Things are in a sorry state.

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Boac
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Things are in a sorry state.

#1 Post by Boac » Fri May 27, 2022 8:33 am


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Fox3WheresMyBanana
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Re: Things are in a sorry state.

#2 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Fri May 27, 2022 11:30 am

Canada's policing is almost at crisis level according to the National Police Federation (cops' union)
RCMP applicants down two thirds, graduates less than half (let's not mention quality). Our regional police academy is even worse.
Local city cops have just announced they can't get any summer staff. They've decided to allow staff leave and reduce services.
The local healthcare are in a similar state, but have decided to keep staffing levels and limit summer leave. What happened last year in a neighbouring Province when they tried that, is that lots of staff quit, joined an agency, and were back in their old jobs a week later with better pay and able to take leave. Plus of course the Province is now paying pots more to the agency.

Why is of course the question.
In North America, students typically pay for qualifications then earn that back in the job. Police training here costs $31k, including accommodation and meals, for the 8 month course. RCMP training is free.
This only makes sense if jobs are easy to get and pay well. Jobs were not easy to get and didn't pay well initially when the rot started about 6 years ago. Now, they are begging for staff, but very few have the $31k. The pay is reasonable, but the job conditions aren't. You can self-study for a network administrator's quals for less than a thousand bucks*, and walk into a job with the same salary at least as an RCMP constable. And no bad guy is going to shoot you, and you will not be on a murder charge if you manage to shoot the bad guy first, or suspended for 2 years whilst your name is dragged through the mud because the bad guy happened to be coloured/transgender/etc.

For jobs like school bus driving, which are also near or at crisis across North America, the government/school boards are now prepared to pay for the training. However, this isn't fixing the problem, merely slowing the decline. The problems also include job security, minimum hours, and vaccine mandates.

It's really simple. Humans are not Resources. The entire HR model of minimising costs, zero hours, no benefits, and the ever-present threat of outsourcing has led to the inevitable lack of people prepared to work under those conditions. And, critically, the immigrants can no longer afford the accommodation and/or living expenses.
There is no labour shortage, there is a slave shortage.

*real example: I saw the job ad in today's listings, and checked the qual costs.

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Re: Things are in a sorry state.

#3 Post by jimtherev » Fri May 27, 2022 10:22 pm

Eyeopening and frightening, Fox3!

Certainly witnessed echoes of the same over this side of the ditch. In fact, a friend did the 'transfer to the agency nurse' bit only last month.

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Re: Things are in a sorry state.

#4 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Sat May 28, 2022 12:51 am

Locally (10 miles radius, all rural), we still have absolutely zero crime. The Mounties drive down the road once a year because someone gave them that box to tick 7 years ago. It happens in June. Everybody leaves their stuff in the yard like it was the 1950s, which largely it is. That's not to say there's nothing the government would call crime, like teens riding ATVs around without helmets, insurance, a licence, etc. But the kids are polite, they wave, they don't crash or speed. It's rural, they have to get around, and they don't have horses any more. No one ever reports them. However, I now lock my truck up when in either of the two cities due to the petty theft risk. I had to start doing that about 6 years ago.
Chances of getting a family doctor are basically zero. But, when I needed an op a few years back, I was awake after it within 9 hours of walking into the hospital and describing the problem, so very happy with that.

I'm very interested to know how things are developing elsewhere in the world, since I have a very limited horizon here. I have a cousin in a big Canadian city, but his crime is highly localised. There's a murder every fortnight in the rough end, yet I have walked to the airport at 4am, just 3 miles away, and felt and was perfectly safe. His family has a doctor, but hard to tell how good since they are all healthy.

So, eyeopening, but not personally frightening.

Was your friend one of many doing that? Did it work out well for him/her?

I'd be interested to know what effect Covid has had on the homeschooling situation, and on church attendance, if you happen to know either generally or from anecdotal evidence?

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Re: Things are in a sorry state.

#5 Post by llondel » Sat May 28, 2022 1:13 am

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote:
Sat May 28, 2022 12:51 am
I'd be interested to know what effect Covid has had on the homeschooling situation, and on church attendance, if you happen to know either generally or from anecdotal evidence?
Do you mean for people who were already educating at home prior to the pandemic? Most of those carried on pretty much as before apart from not being able to go on field trips or visit the library, and a lot started offering help to all the panicked parents of schoolchildren who suddenly had to figure out how to get their children to deal with the home learning environment.

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Re: Things are in a sorry state.

#6 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Sat May 28, 2022 1:55 am

I meant as in people switching to homeschooling permanently.

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Re: Things are in a sorry state.

#7 Post by llondel » Sat May 28, 2022 3:37 am

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote:
Sat May 28, 2022 1:55 am
I meant as in people switching to homeschooling permanently.
Enough have switched permanently in England for the government to try to clamp down on it and probably wreck it as a sensible alternative to schools.

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Re: Things are in a sorry state.

#8 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat May 28, 2022 5:20 am

D#2 graduated from high school last night. All of the speakers mentioned the almost two full school years that were done via remote learning. Don't think a whole lot of learning was done, if my daughter is any example.
She encountered a former classmate who she hadn't seen for almost three years. For whatever reason, she continued remote learning for this year as well, and only decided to participate in the graduation exercise at the last minute.
The schools here went to a "Hybrid" learning program where the classes were done in-person or via Zoom or some other platform. I don't think there were a whole lot doing full remote. :-?

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Re: Things are in a sorry state.

#9 Post by boing » Sat May 28, 2022 2:18 pm

At the State jail 30% of the security guards on duty are now supervisory staff on overtime because they cannot get new hires. These people do have some basic level of knowlege but they have not completed proper prison guard training. Fortunately these people do not normally need to physically interact with prisoners, they work from the other side of a security screen but who knows what would happen if there was a serious incident between prisoners where they had to get physically involved.

It seems as though staff shortages are affecting nearly every activity not just the airlines.

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