really good working ethics, wast amount of knowledge and most important patience and willingness to pass that knowledge on. In previous company there wasn't anyone even close to that. I suppose that makes a difference between a good and a not so good company.

I notice also that here workers are in general holding a much higher ground when negotiating with management. I suppose most of that comes from a shortage of supply of good workers. If workers don't get enough work some of the foremens are immediately sending an email to owners or something similar. And nobody gets excited about it. It is a normal way of operating things.

You may encounter on some stores or company's logos here something like "since 1999". A year that would look funny when compared to some very very old companies from the old continent. But obviously a 10, 15 year old tradition in a dynamic market like this means something.

Closes thing to Pasticada I've come so far

I didn't answer any questions or gave any meaningful conclusion because I think it is pretty much impossible to do so. But at the end of the day Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world while Poland is not so much. I'm not sure how much does that has to do with anything, but I'm sure that Canadian / USA immigration policy is working good. They attract young, educated and ambitious people and build future around it. If I'm not mistaken, 20% of Canadian citizens are foreign born and every year that number is up for 250,000 new immigrants. Lands of (UK) immigrants (Canada, USA, Australia, NZ) are continuing to do a good job in what they did for decades.

Across the (huge) frozen Garibaldi Lake

Garibaldi Lake in the summer

Yesterday I passed a Road test. Now I have a BC driver's licence and can drive without restrictions. Residents of Germany, Austria, France, Australia, UK, NZ... can just switch their local ones with BC licence. I had to do a knowledge test and after that I got my learners licence (they recognized my 9 years of driving experience from Croatia). Couple of weeks after that I booked Road test and here we are. Many thanks to Regie for giving me instructions and Radek for lending me his car! 

I find it here easier to drive. Not sure why but maybe is just driving automatic now. One thing that still baffles me is uniformity of car insurance market. No competition and very high prices. I know that my ex payed similar amounts per month in Berlin but still. Maybe somebody with real insight can give an extra clarification or a good comparison because everybody is complaining about it :D

For a good disclosure, thanks to my mom and dad for putting up with me all this years. It wasn't an easy job. 

Disclaimer: I came to this conclusion/urge by drinking alone while doing something on my laptop couple of days ago. This is a good read about something I guarantee you never read.

http://www.drunkard.com/the-zen-of-drinking-alone/