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Working life

30 years on

Once upon a time, this blog wasn’t all transport content; it also marked personal milestones. This is one of those posts. 26th January wasn’t always Australia Day. In Victoria, prior to the Public Holidays Act of 1993, the public holiday was always on the Monday on or after the 26th. In 1993, as people on  ... [More]

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Working life

Some thoughts on Work From Home vs Office

We’re now two years into the pandemic. For many Melbourne people, the start was marked by the sudden cancellation of the March 2020 Formula 1 Grand Prix, followed just over a week later by the early start of school holidays and the shift to Work From Home for most white-collar workers – which for many  ... [More]

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Consumerism Toxic Custard newsletter Working life

Does your super match your values?

The wave of climate protests (the Climate Strike a few weeks ago, and to a lesser extent the Extinction Rebellion last week) are a good reminder that although our current political masters (especially at the Federal level in Australia) are keen to do nothing, pretty soon a large mass of people who want action will  ... [More]

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Toxic Custard newsletter Working life

Advice for job applicants

I’ve been really busy this week, and haven’t had time to prepare another blog post, so here’s some borrowed content for you. This is from a good friend. She works for a company I won’t name, and is in a position where she does a bit of hiring — or at least, filtering through the  ... [More]

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Clothes Working life

Shirts

A bit over a year ago I stopped wearing a tie to work, mostly because nobody else at work wears a tie. When you wear ties, they can be the distinguishing feature in your work attire. When the tie is gone, it’s harder to get away with, for instance, wearing white shirts every day. So  ... [More]

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News and events Working life

Why today is a holiday

It’s Labour Day today in Victoria, marking the reduction in working hours during the 19th century to 8 hours, and the relaxation of working conditions, which in the 1840s were strict: Conditions of the time were governed by the Master and Servant Act. Employees in Australia in 1840 who left their employment without permission were  ... [More]

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Geek Working life

The lifts

The other day some colleagues were having a little rant about the lifts, which in recent weeks have been performing badly. I blogged about this ages ago — in many buildings the problem is not the position or size of the lifts, but how they’re programmed. Evidently in 13 years, not much has changed. Apart  ... [More]

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Culture Working life

Dilbert archive search

The Dilbert web site now has a full archive and a keyword search, and even an embed feature, which has allowed me to find and embed one of my favourite Dilbert comics ever: …and this one, of course:

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Health Working life

The health check

Apparently there have been some alarming results from the workplace health checks underway at the moment. Victorian workers have been given a scare by a State Government-run health program which has found a high percentage don’t exercise enough with a number of people asked to see a doctor within 24 hours. We’ve had ours on  ... [More]

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Clothes Working life

Ties

I have a love-hate relationship with ties. When I started my working life in 1993, almost all white-collar male workers wore ties. Over the years this has dropped somewhat, and I’d hazard a guess that perhaps around 30% now do so. I still wear a tie. I switched a few years ago to a Windsor  ... [More]

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music Working life

The Loud list

At work I have a “Loud” play list, for when things are noisy in the office and I need to concentrate on something. Loudness helps, but an all-encompassing sound is even better for when I need to drown out other noise. Most artists in my collection have at least a few loud songs, but some  ... [More]

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Food'n'drink Working life

I hate the music

Message to owners of coffee shops in the CBD and other business-oriented areas: Because of the closeness of related organisations, your venue is a de facto meeting room. So, at least 9 to 5, turn down the music. Your clientele is happy to pay you to serve us beverages, but we really don’t want to  ... [More]