The Canadian Experiment

I wanted to sum up my employment situation in the last 4 or 5 years in a single picture. The above is the best I could find. That's not Nutella. It's a shit sandwich. Really it goes back farther than that but I won't count working for Seokang as bad even though there were bad things about it. The real funk started when I quit that job. And believe me I didn't quit because the job was GOOD. I took a vacation to Canada and was told to surrender my alien card at the airport. I was assured it would cause me no problems when I got back to Korea on my return ticket. I found out that was bullshit before I even GOT back to Korea. I wasn't allowed on my flight back to Korea because I needed a ticket OUT of the country OR my alien card. I told the people in the Vancouver airport that I had been forced to surrender my alien card at airport immigration in Korea. They said they shouldn't have done that. So because all my money was back in Korea I had to call my Mom and get her to purchase me a ticket to Japan from Korea before I got on the plane. Luckily we were able to do this. When I returned to Korea I had all kinds of problems finding a place to stay, getting cable, opening a new bank account, practically everything required an alien card. I think the fact that I was staying in the country without an alien card, (or a work visa), just on a visitor's visa, (and who the hell wants to VISIT Korea?), is what led the people at the immigration office in Gwangju to assume I was a criminal. They accused me of having no respect for Korean laws. One asshole actually baited me to jump over the counter and fight him. I wanted to SOOOOO badly!

1. Before vacationing in Canada, I thought I had found a job in Pyungtaek working at a uni where there were a few people I knew working already. They told me I had already been pencilled into the schedule and they had all given me a class or so. The job prospect allowed me to spend a bit more liberally than I would have otherwise on my vacation. Then after returning to Korea, at the last minute I got a call saying that the uni couldn't hire me because I did not have a master's degree. They knew long before that I didn't have a master's so this was just an excuse to cover up the real reason I wasn't hired. No idea what that might have been. Maybe THEY thought I was illegally teaching while living in Korea on my visitor's visa too. I wasn't!

2. I remained in Korea, (near Pyungtaek having moved expecting the above job), in THIS

house, and looked for a kid's camp during the upcoming break. That would at least allow me to recover the savings I was spending doing nothing during the semester. I found a children's English camp in Naju at Dongshin University where I had done two camps before and was well known. At least I thought I was... Last minute THEY pulled out as well stating that one of their regular university profs wanted to do the camp and they had to show him preference.

3. They felt bad about that so they told me that there was an opening in the upcoming semester at Dongshin and I should apply. I did and I got the job! Signed the contracts and everything. I still have them!

Unfortunately the fingerprint-based criminal record check that I had applied for 8 months prior to the job offer STILL had not arrived due to a new and paranoid, hastily enforced law in Korea inspired by an isolated incident that led to the hypersensative, and racist, reaction of requiring ALL foreign workers in Korea to get the fingerprint-based CRC's, coupled with the fact that there are so many Canadians working in Korea, there was an 8 month backlog. At visa time the Gwangju Immigration Office would not allow me any leeway whatsoever even though I had a criminal record check that was less than 6 months old just not fingerprint-based, even though I showed them that it was from the same place, the C.P.I.C. Canadian Police Information Centre in Ottawa, you get fingerprint-based CRC's. I also explained that if you get one like the one I showed them and it comes back "incomplete" THEN that prompts a fingerprint-based criminal record check. Incomplete means that your sex and date of birth matches a sex offender report. Names are not released due to privacy laws so they compare fingerprints. My CRC was negative meaning my date of birth and sex did not match any sex offenses in Canada and I, therefore, did not need a fingerprint-based check. The fingerprint check DOES associate the person with pardoned sex offenders or people whose trials are ongoing. I am not sure if the name-based CRC does. In other words the government of Korea requiring fingerprint-based criminal record checks is completely useless, or at the very least trying to treat people as guilty before being tried or after being found innocent, and it is treating everyone who has a name-based check that has come back negative as though it has come back incomplete and their birth date and sex match those of a sex offender. In either case they are just viewing foreigners as the suspected child molesting barbarians their forefathers warned them of a long time ago. But I learned that trying to explain that at the immigration office might not have been the best idea because firstly they didn't know the recent laws were so racistly retro, (and although there is liable to be reams of it, pointing out info your immigration officer doesn't know just makes them even less likely to do that thing they didn't know they were supposed to do), and secondly because they whole-heartedly supported the racistly retro laws. So after causing a scene at the Gwangju Immigration office I went home and started to pack for Canada. My Criminal record check arrived the next day. It might have been two days later. Within HOURS though. So because I couldn't use it, I still have that

too.

4. Got a job as a night auditor in a hotel in Smithers. Only on weekends and it was midnight shift. Shittiest hours possible and part time. But I was good! I was perfectly balancing before I was even finished training. The regular auditor, Gary, was impressed. But went to Vancouver to get my stuff off the boat from Korea and visited my brother, Andy. He told me of a friend who worked at an ESL school in Victoria and she said the school was "Uber interested" in me. More pay, regular hours, better job. I had no intentions of moving but rumours spread and before long the whole town of Smithers believed I was moving to Victoria. My boss decided to take this as somewhat less than 100% commitment to a part-time, shit wage, shit shift job so she made up all kinds of fairy tales about how I wasn't a good fit for the job and I should move to Victoria. Other jobs I had done in the past in Smithers were no longer open to me like substitute teaching and working for the jail. They all required, of course, more, (and more expensive), certification. I couldn't even get a job at Canadian Tire or Dairy Queen because I was overqualified and wouldn't commit to them fully. What choice did that leave me?

5. Got to Victoria and promptly found out that to teach ESL in the place where they were uber interested I required TESL certification. I HAVE TESL certification. Well, according to them and Canada TESL, it doesn't meet the specifications of Canada TESL. I asked what those specifications might be but got no answer. I suspect there is one and only one specification and I have shared it here before: payment to Canada TESL. The facts that I had 15 years of experience and had actually taught TESL and contributed to the development of it in Korea, by far the largest TESL market in the world, don't mean a thing without the wallpaper. Just before I got a high ranking member of the school district to agree that my being forced to re-certify was asinine and getting her to grandfather me in, I got a job at Paladin Security that was double the hours but paid a bit more than the teaching job would have. It was straight midnights at 10 bucks an hour doing security at two office buildings and a strip mall. To this day I have never worked a bigger rip off of a job. Doubt I ever will. I talked to clients and they were ALL paying 25 bucks an hour for every hour of security I provided. So Paladin was probably making 500 bucks for every hour I worked and paying me 10. I was working full time midnights and living in utter poverty. Not to mention incredibly questionable living quarters. Ever been bitten by a bedbug? You don't want that shit let me tell you. I still managed after a year to pay off all my debts and get the hell off the island but not before having a major blow-up with brother Andy that we will never recover from.

6. Went to brother Rob and sis-in-law Terri's wedding in Calgary. While there I went to the Paladin office and asked about a transfer. They decided to put me in the hospital guard training the following week. So I put most of my stuff in storage in Victoria, brought the essentials and moved in with brother Jeff in Calgary. Before long I was working at the PLC, (Peter Lougheed Center), hospital. I was making 15 bucks an hour now. Didn't like the job so got transferred to Southport, the administration buildings for Alberta Health Services. LOVED the job there! For a very short time. Then my hours were cut in half and I had to scramble for hours at hospitals around town to fill in the missing 20 hours of my shifts. These hours were normally patient watch. Ever stare at a patient for 12 hours straight? It sucks, believe me! But I had an ace in the hole! I had put in my name for a job as a mailroom clerk/receptionist at Southport. This would be working directly FOR A.H.S. That means good hours, good salary, good benefits, the whole shebang! It took a while but I finally GOT THE JOB!!!!! I GOT THE JOB! They took my vital information and told me the job was mine. Gaylene was the name of the lady who did this. Well sometime after doing so the Alberta budget came out and there were major cuts to health care. Gaylene got all wishy washy. "Well, now that there's a hiring freeze and wage freeze I have to get permission to hire you. It probably won't take too long..." I had been told I already WAS hired. But I waited. People came and went in both the mailroom and the receptionist positions all the while I kept working there, was available but was not hired. Then the floods came. The hardest hit area was High River and Gaylene's house is in High River. So this postponed the job further. But I was strung along even further by Gaylene. Finally the job came up again and I applied again and was NOT chosen. I was told that Glennis would be better for the receptionist part and I would get a job only in the mailroom. That should come up in about a month. Well, to tell the truth, I preferred that. So the month came and went, then more and more months. The mailroom is busier than ever but I never did work a single shift in it marking the FIFTH job in 2 years that I had either almost had or actually HAD that the employer backed out of at the last minute.

7. I got sick of trying to fill in my week with crappy shifts at the hospitals and they got harder to get. The people I had to phone and beg for the hours were no longer answering their phones or emails or messages. I heard that one of the building guards at Southport was retiring soon so I went to TSM to apply for his position. This was in August of 2013. They told me they wanted me and I would be working the same job that Joe was retiring from, that is, Southland Park buildings 3 and 4. This is what building security call the same site that A.H.S. calls Southport. They also said that while I was waiting for Joe to retire at the end of November I could work weekends at SLP1 and 2. This filled out my week nicely. I worked for Paladin for 20 hours at Southport and I worked for TSM 24 hours, (12 hours Sat. and 12 hours Sun), a week. Oddly enough I was making $16.87/hr. from TSM, (only 16.50 from Paladin), working 8 extra hours per paycheck but I noticed I was not getting as much money. I did some calculations and found that TSM was taking almost 30% off my checks for tax and CPP and such. I brought this to their attention but for some reason it was ignored. I had two shirts that were the wrong size and had to work the summer with them covered up under the hot sweater. Brought this to their attention several times as well and was told they'd do something but nothing was done. Joe retired a month earlier than planned and at the very last minute I was half-assed trained for one day for my site and only because I reminded TSM that I hadn't been trained there. It seemed like nobody was doing their jobs at TSM. I found out why soon enough. 11 days after I started working full time for them they got bought up by Garda. One of the reasons I wanted to work for them was because I found the big company, Paladin, to be hard to communicate with and TSM being small was better. Not for long. Had I known I was jumping onto a sinking ship when I joined TSM I may have thought twice about it.

8. So I was now working for Garda. The first thing they did was fuck up December pay and have a Christmas party that I couldn't go to. I don't think ANY of the TSM people went and I don't think they were wanted. Way to make a first impression! It was also in December that my brother Jeff, who I was living with in a very reasonably priced three bedroom apartment that I would have LOVED to continue living in, got himself evicted. I didn't want him looking for a place on his own cuz being on disability he would have a better shot at finding something decent with me. So I moved out too. Into a place that isn't as nice, is farther from work and had me stranded out in the -30 weather waiting for buses or taxis far too many times, and costs triple for me. Only a little bit more for Jeff. And the TSM/Garda job just got crappier and crappier. Here is a copy of my request for a transfer off the site. These 12 reasons for leaving are euphemistic at best and I could go into gory detail about all of them but even without the detail, come on, would YOU have stayed?

Hi Geoff.



I'm sure this will come as no surprise. I've been weighing pros and cons of staying at SLP ever since I heard the rumours about the new rotating guard system and the pros column just keeps coming up light. Here are a few reasons why I would like to submit my official letter of resignation from the site. Now, I am not quitting. If TSM/Garda has another position, (closer to where I live), no reasonable offer will be refused. But I had three main reasons for quitting Paladin and moving to TSM. Those reasons will all have been duplicated whenever the new system is implemented and I have at least a half a dozen other reasons for wanting a change of site.



1. Hours cut in half at my site. (SLP3 & 4)



2. Forced to make up the rest of my hours at sites I don't like so much. I don't mind SLP 2 but like I said SLP 1 is secretary work and not what I signed up for.



3. Big company problems. For instance pay errors. The Christmas double pay and the most recent check for 857 I think for 84 hours. This happened with Paladin a lot and funnily enough it was never an error in my favour. Usually I had to do all kinds of extra bureaucracy to get the error amended and it took over two weeks. I'm guessing it might be the same. We shall see...



These are the three that lead to my jumping off the Paladin ship. But wait, there's more!



4. My little pay raise has turned out to be a massive pay cut. I averaged about 1300 for 80 hours with Paladin. I average 1000 for 84 hours, (at slightly higher pay), with TSM/Garda. I don't know who was using the wrong math but I much prefer Paladin's.



5. BRUTAL commute. Not your fault or Morguard's. But with the increased rent I now pay and the decreased salary I either stand out in the cold for at least half an hour or pay a much harder to endure taxi fare to get to work and back.



6. Differences in AHS, (and my), security philosophy and Morguard's security philosophy. I can't tell them how to run security, it's their building! But I've given you many examples of the conflicts that occur every single shift. There are many more. And I think this will only increase. I don't want to be there when that happens.



7. Contract and benefit deterioration. It just seems to be getting worse and I always have to wait a few months for it to do so.



8. Trust/stability issues with management. 11 days after I start, the company gets sold. Just over two months later I start hearing people saying, "Everybody is hired for all four sites," when during the application I heard, "Yes, SLP3 and 4 will be your primary site." I'm nervous about what will happen next.



9. Underappreciation of site specific knowledge and client service.



10. No Christmas party. Although Morguard's classy Safeway gift cert. was greatly appreciated.



11. Food being stolen from site fridge.



12. Personal card access refused to my worksite.



Okay, I'm sorry for making light but there are lots more little annoyances that contribute. I am sure there are plenty of better sites I could work at this time. In fact if it weren't for all the cool people I have met while working at SLP I might prefer almost anything else. I have already sent an email to Sandi telling her I would like to see some options that Garda has. If there are none at this time I am okay with that. I will land on my feet.



I have enjoyed my time at Southland Park and there are many things I will miss about it, God help me! But I just thought of a few extra reasons to leave in the time it took to type this! It's time I moved on. So Feb. 8th will be my last day. I'm not sure if I work it or not but that's when the two weeks will end. Hope things work out for everybody.



Cheers.


I can't believe I forgot to include the commitment to abysmal undertraining at the site. This always led to inconsistencies and they led to tenants' and clients' dissatisfaction, which in turn always led to guards being reprimanded and/or rudely bitched out for not doing the things they were not trained to do. But then again, you do things that are above and beyond, like my key/lock audit of both buildings I worked, and you get reprimanded and/or bitched out anyway. I went around to every door I could find and tried every key, fob, passcard I could find on it and recorded the results. The building tenants, (A.H.S. and Cenovus), were very happy I did that, thanked me and started working toward getting appropriate access for security where needed. Morguard represented by Melissa, strongly cautioned me against providing the information to the tenants and after I did anyway said, "Why did you do what I specifically told you NOT to do?" This is just one of many examples of #6.

But more has happened since. #3? It DID take two weeks for them to repay me the money they "forgot" to pay me. In essence I waited two weeks for them to give me my own money that they were withholding from me due to their incompetence. And surprise, surprise, it happened again. My final paycheck was supposed to be this past Friday. On it I was supposed to receive my holiday pay and about 200 bucks for uniform deposit. I have returned my uniform dry cleaned at my expense. In fact I talked to Geoff shortly before the previous paycheck and asked that my holiday pay and uniform deposit be included on THAT check. He was the one who told me to dry clean the uniform and that the holiday pay and deposit would be paid on the following check. Also I asked him about my record of employment during the same telephone conversation. I wish I had recorded that conversation. He told me that after my uniform was returned they would electronically submit my ROE to the Service Canada website. This way I could start my unemployment insurance claim. Well I got no paycheck Friday and the ROE that was submitted to Service Canada was incomplete. I sent Geoff an email asking him what was up and the following was his reply:

Hi Dave,


I’m sorry that I don’t know much about this. I will need to defer you to Brody and Simon regarding your questions. Guys, Dave resigned from TSM a short while ago. What is the status on his final payment and ROE?


Regards,


Geoffrey Crookes

Of course I had alerted him on payday, (Friday), and he waited just long enough to send this email so that I could not do anything about it for two more days on Monday. Who knows what will transpire then?

I guess I just didn't know the kind of crooks, (ar ar), I was working for. I am positive that he knows all there is to know about this. He is the one who submitted the wrong ROE specifically to delay my U.I. claim. It can't start until 1-28 days after the proper ROE is submitted by my last employer. Geoff DOES know about this. He's just doing his job. You should have seen his performance one day when he came to work to share the news of the guard rotation strategy. Lying right to my face thinking he's clever enough to sell the lies or I'm stupid enough to buy them. "This rotation strategy will be implemented so that there isn't so much dependence on the individual guards. It will improve security!" "Melissa and Ron didn't know of the plan when they said a week before it happened that they want you to work more hours in the other buildings. Then said, 'Ha ha! Just Kidding!'" He even told me there had been complaints about me talking bad about Melissa. Well that was true. I was. But never once did I say anything that was not true. So was it bad because I was saying it or because she just did bad things? He is supposed to be the employee representative. Without even considering that he actually went as far as to tell me to apologize to Melissa. First of all at LEAST as often as I badmouthed her I had other people at the site complaining to me about what a fucking bitch she is and I DEFENDED her on every occasion trying to do the professional thing. It was in confidence with co-workers that I said bad, and true things about her. She causes EVERYBODY including herself grief because of her attitude. She regularly get told to fuck off or go fuck herself by tenants, sometimes people in management of the businesses in the buildings. These things are not my fault. And Geoff should have been putting in SOME attempt at trying to support the employee rather than the money, er I mean the client.

I put in my request for transfer and Geoff lied again saying he'd look for a job for me or at least some shifts. My status was changed to "casual." But after he found me exactly zero hours of work in about three weeks I just quit. He actually tried to act like he didn't know I was hoping he would find me another site or some hours. "You mean you wanted me to look for hours for you???" "Yes, like you said you would and like I said I wanted. You even mentioned some ideas you had about working downtown. I said that would be good for me. You're saying you forget all this?" Then he had the nerve to think I'd believe him if he said he forgot but for sure he'd start looking THIS TIME. I actually found a job posting of Garda's, applied and got an interview ON MY OWN while he was pulling his pud. He still doesn't know about that. So I just quit. I have been replaced. By two people! Hah! Shows you how good I was. Also to put to rest the BS about the issue, during the time I worked weekends at SLP1 and 2 I just did a spectacular job. I was told that. And it was mostly my performance at SLP1 that was a contributor to this lame-ass rotation strategy. They have tried and failed miserably since I started full time, to find someone who is as good as me at writing out everyone's reports, answering calls, fielding complaints, watching site cams, being radio dispatch, being the epicentre of the building complex. They can't find anyone. Cuz it's a friggin hard job! And most of the people they get can't even get past the initial hurdle of language. But if they forced me to rotate, HEY they have me back again at SLP1. THAT is what is going on here and not a single person had the balls to tell me. They'd all rather lie because it's more professional. I guess I should have done a shitty job. What's the lesson here? As Homer says, "Don't like your job? Don't quit. Just do it half assed. It's the American way!" Calvin has a good take on this too:

Anyway, here I sit waiting, again, for them to give me money that is MINE that they are withholding allegedly because of their incompetence. I hope you can forgive me for being skeptical about this. I fully expect them to short change me on the uniform deposit and not refund me for dry cleaning or alterations, which they promised to do if receipts were provided and receipts were provided. They may try to pay me less than they should for holiday pay and I bet they will take the usual 29%+ off this check too even though I have pleaded with everybody I can for them NOT to do this. I am also waiting for Revenue Canada to send me all the info I need for my taxes for the last many many years. I am curious to see if the full amount of the money TSM SAYS was going to taxes actually WAS. I wouldn't put THAT past them either.

I apologize for the tedium of this post and don't expect there will be anyone who will read the entire thing through, but I am posting this for another reason: I want to have a complete history of what's been going on here for entertainment in the future and just in case I need it for quick reference. For example if U.I. rules against my claim and says I didn't have reason enough to quit. It's always fun to read about my struggles too. And while I'm in Jakarta having a blast and working a good job, it will be especially nice to read of the shit sandwiches I had to eat before I got it.

Anyhoo, if any of you were wondering why I'm going back overseas, this should clarify it a little bit. And there are plenty of things I have not included.