Category Archives: Lifes Lessons

Lifes Lessons

Good Samaritan Alert

After a strenuous bike ride today, I disembarked at the Marlborough station and started walking the bike down the off ramp. Upon hearing a bang, I looked into the parking lot below and a man had just turned a sharp looking white car into a large lamp post with a cement base. It was either an absent minded moment or he was distracted by his phone. He was alone in the car.

After one circle around the off ramp, I turned again to see how we was handling the assessment of the dent on the passenger door panel. By this time, a middle aged woman had arrived on the scene having exited her teal Mitsubishi Mirage and I’m intrigued. She must have seen what I heard. I make my way down and I just have to check this out. As it turns out, this woman had seen a young Jamaican man in emotional distress by the circumstance and felt compelled to console. It was that simple. She had also perceived that the young man may have been new to Canada and that he may need help in navigating the insurance system and claims process.  I complimented her sense of exemplary civics and rode home refreshed from the fatigue of a long bike ride.    

Lifes Lessons

Jermaine Gresham and American Airlines

In spite of the gesture being relatively small in the big scheme of things, there is a succinct take away. A young lady was going to miss her flight for $50 over the cost of a new American Airlines policy of charging for carry-on luggage. Her credit cards weren’t working because of an international restriction and American Airlines wouldn’t take cash!

This behemoth of a corporation was about to deny a woman her flight because they wouldn’t take a perfectly legal form of payment in lieu of a new charge policy.  This good Samaritan football player, Jermaine Gresham, not only saw through the ridiculousness of the situation but stepped forward in generosity.

There is way too much of this idiocy happening at all levels of human interaction.  Workers want to feel empowered but when they’re put into a position to showcase the corporate image of customer service and goodwill, they inevitably fail for reasons of misplaced ego, stubbornness, closed mindedness, or unfortunately the ugliest of reasons –  rigid staunch policy dictated from aloof management teams. 

These large corporations patronize from their oligopoly and expect you to forget instances of brain cramp. On the one hand, these corporations want to empower their people but when the unique situation arises to display sensitivity at just the right time, companies and employees fail.  On the one hand it’s amusing to witness the faltering as an expected response to a digital faceless world but on the other hand, it’s disappointing to see the so called professionals lack professionalism at every turn.

Should a corporation be required by law to accept cash as a means of payment when cash is the purest form of money? Oh, it’s not the purest form you say? Hmmm…..a topic for another day.   

 

Lifes Lessons

Government of Alberta Believes Men Lack

Social engineering is now where your tax dollars are headed. Some sick Hollywood producer assaults women and now the Alberta Government is compelled to fix “the man” in the work place with a “program” for you to attend with $50,000 of your tax money. Let’s be clear. This garbage is the precise kind of policy that puts men like Donald Trump in office!

For every man reading this piece, your government believes you are less than whole. They think you’ve been conditioned to treat women poorly. Whether it’s the single parent family, genetics, your psychological make-up, the influence of a program peddler (Benevity Inc.), the effects of gaming as a child, or shear misogynist rebuke to blame, your socialist government has now put itself in the business heading down the road of “fixing” half of its population. Well, it’s only $50,000 you ask and the half of Alberta could not possibly be served with such a sum. There’s no sugar coating the message and the principle.

Revelations of Harvey Weinstein of whom Hollywood women and men apparently failed to hold to account over the years during numerous episodes of apparent rape and sexual assault of which laws on the books would have saved tens of women from his wrath, have apparently inspired one woman in political power in Alberta to seize opportunity of media buzz around the travesty by patronizing the good men of Alberta.

The good women of Alberta…. you have naturalized power with your tongue to deal effectively with any “a@@hole” in supervision. No government can sanction legal conduct of a person with poor moral character. It is every employees’ right to leave any such man without his soldier’s energy to win at the capitalist pursuit. If you are assaulted, it is your solemn duty to report the crime so that this man can be dealt with in the justice system. If your justice system is ineffective and does not provide you with the timeliness and dignity of proceedings, it is then your duty to assemble as an advocacy for improvement.

The good men of Alberta….if you witness any man in supervision treating a woman or another man carelessly in the workplace or any other place, it is your duty to confront this man and take up his behaviour with him. If you witness a crime committed by this man, it is your duty to report the crime to authorities. This is not rocket science.

This Albertan is getting sick and tired of a government that wants to inject itself into places where it does not belong.

Lifes Lessons, Politics

Colin Kaepernick Affair

It’s called grandstanding and Colin Kaepernick knew very well that he put his employment security in jeopardy the moment he decided to dishonor his country by kneeling during the Star Spangled Banner.  Once Colin gets a few more years behind him and matures, he will come to realize that causes and issues need to be addressed through the hard work of active participation and not the simplified approach of convenient protest. There are very few perfect places on the planet where justice is served at every turn but an open democratic process is available to Colin should he decide that the cause so dear to him that he decides to seriously engage with the help of fellow constituents. Of his fellow Americans who have been versed in legal process and empathetic to his cause, I would think that the New York Police Department would condemn his tactic and instead rally to his cause in a fashion representative of the democratic administrative apparatus available to all Americans.  Protests have their place when conducted civilly as reinforcement to the aforementioned process citizens can access due to their citizenship right.  Once one denounces their anthem, their credibility is questioned and any employer rightfully ponders the character of such applicant.

Lifes Lessons

Calgary Economic Sob Stories

The headline may spawn furor among some and affirmative surprise among others.  I’m going to spell out one particular fact for those wooed by the press’ coverage of Calgary’s laid off white collar oil and gas workers.  These proud people have been paid more than everyone else in every other sector possessing similar non-industry specific skill sets.  Hence; one might rationalize that a cyclical premium was built into their higher salaries.  Guess what?  That down cycle came during 2015 and 2016.  If you worked in this sector and were laid off and drove a Mercedes, I bet you forgot to prognosticate the possibility of a downturn when salivating over the chrome wheels, glitzy dashboard, and heated seats at the dealership.  Perhaps, you own a house in Mount Royal while similarly hard working individuals with no less of an aptitude for learning work in the transportation industry and live in Martindale.  You see, workers in other sectors empathize with your plight but they have also been witness to announcements of your extravagance and penchant for lavish Christmas parties and Stampede functions.  They’ve occasionally heard you reference working in “oil and gas” in what could be perceived as an elitist manner.  Of course, you’ve espoused capitalist sentiment from a right winged political philosophy but now you’ve been afforded special consideration from the Employment Insurance fund whereby small business owners may be faced with the consequential increased payroll costs associated.  We want to see you get back to work if you haven’t changed sectors by now.  We want to see you win and hopefully carry yourselves with a modicum of humility having gone through a reality check.