Skip to main content

Home/ Career Trends/ Group items tagged of

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Melinda Mah

What Makes a Healthy Work Environment? - Healthy Environments - 0 views

  • Physically inactive employees cost employers $488 more per year in more in sick time, benefits and lost productivity
    • Melinda Mah
       
      It's to the employer's and owner's advantage to encourage good health in the medium- and long-term.
  • Employees who smoke cost companies $3,396 more each year
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Yet another reason not to smoke - it makes sense considering all the ill effects of smoking that we now know about.
  • Mental and nervous disorders have replaced musculoskeletal conditions as the top conditions causing long-term disability.
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Now that it's become the more common thing, perhaps some of the stigma will go away, especially when it comes to fear of being fired or not promoted in a workplace.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • encourage workers to take responsibility for their own health, safety and wellness and contribute to creating a healthy work environment
    • Melinda Mah
       
      No one understands a person's health like that person.
  • create environments that make the healthy choice the easy choice
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This is important to do in many aspects of life. If fast food wasn't junk food, people would probably still choose it because it's easy.
  • promote work-life balance and make work a healthy life experience
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This shows employers care about their workers. It also means that there will be higher retention. For companies who are afraid that young people will leave after a year or two at their company and who refuse to train young people, it seems like this would be one of a bunch of ways to encourage employees to stay with that company. Treating employees well and caring about them makes tham more likely to stay.
  • jobs are challenging
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This is a good point that success only comes when jobs are challenging. Many people in low-paying jobs are unhappy because they do the same thing day-in, day-out, and it doesn't require much thought.
  • employees have adequate resources to do their job
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This reminds of jobs where employees have to bring in their own stuff to make their workplace happy, or even functional. Specifically, this reminds me of the elementary school teachers who are given a tiny budget that isn't even adequate for providing everyone with pencils for a year, let alone all the books, paper, markers, chalk and other teaching supplies.
  • Lower absenteeism
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Definitely true. If I had absolute independence in middle school, I would have skipped a lot of my classes and gone to do something else more interesting - like go to the library and read a bunch of books. As well, many people will show up but not actually do work. Because many people are paid either a) an hourly wage or b) to show up during certain hours, it encourages workers to be less effective with their time.
  • lexibility – allowing employees to have some capacity to adapt their workday to respond to family issues such as a child becoming ill or one who has special needs, school visits and parent-teacher interviews or special needs of elders. It typically includes family responsibility leave for employees. Supportive supervisors/managers whose management style values staff and is characterized by a desire to help employees achieve better balance between work and the rest of their lives. A culture that is family friendly - overall attitudes, beliefs, values and taken-for-granted ways of doing things that support work-family issues as legitimate workplace concerns, and as an opportunity to develop ‘new ways of working’.  Options include maternity, paternity, family and personal leave provisions. Alternative work arrangements – options are available to employees including daily or scheduled flex time arrangements, job-sharing, reduced hours, compressed work week, family leave options, part-time work, gradual retirement, telecommuting, other leaves and sabbatical options. Such alternative work arrangements are seen as ways of working, and employees using them are not sidelined, marginalized or belittled. Recognition of child and elder care issues including support for child care, providing access to a service regarding child or elder care, establishing on-site child care or, developing a consortium with other employers in order to provide emergency child care. This includes accommodating the needs of employees who are breastfeeding their children.
    • Melinda Mah
       
      In this list of reasons, all except one are family-oriented. I'm guessing only parents and children count as making a "family" for many people. Personally, I don't plan to have kids, and one of my parents passed away shortly after I finished high school. I hope this flexibility extends to family needs for couples who won't/can't have kids. Also, I wonder if this flexibility will extend to pet emergencies? What counts as a valid pet who is member of the family? For example, I can see a workplace sympathetic to a dog or cat, but maybe not to hermit crab.
  •  
    A page of the BC Ministry of Health website that outlines what makes a healthy work environment. It's most important for the business itself to promote health because it makes it easier for all employees to be healthy and productive. Annotated Link: https://diigo.com/05nyj6
  •  
    A page of the BC Ministry of Health website that outlines what makes a healthy work environment. It's most important for the business itself to promote health because it makes it easier for all employees to be healthy and productive. Annotated Link: https://diigo.com/05nyj6
jscharrer

The Big Idea: The Age of Hyperspecialization - 1 views

shared by jscharrer on 17 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • The term “hyperspecialization” is not synonymous with outsourcing work to other companies or distributing it to other places (as in offshoring), although it is facilitated by the same technologies. Rather, it means breaking work previously done by one person into more-specialized pieces done by several people.
  • separation often leads to improvements in quality, speed, and cost.
  • consider how much time you personally spend on tasks that don’t draw on your expertise and that you may not even be particularly adept at performing.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Quality improves when more of the work that goes into a final product is done by people who are good at it.
  • The improvement is even greater when, as with TopCoder projects, people who are good at work compete with one another to get it.
  • power of the online “open innovation marketplace”
  • another major benefit of hyperspecialization: speed.
  • More generally, hyperspecialization can reduce clock time by assigning related tasks to different people who then accomplish them in parallel rather than serially.
  •  
    The growth of hyperspecialization and new markets such as TopCoder, through which individuals can 'sell' their specialized talents, allow individuals to compete in an increasing "flat" world. Outsourcing if often thought of only in terms of wealthy developed world companies seeking cheaper labour from developing countries, however this article highlights that some outsourcing is done to increase the quality of work, not simply to decrease cost. In an increasing connected world, individuals can 'outsource' the parts of their job that they do not excel in, to other individuals who are specialized in it.
sarahbunting

Punished by Rewards - 0 views

  •  
    In Chapter 8 of Economics for Everyone, Jim Stanford brings up on multiple occasions the need for labour extraction, and the use of the carrot and stick (reward and punishment) model in all businesses. As soon as I was reading this it made me think of a book I read last year by Alfie Kohn on Punishment and Reward. Kohn believes that punishments are just as bad as rewards, and that using either reduces happiness, and productivity. The first section of the book focuses on the research showing that the use of both punishments and rewards is detrimental to people's ability to do good work. In the second section he looks specifically at punishments and rewards in 3 places, the workplace, the school, and the home. In the third section he suggests new methods of motivation for all three places. When I origionally read this I was focused on his his ideas about school, however he his theories are equally important to the world of work!
Melinda Mah

HowStuffWorks "Transistors on the Nanoscale" - 1 views

  • By the 1960s, computer scientist (and Intel co-founder) Gordon Moore made an interesting observation. He noticed that every 12 months, engineers were able to double the number of transistors on a square inch piece of silicon. Like clockwork, engineers were finding ways to reduce the size of transistors
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Every year, there are twice as many transistors: twice as much computing power. However, this can't continue forever.
  • These days, the number of transistors doubles every 24 months.
    • Melinda Mah
       
      It seems like the increasing power of computers is slowing. This could mean that we will get into cheaper ways of making the same level of technology, contributing to the leveling out of advantages between education in developed countries and other countries. This could also affect the future of being able to have clear and realistic communication in the future. Today's Canadian systems suffer from inadequate bandwidth and infrastructure, and there are few signs that it will be improved dramatically enough to have clear visual communication. It may be that future communication will emphasize speaking and typing without the aid of body language.
  • some physicists and engineers think we might be bumping up against some fundamental physical limits when it comes to transistor size.
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This will mean we will need a fundamental innovation to change to improve computing power in the future if we are to conserve physical resources.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • one day we'll hit the physical limits of how small traditional transistors can be. That's because once you hit the nanoscale, you're dealing with the bizarre world of quantum mechanics. In this world, matter and energy behave in ways that seem counterintuitive.
    • Melinda Mah
       
      A limit to processing power...but perhaps it will be enough in combination with human cognitive surplus to come up with solutions to energy problem and sustainability.
  • Electron tunneling is a bit like teleportation. When material is very thin -- the thickness of a single nanometer (about 10 atoms thick) -- electrons can tunnel right through it as if it weren't there at all.
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Surprising application of quantum mechanics. Perhaps there will be more jobs in quantum mechanics now that they have significant real-world application!
  • beyond the nanoscale is the atomic scale, where you're dealing with materials that are only a few atoms in size.
  • it might mean that the advancements in microprocessor development will slow down and level off.
  • companies will likely find ways to improve microprocessor efficiency and performance, nonetheless.
  • It seems like microprocessor manufacturers will only be able to keep Moore's Law going for a few more years
  •  
    I was inspired by Megan Rowe's post to look up information about transistors. Gratton posit that computing power will continue to increase as it ha now, but I had heard that we were reaching a limitation with transistors, so I looked up more information about this possibility. The exponential increase in computing power has already begun to slow down. Link to annotated version: https://diigo.com/03w8c7
sarahbunting

10 Crowdfunding Sites To Fuel Your Dream Project - 0 views

  •  
    On page 216 of the Shift, Gratton mentions that the internet is increasingly being used to help entrepreneurs find funding for their projects. This made me think of something I had seen in passing a couple of times, called 'crowdfunding'. Crowdfunding refers to sites that allow you to raise money for a certain idea, company, start-up etc. These sites charge a fee (usually percentage of money raised) and provide certain services to customers (PR, coaching etc). Some sites allow only certain types of ventures (creative ventures, Bands only, T-shirts only, non-profit/charity only), while others are open to everyone. Sites typically offer a "Keep-Everything" policy (where you keep the money regardless of getting the goal), or an "All-or-nothing" policy (where you only get to keep the money if you reach the goal). This article provides some of the top platforms for crowdfunding, however in my preliminary research I was able to find sites that were not on this list such as "GoGetFunding" and "Patreon" and "GiveForwards". It seems that these sites are popping up all over the internet! Definitely something to keep an eye on!
Melinda Mah

Planning your 'career curve' - Fortune - 1 views

  • Older adults have tended to think about one career curve
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Same as Gratton's thought.
  • Gen Y’s, however, should be thinking of multiple curves. Quite likely, you will have ups, downs, and do-overs. For you, the career curve framework might better be called career carillon, because the line of your career is likely to resemble a series of bell curves
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Interesting that it specifically addresses the Gen Y. Does this mean Baby Boomers are exempt? I'd say Baby Boomers will also experience the career carillon since they are living into their 90s and are good to work for another 10, 20 or more years. Then there's Gen X who are still fairly young and have half of their careers left still - they will probably experience career carillons. Also, what about Gen Z? Will Gen Z have these career curves, or will Gen Z be even more fluid in their careers?
  • What other priorities do you have for your life? How much time would you like to devote to work?
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This is a good point. I have many other priorities and interests in my life. I am able to handle 9-5, five days a week, but realistically I would prefer either fewer hours per week or to work one of the weekend days so that I would have a free day during regular work hours.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Lots of people say they’d like more flexibility in their work arrangements, but what would that really mean for you? How much spontaneity or predictability do you need to accomplish the other priorities in your life?
    • Melinda Mah
       
      I like some routine, but I get bored if my analytical and creative sides are not engaged. If I have the time to take care of myself and keep my energies levels up, then I am more open to spontaneity. I like being able to roughly make my own schedule, but I like other people setting up a few times where I need to be doing X task. 
  • How much money do you need at this stage of your life? What standard of living will be comfortable for you?
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This is a good point. This is when tracking expenses comes in handy to figure out how much one is spending, and then adjusting from there. Personally, when I started tracking my expenses, I was a little shocked by how much I spend, and it made me spend less because I was more aware of my spending.
  • Challenge
  • Responsibility
  •  
    A short article on how to think in terms of a career carillon instead of a single career curve.
jscharrer

Thinkopolis V: Education Nation - Workopolis - 1 views

  • we are spending 13 per cent longer in school in 2014 than we were in 2000.
  • 6 per cent more of us now have a bachelor's degree as our top level of education on our resumes. Post graduate studies are increasing as well, with 43 per cent more Canadians having master's degrees on their resumes,
  • 3 per cent of people told us their degrees are not relevant to their jobs. (39 per cent not at all related, and 34 per cent not directly related.)
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • 56 per cent also say they are over-educated for the requirements of their jobs
  • Employers look at 16,000 resumes a day in the Workopolis resume database to find candidates. The vast majority of their searches are keyword based. However, only 1 per cent of keyword searches are related to degree type or specific education
  • ive degrees (bachelor, masters and PhD) most likely to land you a job in your field: Human Resources (88 per cent) Engineering (90 per cent) Computer Science (91 per cent) Pharmacy (94 per cent) Nursing (97 per cent
  • Salary-wise, Economics grads come out on top, with the average wages for their first jobs being $57,000 a year. The average pay for the first jobs of the other liberal arts graduates is just over $43,000*.
  • From a financial point-of-view, the most lucrative fields of study for first jobs right now are Computer Science, Engineering, Law, Math, and Healthcare.
  • While Canadians are obtaining higher levels of education in 2014 than they were at the turn of the century, the vast majority of employers show more interest in a candidate's skills and experience and where they've worked previously than in their education
  • you are choosing your education based on job market demand, the best return-on-investments currently are in Computer Science and Engineering along with certain healthcare fields such as Pharmacy and Nursing.
  • university educated Canadians are 68 per cent more likely to land leadership roles within five years of graduation
colinsarkany

Self Marketing | What is Self Marketing? - 0 views

  • An increasing amount of skilled workers are competing for a shrinking pool of jobs
  • This is made worse by the fact that the world now has a globalized labor market, forcing United States workers to contend with highly qualified candidates from other countries seeking lucrative jobs and contracts.
  • It gives candidates more opportunities to effectively communicate their values, skills, experiences, and vision to potential employers. Successful self marketing helps employees separate themselves from the hundreds of other applicants who may be competing for the same job
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Today's workers must use the tools of the Internet and marketing techniques to frame their skills and experiences in the best possible ways to avoid losing themselves in the pack
  • Freelancers are the second group of people who must aggressively market themselves.
  • There are two groups of people who are most interested in self marketing, inluding those candidates who are seeking jobs, looking for promotions, or trying to switch jobs
  • These independent contractors will need to self market continuously to keep clients aware of their brand, their abilities, and their reputation..
  • job seekers must identify what kinds of jobs they want, what their biggest strengths and weaknesses are, and how they are perceived professionally
  • The process of building a personal brand is labor intensive. Job seekers must constantly update blogs, respond to emails, maintain correspondence, and refine their overall image. Their self marketing plan should describe in clear language a systematic approach to the job hunt. It needs to identify daily tasks, key contacts, ongoing projects, and new networking opportunities, giving potential employees a clear sense of when, where, and how they will promote themselves.
  • At the outset, the self marketer needs to set goals for themselves.
  •  
    This short article from a marketing school resource outlines key themes for self-marketing and the need for skill mastery in the changing workplace. While also providing more general advice to job-seekers everywhere in the form of how to put yourself out there. 
colinsarkany

Why do so many Canadian businesses fear cloud computing? - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

  • Many Canadian executives are confused about what cloud computing is, and are worried it’s not a safe way to store important company information, even as the technology promises competitive benefits for flexibility and cost cutting
  • only 10 per cent of the 476 Canadian executives polled said they were familiar with cloud computing, and of that sliver, only 45 per cent could correctly define cloud computing
  • cloud computing is “a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet,”
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Microsoft says that many businesses could save money by running programs in the cloud and they can make starting a technology business cheaper, since many services are pay-as-you-go.
  • Microsoft said that almost every business already uses one cloud-based service, whether it’s e-mail, a collaboration system or data storage
  • It’s a challenge of awareness.
  • Businesses have been bombarded with cautionary tales of data security breaches at companies such as Target, Home Depot and JPMorgan, and that’s contributing to a climate of uncertainty and trepidation around privacy.
  • cybersecurity is a real threat, there is a lot of unfounded fear in the market over the risks of cloud computing
  • revenues from commercial cloud services were up 128 per cent from the same time last year in its first quarter earnings on Oct. 23
  •  
    This is a short article from the Globe and Mail addressing the concerns of "Cloud Computing" in the business world, which is relevant as one of Friedman's flatteners. It also links to chapter three through the second topic in terms of horizontal business where you are able to do more yourself, the same principle is true with cloud computing - more can be done in-house with its use limiting the need for other tech/people.
sarahbunting

FutureLearn - Free online courses - 0 views

  •  
    Convergence 1 - (pg 204 of 3.0 edition, Friedman) "The convergence of the ten flatteners had created a whole new platform. It is a global, Web-enabled platform for multiple forms of collaboration. This platform enables individuals, groups, companies and universities anywhere in the world to collaborate - for the purposes of innovation, production, education, research, entertainment, and, alas, war-making - like no creative platform ever before" This website provides free online courses in a variety of topics. It collaborates with Universities, Libraries Museums, and Professional Associations across the world to provide these resources. It is really free learning, the only fee is if you want a Certification of Participation at the end. Otherwise it is a really great online set up for learning, that goes week by week (much like our D2L, or eConestoga) with activities, readings, articles, discussion boards, videos etc.
janellekoivula

Ministry of Natural Resources job cuts, office closures coming, province says | Toronto... - 1 views

  •  
    This article reflects the general trend of Westernized countries who at first implement programs and budgets to help protect and conserve their natural resources and species, but after realizing the costs of maintaining such a program, they cut funding and eventually abandon the initial idea altogether. This typically occurs when a government is attempting to privatize areas of the public sector, and has happened to several services and industries within Ontario. This article also highlights the effects of cancelling protective programs for the natural landscape and its resources, as many people who rely on certain natural resource industries are at risk of losing their jobs, as well as those involved with the protection and enforcement of such programs. This specific case deals with the endangered species of Caribou living on a conservation area in Northern Ontario, and their fate lies at the hands of the final outcome of this decision to cancel or continue the level of protection currently over that area. The primary threat is the natural resource industry and their extraction practices, which is potentially fatal for the Caribou species, as the government is more easily persuaded with the promise of financial return over protecting an area that is a natural resource goldmine and its few animal species that inhabit it. There are job cuts and office closures in Ontario's natural resource future, however the extent to which it effects depends on how environmentally aware the government decides to be.
colinsarkany

Job Market Trends and News - Job Bank - 0 views

  • Following labour market events is key to helping job seekers understand where the opportunities (short, medium and long-term) might be in a local community and elsewhere in the country.
    • colinsarkany
       
      Local careers highlighted by this great government resource, specifically the SAIL store that opened just off Hespeler Road (Hwy 24) in Cambridge. It's great to see something so up to date, and be locally relevant!
  • The University of Windsor will be constructing a new, additional building for the School for Arts and Creative Innovation at the former Tunnel Bar-B-Q site downtown. The $12.8M development will begin in early 2015 and completed by August 2016. Construction Job Creation ON
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • SAIL, an outdoors superstore, opened in Cambridge creating over 130 jobs Retail Trade Job Creation ON Kasabonika Lake First Nation received an estimated $12M from the Government of Canada to upgrade the community's diesel generating station. Con-Pro Industries Canada Ltd. was awarded the contract and will begin construction in spring 2015. Construction Job Creation ON Atelka Inc. is adding 25 bilingual customer service agent positions at its call centre in Cornwall Administrative and Support, Waste Management and Remediation Services Job Creation ON Quebec-based clothing retailer La Maison Simons will open a store at the Rideau Centre in Ottawa in August 2016 Retail Trade Job Creation ON Highbury Canco Corporation is planning to expand its product line, which could result in 15 new jobs at its food processing plant in Leamington over the next few months. The company took over the Heinz plant in the summer 2014. Manufacturing Job Creation ON Cogeco Data Services Inc. is adding 20,000-sq.-ft. to its centre in Barrie by early 2015 Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Job Creation ON Construction began on the Advanced Composites Fabrication, Repair and Test Centre at Canadore College's Aviation Technology Campus in North Bay. The $6M facility is expected to be open by summer 2015. Construction Job Creation BC Northern Iron Corp. is expected to begin dewatering the former Griffith Mine North Pit in the Red Lake mining district at the end of April 2015 to determine the quality and quantity of iron ore remaining Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction Job Creation ON Retailer Reitmans (Canada) Limited will close its 107 Smart Set stores in Canada over the next 12 to 18 months, about 76 of which will be converted to other banners of the company. The total number of jobs affected in Ontario is currently unknown. Retail Trade Layoff ON
  •  
    This government of Canada resource is a search tool focused on large scale work-related events that are up-to-date within four weeks! This resource outlines what industry is in demand or what is up and coming, and has breakdowns and search features for each province/territory. This resource is a great place to find inspiration in a job search, as it helps focus in on various industries. 
dedingo

Globalization Is Only a Good Thing If It Benefits All Groups of Society - 0 views

  •  
    Salman Sakir's article is relevant to the issues raised in Friedman's book The World is Flat in which Friedman in a sense laments over the impact of globalization upon the developed countries, the USA for him, because the developing countries like Brazil and Asian countries like China and India have a massive work labour influence upon the West. Sakir focuses on both the positive and negative aspects of globalization, one of the five forces in Gratton's The Shift and a form of global economy as discussed by Stanford in his Economics for Everyone. Because of low wage and easy availability of experts/labour in the developing countries, foreign investments have been attracted by those Asian and developing countries where the jobs have been created for the locals. On the other hand, the citizens of the developed counters of the West and the North America have consumed the products from the developing countries in a reasonably lower price. Poverty ratio has been decreased in the developing countries which have also been integrated by the phenomenon of globalization. These are positive impacts. But in the developed countries, manufacturing industries have been moved out. so unemployment rate is ever increasing, Sakir highlights these aspects of globalization in this article.
colinsarkany

Half of Toronto-area workers have fallen into 'precarious employment': study - The Glob... - 0 views

  • The widely held belief that employment leads to economic security and social well-being has become out-of-step with an increasing number of people in today’s work force.
  • Everyone else is working in situations that are part-time, vulnerable or insecure in some way. This includes a growing number of temporary, contract and on-call positions. Jobs without benefits. Jobs with uncertain futures. This significant rise in precarious employment is a serious threat – not only to the collective prosperity of the region, but also to the social fabric of communities
  • precarious employment is hurting everyone
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • many workers to piece together year-round, full-time hours by working multiple jobs. In addition, working conditions are more uncertain
  • being precariously employed is worst when you’re living in low income, our research confirms this increasingly is an issue that affects people at every income level
  • job insecurity is about more than just poverty. Its impacts are far-reaching, affecting all parts of our lives, redefining how we contribute to our economy, give back to our community and interact with our families. Precarious work can make it more difficult to make ongoing volunteer commitments and donate to charities
  • Trends that have caused nearly half of our work force to engage in insecure employment show no signs of slowing down
  • Training and education models with a life-long learning focus can help workers build the skills to continuously improve their employment prospects.
  • What we need today is a renewed public policy framework that will be supportive of those in precarious employment and responsive to the challenges associated with this shifting labour market
janellekoivula

The Year of the Employee: Predictions For Talent, Leadership, And HR Technology In 2014 - 0 views

  •  
    This article discusses the challenges and impacts to the labour and career markets, and provides some techniques and strategies for Human Resource departments within organizations to use to combat and diffuse the impact of global competition. These techniques are crafted for each actor involved within the global issue, and provides advice for the HR departments, as well as managers and individual employees to attempt in order to diminish the outcomes. The article not only emphasizes the importance of managing the organizational structures and its employees, but also highlights the significance of career development to the future of work. The idea that HR departments not only need to manage their current employees, but also must take developmental steps towards implementing a recruiting system that seeks the most talented workers from a global labour pool. The future of work relies on the combined efforts of individuals seeking to become self-aware and pursue their aspirations, with the supportive and developmental efforts of the HR department, to ensure that the future of the workforce is positive and continues to innovate and create new opportunities for employment and employee satisfaction/fulfillment.
shawnaderksen

Global warming at work: how climate change affects the economy and labour | Toronto Star - 0 views

  • Alberta’s oilsands crop up — the much-disparaged oilsands that also provide employment to tens of thousands of people.
  • f workers can be assured that by slowing the pace of development, technology can be improved to limit the effect on the environment, he says, “they will recognize that change needs to happen.” But, he adds, they are not prepared to see the industry shut down.
  • which said the planet was on course to becoming two degrees Celsius warmer. It also predicted heat waves will occur more frequently and will last longer; wet areas will get more rainfall, dry regions will get less; and sea levels could rise by almost one metre by 2100.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • A warmer planet directly affects postal workers, landscape workers, construction and sanitation workers, “and that means they need different kind of protection,” says Lipsig-Mummé. “These jobs will have to be done radically differently.”
    • shawnaderksen
       
      Climate change will dramatically affect the work habits of outdoor labourers. The rising temperatures will make less tolerable work days. 
  • All of that will affect work in different sectors, in more ways than we can imagine
  • In Bangladesh, considered ground zero for climate change, millions of farmers on the coast have left their villages and moved to the capital city of Dhaka because rising sea levels have devoured farmland and monsoon rains, on which farmers depend, are unpredictable.
    • shawnaderksen
       
      Climate change has green jobs to offer however people are refusing to leave their current positions to take a new one in a field that has the potential to help. 
  • At the other end, global warming can wipe out jobs completely, she says
  • Some jobs, on the other hand, will become more important as the earth grows warmer.
  • mergency workers such as firefighters, police officers and paramedics face genuine dangers in a warming climate.
  • “As I see it, there is potential to create thousands and thousands of well-paying green jobs … there is transportation, retrofitting of homes, energy efficiency,” he says.
    • shawnaderksen
       
      Climate change has green jobs to offer however people are refusing to leave their current positions to take a new one in a field that has the potential to help. 
  •  
    This article relates to the TED Talks video by James Hansen that we watched this week. The article describes the way in which environmentally unfriendly jobs such as work in the Alberta Oil Sands needs to be slowed down however so many people are employed there, they are unwilling to give it up. The article also states that climate change will dramatically affect outdoor employment such as construction jobs, postal jobs and landscaping. These workers will be forced to adapt to hotter working conditions which can in turn affect one's health. It is also important to note in the article that they give alternatives to work with the changing climates. Green jobs are readily available for people who are willing to make the career change. This is an interesting article and definitely worth the read!
sarahbunting

Seed and Plant Sanctuary for Canada (Seed Bank, Gene Bank) - 2 views

shared by sarahbunting on 04 Sep 14 - Cached
  • dedicated to the health and vitality of the earth through the preservation and promotion of
  • heritage seeds.
  • in Canada.
  • ...7 more annotations...
    • sarahbunting
       
      Because of climate change, the places where we currently grow our food may not be viable anymore!  Also, we've talked about the need for decreased transportation of food.  Local food would help eliminate this problem.  
    • sarahbunting
       
      Because of climate change, the places where we currently grow our food may not be viable anymore!  Also, we've talked about the need for decreased transportation of food.  Local food would help eliminate this problem.  
  • we may no longer be able to take food for granted because of economic breakdown, environmental destruction and
  • local food security.
  • climate change.
  • ocal production and crop diversity.
  • grass roots preservation of our seed heritage.
    • sarahbunting
       
      Heritage Seeds are local or regional seeds 
  •  
    I'm not sure how this works, but here is the annotated link, it is easier to read if you can look at the acutal annotated website...perhaps I did something wrong. https://diigo.com/030tpr The Seed & Plant Sanctuary for Canada is a charitable organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of heritage seeds, and maintaining, evaluating and keeping records for all the edible, medicinal and useful crops that can be grown in Canada.
meganrowe

HowStuffWorks \"How Cloud Computing Works\" - 1 views

  •  
    When I was reading The Shift this week, I found my comprehension of Grafton's technological projections somewhat limited because I don't have a very vast knowledge of current technology. Particularly, she mentioned The Cloud often in the text, and its ability to make technology and software much more accessible and affordable for people across the globe. I needed a simple breakdown of what The Cloud really is, so what better place to go then HowStuffWorks? This article breaks down The Cloud as a "web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for her or his job" and highlighted its key aspects in a way that I could fully understand. I like how it also brings up the Dark Side of cloud computing- the inevitability that it will eliminate the need for many IT jobs (a concern that Grafton has also highlighted for the future), and then the issue of privacy (Grafton mentions mistrust of leadership as prevalent in the future). Since dark projections are the topic of the week, its worth thinking about the implications of posting all of our personal information online... Can we trust our governments and multi-nationals with that kind of information?
jscharrer

Bad Apple: Could the Era of Exploitation Outsourcing Be Near Its End? - 0 views

  • by farming out production to suppliers in China and other low-wage countries with few labor protections, they often have outsourced not just work but worker abuse.
  • U.S. consumers have been willing to turn a blind eye to Apple and others.
  • urvey of Americans late last year found that only 2 percent mentioned Apple's overseas labor practices as a concern.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • ollective apathy about working conditions behind iPods, iPhones and the like has allowed the company to prioritize speed and profit over decent treatment of people.
  • "You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards," a current Apple executive told the Times. "And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China."
  •  
    Outsourcing as a form of exploitation - this article comments on the environment and working conditions in Apple's outsourced manufacturing facilities and that despite media coverage of this issue, the general pubic is more concerned with speed, innovation and price than the treatment of workers overseas.
sarahbunting

Celebrating Small: 3 Ways to Hone Your Competitive Edge | The Etsy Blog - 0 views

  •  
    This article describes ways in which small independent artisans can fight back against the competition of large megacompanies. Although in Chapter 9 Stanford mentions that independent businesses are negligible in the large scheme of things, I think it is interesting to look at competition from this point of view. Also, upon reading this article, I think that these kinds of more personal purchasing interactions may become more popular in the coming world as Etsy is another online marketplace, similar to ones mentioned by Gratton in The Shift.
1 - 20 of 235 Next › Last »
Showing 20 items per page