Sunday, February 14, 2010
TTC - Paid much?
Alison posted this link on Facebooks: Reported TTC salaries, which includes salaries of people making > $100k.
In fairness, the TTC has 11k employees, and only 500 who make > $100k - so ballpark 5% of their employees. Obviously the big honchos, the shift supervisors, the lawyers, etc are going to make some big coin. The thing that gets me?
- 21 Station Collectors at > 100k, some making as much as $125k.
- 19 Route Supervisors @ > 100k, one making $132k. I'd assume these are the guys who stand around at Spadina Station with little notepads, or that stand in the middle of the street drinking coffee.
- 60 "Operators" @ > 100k, 20 of whom make > $120k. I can only imagine that operators is a fancy word for drivers. You absolutely have to be kidding me that streetcar drivers can be raking in $130k/year!?
Cause here's the thing....you really can't hire competent station collectors for $40k/year? These people sit in a booth, reading books and making change. Not saying it should be minimum wage, but honestly, a cashier at Loblaws is a WAY harder job, having to remember all the codes for the different vegetables, knowing how to bag things properly, etc. Certainly seems to me like $20/hr would cut the mustard.
Drivers? Listen, I respect them an awful lot...especially during rush hour, there's a lot of crap to put up with. You've got people's lives in your hands, get hassled by rude jerks, and you presumably need some kind of training and license to drive a streetcar/subway/bus. But, I did some digging, and an average social worker in Canada makes $28/hour while the average nurse makes $32. (Truck drivers make an average of $19). So given that nurses make ~$60k/year, I'm real curious to know what those 20 drivers are doing to rake in twice that (I'm assuming they worked a lot of overtime, but still...and if you're regularly paying people time and half for overtime, why aren't you just hiring more drivers that you can pay at "time"?).
Anyways, just seems to me when you're running an organization that doesn't nearly cover its costs, and keeps having to jack fares and look for bigger handouts from the government, that you've gotta look at ways to cut the fat. And all those collectors and drivers at > $100k? Seems like there's plenty of fat to trim.
In fairness, the TTC has 11k employees, and only 500 who make > $100k - so ballpark 5% of their employees. Obviously the big honchos, the shift supervisors, the lawyers, etc are going to make some big coin. The thing that gets me?
- 21 Station Collectors at > 100k, some making as much as $125k.
- 19 Route Supervisors @ > 100k, one making $132k. I'd assume these are the guys who stand around at Spadina Station with little notepads, or that stand in the middle of the street drinking coffee.
- 60 "Operators" @ > 100k, 20 of whom make > $120k. I can only imagine that operators is a fancy word for drivers. You absolutely have to be kidding me that streetcar drivers can be raking in $130k/year!?
Cause here's the thing....you really can't hire competent station collectors for $40k/year? These people sit in a booth, reading books and making change. Not saying it should be minimum wage, but honestly, a cashier at Loblaws is a WAY harder job, having to remember all the codes for the different vegetables, knowing how to bag things properly, etc. Certainly seems to me like $20/hr would cut the mustard.
Drivers? Listen, I respect them an awful lot...especially during rush hour, there's a lot of crap to put up with. You've got people's lives in your hands, get hassled by rude jerks, and you presumably need some kind of training and license to drive a streetcar/subway/bus. But, I did some digging, and an average social worker in Canada makes $28/hour while the average nurse makes $32. (Truck drivers make an average of $19). So given that nurses make ~$60k/year, I'm real curious to know what those 20 drivers are doing to rake in twice that (I'm assuming they worked a lot of overtime, but still...and if you're regularly paying people time and half for overtime, why aren't you just hiring more drivers that you can pay at "time"?).
Anyways, just seems to me when you're running an organization that doesn't nearly cover its costs, and keeps having to jack fares and look for bigger handouts from the government, that you've gotta look at ways to cut the fat. And all those collectors and drivers at > $100k? Seems like there's plenty of fat to trim.
Labels: TTC
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Avatar - wow!
Just got back from doing a "mystery shop" with Laura chez Cineplex. Watched Avatar, and honestly was totally blown away. This is the first 3D movie I've seen in a decade, and couldn't believe how far the technology has come....completely different movie watching experience. Didn't hurt that the plot and characters were actually quite good, and the computer graphics were literally jaw dropping.
Down in Waterloo tomorrow for coop interviews, and hopefully to sneak onto the UW squash courts to play with Dave...in case I forgot to mention it, I actually BEAT Dave the last time we played. My 2009 New Year's resolution of beating Dave twice in a row never materialized and has been renewed with increased ferver and ardour. Here's to hoping.
Down in Waterloo tomorrow for coop interviews, and hopefully to sneak onto the UW squash courts to play with Dave...in case I forgot to mention it, I actually BEAT Dave the last time we played. My 2009 New Year's resolution of beating Dave twice in a row never materialized and has been renewed with increased ferver and ardour. Here's to hoping.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Do Dysons Suck?
Laura and I have gotten by since we moved in together with a $14.99 "Shark" mini handheld vacuum. Not exactly high quality, but mostly gets the job done since we only really have 10 square feet of carpet.
However, the Shark has sucked it's last breath, and the birds have brought our cleaning needs to a whole new level. We're looking at stepping things up on the vacuum front, and are thinking about buying a serious 5 year+, quality vacuum.
Courtesy of the hundreds of Dyson tv ads we've all seen, I think that's probably the brand most people would recommend for a high quality vacuum. Thing is, Dyson's cost SERIOUS money ($500-$700 sorta thing), and seldom if ever go on sale. So the question really is, do you need to spend that kind of money to get a good quality vacuum, and if you're going to spend that kind of money, is Dyson really the best value/quality you can get?
I've done a few hours of reading, and it sounds like Hoover, Kirby, Miele and Sebo are all also quite good vacuums. In the "upright" world, it sounds like the $99 Hoover Whisper (sadly only available in the US) is as good as any of the Dyson uprights. On the canister vacuum front, it sounds like Miele is the best quality, but similar price to Dyson.
Has anyone done serious vacuum buying research? What does everyone own? Are you happy with what you have?
However, the Shark has sucked it's last breath, and the birds have brought our cleaning needs to a whole new level. We're looking at stepping things up on the vacuum front, and are thinking about buying a serious 5 year+, quality vacuum.
Courtesy of the hundreds of Dyson tv ads we've all seen, I think that's probably the brand most people would recommend for a high quality vacuum. Thing is, Dyson's cost SERIOUS money ($500-$700 sorta thing), and seldom if ever go on sale. So the question really is, do you need to spend that kind of money to get a good quality vacuum, and if you're going to spend that kind of money, is Dyson really the best value/quality you can get?
I've done a few hours of reading, and it sounds like Hoover, Kirby, Miele and Sebo are all also quite good vacuums. In the "upright" world, it sounds like the $99 Hoover Whisper (sadly only available in the US) is as good as any of the Dyson uprights. On the canister vacuum front, it sounds like Miele is the best quality, but similar price to Dyson.
Has anyone done serious vacuum buying research? What does everyone own? Are you happy with what you have?
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Bird Update #2
The birds are working out better than I feared. They're mostly quiet, and fairly playful! Hawk is definitely more comfortable with us than Pip (Hawk will stand on our hands to eat food, whereas Pip is always scared of us). Pip "escaped" from the cage last weekend, and flew around a bit before ending up in the kitchen -- was "fun" trying to get him back in the cage....I ended up distracting him enough for Laura to grab him.
Hawk is white, Pip is blue.
I'm in New York this week (Wed - Fri). Flight on Porter this morning wasn't too bad - a little late because of the weather. Going bowling with work tomorrow which should be fun, then back to TO on Friday night.
Aside -- went to see High Fidelity the musical in TO last week and LOVED it!
Hawk is white, Pip is blue.
I'm in New York this week (Wed - Fri). Flight on Porter this morning wasn't too bad - a little late because of the weather. Going bowling with work tomorrow which should be fun, then back to TO on Friday night.
Aside -- went to see High Fidelity the musical in TO last week and LOVED it!
