Archive for July, 2010

This past weekend, I went away on holiday. Or rather, I went away for four days of intense, overwhelming-to-all-the-senses, crazy obsessive fangirlish journey to San Diego. San Diego ComicCon 2010 was happening, and I was determined to have my first experience of the four-day-long scifi/comic book/etc convention.

And it was crazy, and awesome, and intense, and all kinds of brilliant.

One of the most exciting parts was walking around the exhibition floor, seeing all the different toy and collectible manufacturers with new products that they are bringing out in the near future. Some of these items will be available in the upcoming year, but some of them are just preliminary prototypes that the companies will be modifying and improving on before bringing out the finished products.

The process for manufacturing toys and collectibles, if you look at the basic steps, isn’t too different than manufacturing anything else. And having prototypes can be a great benefit to your Scientific Research and Experimental Development claim.

Developing a prototype is a part of the iterative process that SR&ED projects typically follow – design, prototype, testing, redesign, prototype, testing, and so on, until the final objective is reached. By keeping these prototypes that you have made, you have evidence for the CRA (should a review occur) that there was systematic investigation and experimentation done during your SR&ED project.

Telecommuting is an employee’s fantasy as it combines work with comfort and relaxation. It allows you to stay in your pajamas all day, walk the dog, and cook a fabulous meal for yourself while you complete a business project. Although this is true, telecommuting often turns in to an employee’s worst nightmare if they aren’t prepared to handle the obstacles that working at home has to offer. Telecommuting isn’t impossible; it does however take a lot of commitment to avoid the things that will distract you most at home.
These are 10 tips to help you telecommute successfully:

1. Create a routine. One of the main problems of working at home is that there becomes no distinction between work life and home life. This is one of the reasons while telecommuting fails for most people. To avoid this from happening create an early morning ritual whether it be, a work out before work, a shower, or eating breakfast to start your day off. The key is to give yourself an indication that you’re starting work and leaving home behind.
2. Groom Yourself. Some people may enjoy staying in their pyjamas all day which is definitely comfy, but not always the best way to be productive. Having a shower, eating breakfast and getting dressed will make you feel more awake and energetic and in turn more productive while working.
3. Make a plan. When you begin your work day it’s often difficult to just pick up from the day before and start working. Making a plan will help you pick your tasks and projects accordingly to ensure the structure of your day is organized efficiently. This will ensure you do not forget what you need to get done and that you complete everything necessary.
4. Find silence. Make sure you find a separate room away from blaring tv and screaming babies to complete your work. This is important to ensure you don’t get distracted and get your work done to the best of your ability.
5. Have a good work space. Your work area should not only be quiet but large enough for you to work comfortably, and store necessary files and supplies you might have. Having an attractive work area that you enjoy working in will make you happier about working and will result in a more productive work regiment.
6. Disconnect and minimize interruptions. If you have a hard time staying focused and tend to check your emails, text message your friends or surf the web, you might want to disconnect from everything that distracts you so you are able to concentrate. Ask the people that are constantly emailing you and talking to you to not interrupt you while you are hard at work.
7. Avoid the couch. It’s extremely tempting to move your work to the couch, but this can often result in watching tv or falling asleep. It’s hard to return to work after relaxing on the couch or in bed so try to stay at your desk to stay as productive as possible.
8. Communicate. When working from home it is immensely crucial to communicate with the people you are working with. This includes what you’re working on, the progress you’ve made, what you’ve achieved, and any assistance you might need. To avoid being accused of not doing your work, communicate regularly with fellow colleagues.
9. Don’t babysit and work. Mixing childcare and telecommuting is not a good match. Although telecommuting is good if you need to be flexible in regards to your children, you must have someone else to look after your children to ensure you have maximum productivity while working.
10. Set limits for work. Make sure to have a starting time and ending time to work. Without this you will find yourself working through the night and not leaving any time for your family. When your work is finished and your limit is up, wrap everything up, shut everything off and spend some time with your family.

CONFRONTATION. How does this word make you feel? If you’re like most people, you will do anything to avoid it. Our lives are already packed with stressful situations, whether it be crunched deadlines, or just general aggravation in our lives; confrontation in the workplace will assuredly add to our anxiety level. Confrontation will undoubtedly happen in every circumstance, but in the workplace, more than just feelings are affected. If you work in customer relations or complaints you may deal with confrontation every day. Although this is true, confrontation often arises with work colleagues and can turn the workplace into a very tense environment. In fact, when confrontation becomes apparent in the workplace it often results in decreased effort, reduced performance and in extreme cases, resignation.

There are many different things you can do to minimize confrontation in the workplace. Whether you are talking face to face or on the telephone, always try to sound authoritative and confident. This will ensure the person you are talking with that you are taking the situation seriously and that you are more than capable to handle it sufficiently. When attempting to avoid confrontation, being on first name terms with the person will make you sound both sympathetic and empathetic to their problems. They then know you can relate to what they are going through and feel at ease, therefore avoiding confrontation. Be sure to look for clues that may help you predict if someone is becoming angry. Look out for certain body movements, such as rubbing the back of the neck, fidgeting, flaring nostrils or rapid breathing. These are all signs that a person is becoming angry and frustrated with the situation they are dealing with. However, when dealing with confrontation between colleagues it is a slightly different matter as it generally results from the clashing of personalities. In this case, it is wise to have minimal contact with this person, although most personality clashes can be repaired by simply getting to know the person better.

When conflict in the workplace has become evident and you need to work through the situation, allow every person involved in the disagreement to clarify his or her perspectives and opinions on the matter. Everyone should know exactly what happened and what the conflict is about to best avoid miscommunication so that the conflict and confrontation doesn’t become even worse. Outline the what needs to be fixed to change the circumstances of the conflict and find a way to compromise to ensure that everyone is happy in the end.

Although confrontation often adds unnecessary stress to our lives, it isn’t always a bad thing. When confrontation occurs and is successfully resolved it benefits people as they learn how to deal with problems in the workplace and handle them in a calm and professional manner. Like any other skill, it will improve only through practice. Since they are inevitable, the goal is to make them positive and productive, not painful. If you enter into a confrontation believing that the outcome can be positive, you have taken the first step to ensuring that it will be.

Across Canada in the month of June, employment rose through 93,000 new jobs. (Full-time employment rose through 48,900 new jobs; part-time employment rose through 44,200 new jobs.) This resulted in a total decrease in unemployment by 0.2 per cent (bringing the unemployment rate throughout Canada to 7.9 per cent). This was nearly five times the jump that economists had predicted for the month, and is the lowest that the unemployment rate has been since January 2009.

This is how unemployment rates ended up looking from province to province:

• Alberta: 6.7 (rose 0.1 per cent)
• British Columbia: 7.8 (rose 0.3 per cent)
• Manitoba: 5.3 (dropped 0.4 per cent)
• New Brunswick: 9.3 (rose 0.5 per cent)
• Newfoundland: 14.7 (rose 0.9 per cent)
• Nova Scotia: 8.8 (rose 0.1 per cent)
• Ontario: 8.3 (dropped 0.6 per cent)
• Prince Edward Island: 12.3 (rose 1.6 per cent)
• Quebec: 7.8 (dropped 0.2 per cent)
• Saskatchewan: 5.5 (rose 0.5 per cent)

As you can see, most of the employment gains were in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. Most of these new jobs were through retailers or wholesale companies.

Sources: Canada adds 93,000 jobs in June, Where the jobs are: Provincial job statistics for June