Is it spring already?
Normally people can tell spring has arrived by seeing their bulbs like tulips and crocuses pop up. Also, daytime temperatures creep up higher and lawns start to wake up. Garden centres open fully stocked ready for you to part with your after-tax money as you buy soil, seed, lime, fertilizers and new plants.
Buds on trees and shrubs swell up and, depending on the species, burst. Spring has finally arrived! But Red Seal journeymen like me don’t even have to go outside to know that spring has arrived? How?
HR calling
Now, all year the young dudes working at my day job employer dismiss me as an overpaid immigrant manager. They quietly whisper about my age and wonder how it is that they aren’t out-working me when I could be their mother’s older brother. All of a sudden they all wrongly assume that my gray hair automatically means erectile dysfunction. Don’t even get me started on their reactions to my field training.
So, it’s hilarious when those same young dudes put me down as a reference on their municipal job applications. Every spring I’m their favourite immigrant landscaper for a few weeks. Without any reservations they ask me to lie about skills to HR professionals over the phone. And lie I must. I do it so often, it doesn’t even feel like embellishment.
Municipalities do their summer temporary worker hiring in spring and because they pay well, they attract all of the young dudes I trained in the field up until spring. Then they poach them.
Why work for a municipality?
Now, I have already written about the attraction of municipal jobs. I don’t want to repeat everything here. But the keys are better pay and easier work load. That’s because municipalities operate on annual budgets, not profits like private companies. As long as everything is done on budget there is no need to stress. In the private sector, faster and better are good things. I’ve been there: when I worked for the City of Coquitlam I felt on Friday afternoon just like I did on Monday morning! For young dudes that’s solid gold. So much so, they even approach me for references. The good pay also helps.
Spring!
I love spring! And with sunnier days, bulbs popping up, buds bursting and people asking me for landscaping help, I also know that I will soon be getting phone calls from municipal HR departments. That’s how I know spring is here. No need to go outside.
