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Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 (nCoV-2019)

Videodrome said:
Out of curiosity, who still hasn't got COVID? I could say that until it ripped through our family over the last few weeks. First, my dad tested positive a few days after we were at their place for dinner. Then my wife and our baby got it, followed by my mom. The only one who somehow avoided testing positive was our eight year old. All of the cases were relatively mild and we finished our five day isolation.
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I had COVID-19 on the last week of June 2022 through to the first week of July 2022; I had it for about one week.

Good thing I was triple-vaccinated at the time.
 
I think I had it in May (contracted from close contact at work), though I repeatedly tested negative on rapid tests.
 
So is Tuesday the big "return to office" day? There's lots of media talking about it as such, though where I work they set the date next week instead, but it will still be a minimum of two days in the office per week, one of which must be Tuesday, escalating to three days minimum in "a few months" (probably January). I note about 33% of the staff have already been coming in at least two days per week since the spring. There's also about 33% of the staff who have rarely been in the office at all, with a handful still not being in the office once since March 2020.

It will be very interesting to see how all this plays out as there really is some factionalised office politics developing over the whole thing.
 
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Jonny5 said:
So is Tuesday the big "return to office" day? There's lots of media talking about it as such, though where I work they set the date next week instead, but it will still be a minimum of two days in the office per week, one of which must be Tuesday, escalating to three days minimum in "a few months" (probably January). I note about 33% of the staff have already been coming in at least two days per week since the spring. There's also about 33% of the staff who have rarely been in the office at all, with a handful not being in the office once since March 2020.

It will be very interesting to see how all this plays out as there really is some factionalised office politics developing over the whole thing.
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I'm told the Mayor is pushing the bureaucracy hard on a 3-day in office minimum to begin imminently; but management have concerns this may lead to pushback/defiance and or more staff churn. Have to wait and see how it all comes out.

The banks have definitely added several thousand employees to 3-day minimums effective this month starting the week after next, for most, I believe); but again, we have to wait and see where this falls.

It feels a bit like a game of chicken between management and staff in many workplaces; as well as companies trying to reach out to competitors to insure everyone is moving in lockstep so employees can't jump to stay work-from-home, or 1-day a week in office.
 
Northern Light said:
It feels a bit like a game of chicken between management and staff in many workplaces; as well as companies trying to reach out to competitors to insure everyone is moving in lockstep so employees can't jump to stay work-from-home, or 1-day a week in office.
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Expect a wave of resignations. Despite corporations pushing hard to be “back to normal”, workers have begun to understand their worth, and how to use that to their advantage.

Unemployment is still insanely low despite all of that. Employees want more now, and employers looking to act like the last two and a half years didn’t happen are gonna have a rude awakening.
 
zang said:
Expect a wave of resignations. Despite corporations pushing hard to be “back to normal”, workers have begun to understand their worth, and how to use that to their advantage.

Unemployment is still insanely low despite all of that. Employees want more now, and employers looking to act like the last two and a half years didn’t happen are gonna have a rude awakening.
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I think there's some truth in that; but it really depends on the sector, and whether employers take a common position on certain things, like in-office work.

Its easy to quit, if you have someone else willing to hire you, under the conditions or at the pay you'd prefer.

Irrespective of that, as the boomers are aging out of the workforce in ever larger numbers, you will see retirements you would have seen anyway, and in some sectors this will lead to labour shortages which will
certainly lean in favour of workers, all other things being equal.

But how that manifests, is not a given. It is higher wages?, More vacation time? Shorter work week? More flexible work arrangements? I don't think every employer can or will offer all of those..........

As well, Canada is ramping up both immigration, and foreign worker programs to near unprecedented levels; which may affect people's replacability in some sectors.
 
zang said:
Expect a wave of resignations. Despite corporations pushing hard to be “back to normal”, workers have begun to understand their worth, and how to use that to their advantage.

Unemployment is still insanely low despite all of that. Employees want more now, and employers looking to act like the last two and a half years didn’t happen are gonna have a rude awakening.
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It cuts both ways. Many corporations have spent huge sums on tech upgrades and automation in the past two years, and some employees may discover they actually don't have the bargaining power they think they do, or what they did have before the pandemic.
I have an acquaintance who already rolled those "I want to keep working from home" dice and lost to "we'll complete our software upgrades and simply eliminate your position. Goodbye." She had a job offer in her pocket, and took it, though it is essentially a wash in compensation for her (higher base pay, lower retirement plan), but now she's a junior staff member in a company full of people who have worked there for 10+ years, whereas it was the opposite for her before, she was the senior person in a company full of fresh-out-of-school staff.

This is a time where that old aphorism applies well: "be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."
 
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Northern Light said:
As well, Canada is ramping up both immigration, and foreign worker programs to near unprecedented levels; which may affect people's replacability in some sectors.
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Oh yeah, I've seen that in the financial industry at many levels. All these banks have had offices and staff in India for years and they have a long list of people ready and willing to pay to move to Canada who can fill open positions here.
Sometimes it's even ex-staff who moved here and are now looking for a job; the banks simply offer it to them so they can come back and restart their career. The bank office where I work now has well over 5% of the staff in Canada (it's a US bank) filled by people who previously worked at their offices in India that immigrated to Canada. Those job opportunities never made it to a public hiring process, they were filled by those Indian staff in completely internal process.

They opened this process with the office in Ireland because of the success with India and now there are several people brought over from the Emerald Isle too. Many open jobs are now not even publicly offered to Canadians; why bother when there's a pool of current employees from elsewhere in the world who and willing to pay to move and work here? I expect they hit at least 10% foreign hired and trained staff who have relocated to Canada office by next year. I wouldn't be shocked if it's 20% by 2025. It's no secret they earn moderately less than the Canadian hires because the bank has all the power in those salary negotiations, and many actually take a step down in their career to come over here, working a slightly lower level job because simply getting here was the important goal for them.
 
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Jonny5 said:
Oh yeah, I've seen that in the financial industry at many levels. All these banks have had offices and staff in India for years and they have a long list of people ready and willing to pay to move to Canada who can fill open positions here.
Sometimes it's even ex-staff who moved here and are now looking for a job; the banks simply offer it to them so they can come back and restart their career. The bank office where I work now has well over 5% of the staff in Canada (it's a US bank) filled by people who previously worked at their offices in India that immigrated to Canada. Those job opportunities never made it to a public hiring process, they were filled by those Indian staff in completely internal process.

They opened this process with the office in Ireland because of the success with India and now there are several people brought over from the Emerald Isle too. Many open jobs are now not even publicly offered to Canadians; why bother when there's a pool of current employees from elsewhere in the world who and willing to pay to move and work here? I expect they hit at least 10% foreign hired and trained staff who have relocated to Canada office by next year. I wouldn't be shocked if it's 20% by 2025. It's no secret they earn moderately less than the Canadian hires because the bank has all the power in those salary negotiations, and many actually take a step down in their career to come over here, working a slightly lower level job because simply getting here was the important goal for them.
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One they have PR they are likely to churn out. The GTA is a hard place to live while being underpaid.

I've been hiring, and the candidate quality we have been attracting for the compensation we are offering has not been great. English proficiency has been decreasing, which is problematic when your job requires you to participate in and understand technical discussions.
 
Videodrome said:
Out of curiosity, who still hasn't got COVID? I could say that until it ripped through our family over the last few weeks. First, my dad tested positive a few days after we were at their place for dinner. Then my wife and our baby got it, followed by my mom. The only one who somehow avoided testing positive was our eight year old. All of the cases were relatively mild and we finished our five day isolation.
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I did have a Covid like virus back in early 2020. But since then, I have avoided catching covid and all it's variants so far. But i still mask up indoors or around crowds 99% of the time. And I have been vaxed and boosted.

My parents have avoided Covid too, they were at wedding last month where 24 out of the 68 guests tested positive for covid after the wedding. My parents isolated for a few days and had zero symptoms.
 
DirectionNorth said:
I had it in February and stayed home for a week. I checked UT about 15 times a day that week.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on this? CBC article about ArriveCAN.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/arrivecan-american-tourists-niagara-falls-1.6568236
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More likely the high prices are keeping Americans away than the ArriveCAN app. . It's cheaper and there are more things to do in places like the US, Europe or the UK, than in places like Vancouver or Toronto, or some tacky overpriced tourist trap like Niagara falls.
 
afransen said:
English proficiency has been decreasing, which is problematic when your job requires you to participate in and understand technical discussions.
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I certainly noticed that. A tricky part is the written side vs. the verbal side. I've recently seen many more people who can speak English at or near a perfect level, but when it comes to reading and writing it they are totally lost.
Also, that isn't necessarily related to immigration status. Some born and raised Canadians seem very intelligent to speak with, but then ask them to write out 300 words on a topic and it's like reading a book targeted at third graders. Or, more like they write as though they are text messaging someone, like that is the only written form of communication they know.
 
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