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Allow me to clarify. I wasn't saying "nope" to having received these supposed memos. I was saying "nope" to the notion that y'all get any say whatsoever in my name.
I'd say I was sorry, except I'm not. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Pffft. The Queen of the Universe doesn't have to listen to what other people say. Even if they have very strokable hair...
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Thanks for the commiseration, pooka and ketchupqueen. It is complicated because I did not have a work permit yet (because of Ottawa's delay with paperwork), and so could not legally be paid during that time. However, I spent that time working in good faith under the promise I would be back-paid. When the time came, I was told that would not be legally possible -- unlike what i had been repeatedly promised previously.
I worked hard to find a creative solution (my doing, by the way, as the option presented to me was just to eat it) in scheduling my year-long contract at that point. I will take a 6 month leave of absence as of the first week of September, still at full pay, to comp me for the time already put in. This allows me to focus on Canadian licensing exams, etc. However, that bite in our finances will take a long time to recover from. *wince
Tatiana, I will seek it out. Thanks for the recommendation. Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Still, CT, that situation sucks, and big time. I didn't think Canadian law allowed for that sort of thing to happen, and it pisses me off that it does. That's just so very very wrong.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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As much as I'd like to say that I take the high road, in reality, I'm more of a middle road person. So, pretty much everyone gets to Scotland before me.
As of this posting, I still haven't made it to Scotland. Or the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: As much as I'd like to say that I take the high road, in reality, I'm more of a middle road person. So, pretty much everyone gets to Scotland before me.
As of this posting, I still made it to Scotland. Or the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
"And lo, a great mist hung heavy o'er the still waters..."
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CT, I didn't realize that your situation had taken that turn. I mean, I knew about the business of not getting paid for 6 months, but I had no idea that they'd tried to deny you the pay entirely. That's absolutely horrible. I'm glad that you were able to do more than just eat it, but even so...that's completely unacceptable. I expect that you aren't at a point where a friend's anger about your mistreatment is helpful, but I'm absolutely incensed by this.
So the director you've mentioned in the past--how on earth were they able to look you in the eye and tell you this?
I don't think that I could continue working for a place that had treated me that way. I'm glad that you've made it work for you (and sincerely so; I'm not at all trying to tell you what to do here), but I don't know that I could have.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: As much as I'd like to say that I take the high road, in reality, I'm more of a middle road person. So, pretty much everyone gets to Scotland before me.
As of this posting, I still haven't made it to Scotland. Or the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
<edit -- oops, left out a key word>
Well, the broken heart can ken no second spring again! That's very sad. (((hugs)))
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I really, really appreciate the shared anger. It was a difficult time.
It may be that you do not know how limited my options were, Noemon. I had a Temporary Work Permit, which is good for one job (and one job alone). I could not legally be hired by anyone else for any reason, or even by the same people to do a different job.
In order to get that work permit, the people hiring me had to show that there were no similarly skilled Canadians willing or able to do that work (otherwise, the job should go to a citizen*** of this country -- same as for the US). To do this, the job had to be advertised first in a national publication for a few months without any takers.
So my options were: 1) find a way to work it out with this job 2) be unemployed while I applied for another work permit, which would likely take another 6 months and require shelling out yet more money that we didn't have 3) leave my husband -- who had contracted for work he had to complete here -- and go back into the States, find and pay for a place to live and get a job of some sort down there. We had lived in separate countries before, and I had vowed not to do that again unless absolutely unavoidable. It would have also required the outlay of a large amount of money to set up -- which we no longer had.
There was no option of working at Starbucks, or in a daycare center, or the like, at least not in Canada. Not covered by my work permit. I believe research work might have been considered as free trade under NAFTA (and so would not have required the employer to preferentially hire a Canadian citizen), but I did not have the contacts to set that up at that time.
Additionally, if I want to work in [my field] in [this province], I will have to work with this department in some way or another. If I want to work in [my field] in Canada, my work life would be impacted (to some greater or lesser extent, depending on whether I set up a private office or worked through a University) by my relations here.
It is hard to be an immigrant, no matter what the country.
This happened to work out okay. I believe the problem had roots in honest ignorance, willful ignorance, willingness to use the circumstances of a situation, honest misremembering, some dissembling, and face-saving due to extreme embarrassment. I don't think anyone set out to deceive me, but rather that things which should have been expected were ignored, and then it later became a matter of taking the path of least resistance -- which happened to look like it was over me. *wry look
I've found the hard part about being an adult is learning how juggle that middle ground and yet not get bitter. It is very tempting and easy (I think) to turn around and do exactly the same to those who come after you, who work under you, as was done to you. I think we can do better than that, and we should.
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*** or Landed Immigrant (aka Permanent Resident in the US), which is a technical status that requires about a year to establish, minimally
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Of note, legal action is certainly an option for someone in a bad work situation to consider. In my case, it is absolutely true that they could not pay me for time worked before my work permit was valid -- regardless of what had been promised, verbally, several times. It really would have been illegal, although nobody acknowledged knowing that before it was put to the pinch. Maybe they didn't, but someone should have checked on it before it was promised.
That is why I am able to do what I have worked out, as being on leave of absence for a future part of a contract is negotiable and legal.
Moreover, as I said, my actions would have effect on my future work life, whether justified or not. And had I even considered legal action -- which I didn't, given what I had already come to understand about the situation -- that is a long, slow, and expensive process without at least a union backing you up in a labor dispute. This happens to be one of the only (or maybe the only) job position of this type at this institution that does not fall under union negotiation.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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And I thought Canada was supposed to be our friendly neighbor. Sounds like they've been taking cues from US labor practices. Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Mighty Cow, can you tell me what you are basing the statement that this is typical American labor practices on?
Posts: 1753 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I believe it is a common experience for immigrants to any country. In good part this is because the regulations and paperwork are always Byzantine (the nature of a large institution invested with serious responsibility), it is (for many employers) a more uncommon experience to hire a new immigrant rather than someone local or at least established in the system, and individual cases always vary.
I saw this happen time and again during my training in the US with foreign medical graduates: same story, different details.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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