Happy 2014 dears!

Hi dears,

I wish you a prosperous 2014. For me, this year has alot of unlimited possibilities but of all, I intend to make it my last undergrad year. By God's grace it will be true.
Im also looking forward to going home after almost three years of not being home.

As for school, my winter semester courses are more like my fall sem... I took span courses,in other words, six credit hours classes. i need to have completed five of the six credit hours courses to fulfill my B.A. less alone six credit hours for humanities, six credit hours for social sciences and six credit hours for sciences. In sciences, i had to take a maths course so i took statistics 1000 in my first year which got cleared im happy no more maths classes for me. none the less, i needed electives of my own desire and my major courses.

So, for this semester i continue with my French class by Andrew Osborne, Religion by David,my field placement courses and a new course called "Becoming an Advocate" taught by Karen Naylor.

Well, i will have a new post about my field placement. In brief, i got an opportunity to work with Canada Post in their management team. Last semester i worked in Occupational Health and Safety. I job shadowed the safety officers in the depot and processing plant. This semester, i will be doing labour relations specifically dealing with arbitration.

Then i will take two courses in the summer semester to finish of my minor in management.

I pray all goes well and i get to clear this journey and continue with the next. God Bless x

Bullying

Hey dears,

Did u know bullying, violence and harassment happens at the workplace too?

Have u ever felt bullied while working?

Today, i'll write about bullying. 

Actually, instead of writing....i'll share my notes with you since they are straight forward and worth knowing.

There are different types of bullying as illustrated below:

The Constant Critic

Dear Managers please be sure to differentiate between good management vs Bullying.

I hope you have become a step wiser by adding more knowledge on bullying at the workplace xxx

A "village idiot"

Hey Dears,

As i said this semester alot will be going on, as all my courses are based on "Labour relations".

As for last week, I learnt another important work aspect on "Behaviour Based Safety Programs" by Cathy Walker. 

Workplace Behaviour is a very interesting topic to understand because you get to know:

• Aspects like whether it is the employee to blame when incidents like injuries occur at the workplace
• Employer's take on an incident?
• Should Financial incentives at work be enhanced?
• Whats good between internal responsibility system or external responsibility?

So such concepts are well covered by Cathy Walker concerning Behavior Based Safety Programs.

At most times when incidents happen, it is well known to be the employee's fault for being careless or a "village idiot" as referred by Robert Sass, the father of the three worker health and safety rights. Basically the theory assumes that workers are stupid and choose to make bad choices that could be prevented instead of hurting themselves.

Well, I could argue for the rest of my life but to pick a few : 

• The nature or kind of work matters
• Employer's supervision is necessary
• Proper working equipment 
• Proper training and enough knowledge
• Unsafe acts--->unsafe working conditions

Such issues should be taken into consideration before pointing fingers to the employee as being the one at fault in workplace accidents.

With regard to financial incentives, organisations are rewarded for having less injuries. There has been criticism on organisations giving financial incentives to make them not report accidents which is why i asked earlier on should they be improved? is it necessary to have financial incentive?

Last but not least, health inspectors??? is it better for the organisation (internal responsibility) to have their own health and safety committee in the workplace instead of an external source like health inspectors having to monitor their working standards now and then?

Such cases are interesting to know as a worker you should know your right when to be safe.

What do you think of the video? 

Occupational Health and Safety

Hey Dears!

I know its been a while. I did not keep my "stay tuned" promise but again I must say, the workload is just too heavy to handle. I have soo much to tell but the thought of typing kills it. Anyways I still enjoy sharing my "Labour Relations" experience so whenever I can I will.

As for today, I picked one of the current issue assignment i presented on in my Occupational Health and Safety class. It was about the safety of Miners. As we all know each job has a health and safety measure entitled to it. How well do we, employees, feel safe at our workplace? Do we look forward into working in a secured environment each morning? These are just some of the things that need to be taken into account as we proceed working.

So back to Mining!

 I think Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs on this planet! Eish, the thought of going under the ground and not knowing what to face down there, is a bit challenging. So respect to our miners and  a better & safer working environment should be created for them.

There are so many mining incidents that occur. Some are a success story like the one in Peru where the mining rescue team did great to get the miners out of the pit after staying for six days underground. However the success does not come all the time.There are other mining incidents like in China, the Xiaojiawan coal mine disaster that was caused by gas explosion which led to deaths and injuries. Not just in China, but even in Tanzania, we have had severe numbers of mining deaths in the past. 

Again I repeat, Miners face alot of physical hazards like danger of dusts, fire, explosion and electrocution and other hazards like vibration, extreme temperatures, noise, slips, falls, cuts etc...

To think!

So what happens to the families of the victims? Is there any compensation? Is it a fair compensation? Are there any measures to minimize such incidents so as to ensure unsafe work conditions are eliminated from the work place? What happened to Emergency preparedness programs? Will having Unions help?

Have a great Week!

Back to school

Happy 2013 Dears,

Oh wells, another year, another era, another SCHOOL SESSION :)

New challenges, New chances, New opportunities and New professors except for David Camfield whom i took labr1260 with in the last semester.

So im back to school. I had a well rested Christmas Break that i would not trade it for anything. 

This semester I will be doing labour courses alone without any electives, so there will be soo much to talk about in building a better workplace for both employers and employees. 

Stay tuned xxx

Aspire to Inspire

Hey Dears,

I love this quote

 " There's no need to be perfect to inspire others. 

Let others get inspired by how you deal with your imperfections."

Think about the quote while looking forward to the weekend :)

xxx

Labour Studies?

Hey dears,

So if you are wondering what Labour Studies (L.S) is all about, i would love to share my knowledge with you.

So far im doing one major course called working for a living. I have to complete two of each level to acquire my L.S degree. This means, I have to take two courses from 1000 level, two courses from 2000 level and 2 courses from a 3000 level. This is just a General major degree in labour studies if you want to specialize, you may attempt to go further with masters. 

Anyways, As for now... If you are thinking what is L.S? why LS? where should I take a L.S degree? how? who? etc etc and etc....well, ill try answer some of your questions with what i know.

I'm doing my Labour Studies degree as a major and a minor in management from the University of Manitoba. My main prof is David Camfield. a very good prof, he is even making me like the course more and more and even moooooore....he is very interesting. Karen Naylor is also my other prof plus Julie Guard. Okay, it doesnt matter where you acquire your degree, all in all is the usage. If the opportunities are there then grab them as much as you can because a golden chance never comes twice. I thank God i got this chance to pursue a canadian Labour studies degree.

Soo, what are the elements in L.S?

Personally, I would say LS may be more  political but it has both business and Arts qualities although mostly in Arts. Initially, I wanted a HR degree under Bcomm but then since i had to take maths, which i did but it did not go well, so i had to look for a pathway that would led to the same career of dealing with employees and employers which was why i chose L.S.

With L.S, I get to learn topics like the history of work, how the workplace has changed and what could be done to improve the working conditions. Seriously, when you think about it, we spend alot of our lives working, so basically it is essential to know about the workplace, most of it may be logic but then there may be deeper meanings which is what L.S provides.

Yes, I enjoy my course soo much to an extent i decided to write on it hahaaa

We all know, studying is not easy, and we do not just want to "study to study" as my dad says. We all try to Study with a purpose and atleast say we attend a course and know by the end of the course, something will have changed in terms of expanding our knowledge.

However, sometimes we have no choice but to attend a "filler" or an "elective" course just to fulfill a specific  requirement.

Anyways, feel free to share some of your courses in brief and what you like about them. You can send me an email to zarlgal@yahoo.com and i will publish them or you might want to just mention them below as a comment.

Walk with me as i pursue my Labour degree xxx