AuDN4T

Reflections on my mother’s career as a nurse and my career as a HSE professional has identified some very clear parallels. Some differences – most definitely, but there are strong parallels.

People may think I come from privilege as a “white person”. I really truly hate the idea of skin colour because it is not simple as that. There are hidden subtle privileges that also contribute to that.

Being a first generation Canadian… has its pros and cons. Yes, there is strong community within the Ukrainian diaspora. But you also find hierarchical structures in this community (sadly). And I can also see this in other diasporas, that I can speak to later.

My mom was pretty adamant about furthering her education in the field she worked in Poland. Yes, an upgrade in education is needed because degrees are not always recognized. She worked hard on her courses in Canada. There was a need for nurses – in general. There always is, yet, governments continuously neglect this fact and limit resources. When it was time for her to find a job after her schooling, the Rae Days kicked in. Yes, this is a very unfortunate turn of events but is it a smart move to cut essential services like healthcare? People that are supposed to take care of those who are ill? Burn them out further? (This story continues for decades even after Rae Days where incompetent politicians make policies around healthcare where they have zero experience in and should not have a say in this topic. This applies to other very specialized topics or “Ministries”; I will repeat it again – they have zero business in having a say on these topics.). Did Bob Rae leave a bitter taste in my mom’s mouth? Yes. She still doesn’t trust the NDP. Myself? I have zero faith in any political party because it appears to be a koolaid you drink and if you don’t toe the political party line, you get disowned. How many MPs, MLAs and MPPs have crossed party lines or become independent because they did not agree with the party koolaid?

People want to assume I come from privilege? Let’s talk about facts – I have one uncle who is a truck driver, worked his butt off with his wife who worked two jobs (doctor’s office receptionist and a restaurant server) and owns a house. I don’t think they have a strong pension plan or at all. I have another uncle who is a carpenter and his wife is a stay at home wife (there are no reasons to judge a person for this. they have their reasons and let that be.) and he has not been able to afford his own home despite building many homes in the Greater Toronto Area, and cottage country. I don’t think they have a strong pension plan either. And there’s my mom, who was pretty much a single mom who has her own condo (and that didn’t come in an easy way either). She doesn’t have a strong pension plan despite eventually paying into one at a hospital. These people worked hard. I’ve heard multiple occasions of injuries – metal in their eyes, back injuries, needle stab injuries, etc. And yet they’re not really taken care of. Have they been taken advantage of? Yeah – in subtle ways; or HR may see them in more glaring ways.

We can talk about vehicle ownership too – how many Canadians own a car as a teenager? In my high school having a car was considered a privilege. I didn’t have one, my Polish friend didn’t have one, my friend in the building next to me didn’t have one, an Italian friend had a shared vehicle he could use along with an English friend being in the same boat. This isn’t to put any shade on them, just facts. Now skip over to my colleagues in Tulsa and Texas…. many had a car in their teenage years… like it wasn’t a big deal. Felt pretty awkward explaining about getting my first car was when I was 21 and had a job.

We can also look at the types of vacations people took – who could afford airfare? who drives to place? who stays within the province and camps? My vacations were primarily driving to provincial parks. The odd occasions of Florida by car, flights to Poland (twice as a child) and Cuba (once as a university student and twice for friend’s weddings). All other trips were limited based on how much money I had saved up at my $40k job (Ukraine x 2), (Alberta x ~3) and (Nova Scotia, Ireland and Portugal). All other business trips do not truly count. You hear about others being able to take trips early with no problem. Others not at all… or just road trips to different parts of the province.

This isn’t to say my trips across the province and across the US weren’t great – they were, I have learned so much.

My mom had a similar path as myself when it came to our careers – starting off at a mom and pop shop type of business. I don’t want to state that they were the same businesses because the was more respect in my mom’s workplace than the one I worked at. The doctor she worked for was caring and my mom got to know his family – his wife worked next door. Unfortunately with smaller businesses, you do not have a pension plan, you don’t have health and dental plans and this wasn’t exactly what my mom wanted to do. She always wanted to get into OR. She loved it. Unfortunately, she never got into it. She sent many resumes and never got call backs. She ended up getting a call back to a Ukrainian Long-Term Care Facility. A good facility but again – pay wasn’t great, vacation time was limited, no pension plan, no health and dental plan. Yes – there were politics in this workplace – Ukrainians from Poland vs Ukrainians from Ukraine – which was dumb. Questions about credentials as well. Changes in management also resulted in unionization which is a fair thing to do when you don’t get comp’ed properly or have proper time off, or a pension or a health and dental plan – zero safety net.

When we moved to Mississauga, my mom and I attended a healthcare job fair at the Mississauga Civic Centre. This is where she found a job possibility at Brampton Civic Hospital. To this day she credits me for attending with her. I’m not sure if it was the recruitment team that saw an English fluent kid with an immigrant mom? I don’t know. I remember attending Brampton Civic Hospital afterwards – I can’t remember if this was during her interview or not… but again I’m not sure if this was kind of a break in understanding that this person is trying their best to make it in this world with their kid. I’m not sure if the past employers had bias towards my mom for having an accent or not. But this opportunity let her work on her English. What employers don’t see is how hard she tried. She’d call me to ask me if her report made sense – no patient names were used. She wanted it to make sense in English. She cared so much. She mourned patients. She was upset about mistakes that would haunt her… and partially this was from lack of support from the government in understaffing (this is even during a Liberal party in power – as I’ve stated – I have no trust in any parties because it’s just a koolaid people drink). You don’t understand who supports these people to get them further in life and keep them propped up… but they are so capable of it. She was the person people came to do blood draws because she had this wild Polish Soviet training of drawing blood from people… especially people with darker skin complexion (as it was harder to see)… they also practiced on themselves. I’m not saying to do this today, but this is a practice that perfected it. How many of us have had painful blood draws? I’ve been always thankful of those that did it seamlessly. It’s truly a skill that makes everything easier when you’re in the hospital as a patient. People from other floors/units would ask to borrow her. Were there tensions between teams? Yes – I wonder how this can be rectified? Understanding people’s histories (yes there are intergenerational traumas that make it harder to work through the day) and how they can work together as a team because the governments fail us with providing enough staffing… it isn’t fair when the distribution of work isn’t equal. Again – more health and wellness days are important – because we don’t know what people are dealing with – do they commute by car? bus? do they have to take care of their kids? are they dealing with ill parents, etc etc etc.

Shift work is also difficult (especially with night shift) and I commend people who do it. I don’t know how you do it.

The countless times my mom drove me to school or extra curricular or events while tired after a shift… I don’t know how she did it. There’s that one moment I recall and my mom brings up every often. Driving down Erin Mills/Missisauga Road and hitting 407. The light is red and she’s not stopping. I had no other reaction but screaming ”black black black” in Ukrainian (Black and Red in Ukrainian are very similar words Chorne / Chervone). She could have easily crashed into the cars turning from the 407 exit to Erin Mills/Mississauga Road because of lack of sleep. There’s countless times she’s told me stories of her falling asleep behind the wheel because of the shift work. and yet our politicians DO NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ANYTHING. THEY THINK NURSES AND DOCTORS ARE MACHINES. We can equate this my mental health medication wanting to commit suicide and subsequently impacting others on the road but this nurse was not even feeling suicidal but lacked sleep. I cannot with the privilege of these NEPO babies with no experience making decisions they have no business in making these decisions.

3-ish workplaces.

Had a hard time getting a job because of the market – 90s recession vs 2000-2010’s lie that baby boomers were retiring (they were not, they didn’t have enough in their pension and eventually banked on the housing market). I can say the same for my cousins who had a difficult time finding a job. My cousin still doesn’t work IT industry she studied in… no different from Gen X… or my Gen X godmother who studied child psychology. Instead they work at Canada Post and at a butcher shop. but your get these NEPO babies like Doug Ford, Kara Ford, Ben Mulroney, Caroline Mulroney, Mark Mulroney, Mike Harris that get things handed to them because of connections and family name…. but no quality work shown… just PURE GARBAGE. PURE INCOMPETENCE.

Progressively worked our ways up.

Having to work hard to get to where we wanted but being put in a box we didn’t want to be.

Had bigger aspirations.

Wanted to be in a specific role and at times it felt out of reach (OR vs internal org HSE).

Had to deal with egos (doctors vs toxic male dominated environments).

Saw differing environments (Europe/Canada vs various job industries) and could make comparisons and find best practices.

I think about the trucking industry and international students – who is at fault here? It appears no one wants to take accountability here. The government saw that the population size is decreasing… they never asked why? WHY IN THE WORLD IS THE POPULATION DECREASING? IDK… MAYBE WE CAN’T TAKE CARE OF OUR NEPO BABY OVERLORDS ANYMORE? MAYBE BECAUSE HOUSES ARE EXPENSIVE? WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIGHT WANTS TO HAVE KIDS WHEN THEY CAN’T EVEN AFFORD RENT OR A HOUSE? LMFAO…. BUT HEY… SHORT-TERM THINKING KICKED IN RIGHT?

And then you have Indians with money trying to shred the trucking industry into garbage by exploiting other Indians, creating dangerous roads.

My time at IPEX found that truck drivers had a VERY hard time maneuvering their vehicles. We know what practices have been used.

A bit of research from people can determine why this has happened.

Why are we not holding these undercutting corporations accountable? Why are we not holding the government accountable? These sort of practices hurt us? How many people have been killed because of greed in the trucking industry?

An MPP trying to throw pizza parties…. I’m not impressed. I just see more wasted money. Money not for you to spend.

When you have a colleague mentioning they are willing to break rules around FHSA even though their husband purchased a house… and they came from India. Make that make sense how someone who played by the rules should feel. They feel like they should be able to have that tax break. We’re ok with all of this, right? Can’t claim this is racism when this is a fact of statements made. Makes anyone who has tried to play by the rulebook feel fucking pissed off… and still can’t afford a house or have their own family cause everything is expensive AF. But what do I know. I’m not a fucking poli sci grad that is disconnected with reality being paid a figure salary for something I have no idea what I should be making policies about or a PM who needs to ask a US democratic survey company tell me how my polls are doing.

Canada is garbage ^ 1000000000000000000000000000

This becomes more exponentially difficult for Indigenous People and Black Canadians…. depending on how well they’re connected.