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Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Old Feb 12th 2020, 8:27 pm
  #121  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by dbd33
People now ask by Skype or Teams. That way the boss can easily stalk them to see how long they take.
Off topic, but what do you think of Teams? Feels like a solution looking for problems. Or as I put it in a rant yesterday... if i listed the issues i was trying to fix in managing my workload, Teams would not be the answer to any of them.

Feels like IT just lobbed it over the fence and....
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 12:44 am
  #122  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by I am I said
Off topic, but what do you think of Teams? Feels like a solution looking for problems. Or as I put it in a rant yesterday... if i listed the issues i was trying to fix in managing my workload, Teams would not be the answer to any of them.

Feels like IT just lobbed it over the fence and....
I think those chat facilities are on a spiral downward. Teams isn't as good as Skype and Skype isn't as good as the Lotus tool it replaced (odd name, forgotten now). In each case there's more bloat, slower loading and less stability than in the product replaced. For example, Teams only works on this machine when it's ethernet connected. I assume the cost per seat falls each time and that's why we're blessed with the regression.

The one thing people like about Teams as a chat tool is that it's better than Skype at sending/sharing pictures and videos. I can work the English language well enough to express ideas in words so that's not important to me.

Teams offers a conference facility but WebEx is a better tool because WebEx provides for people to see presentations on the screen while using a phone for the audio. Teams assumes that all users have an internet connection that's viable for voice. It's never true, half of all time spent on a Teams conference goes on "can you hear me?"

I've come to accept chat windows as being part of business life but find Teams the weakest of the chat offerings. It may have additional functionality beyond chat and conferencing but, since neither of those are the first choice in their niches, I'm not inclined to look.

What is Teams replacing where you are?
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 12:49 am
  #123  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

We have to use Meet and Hangouts ...... the only good thing about Meet is the ability to have sub titles - handy for those people that can't hear so well.... or can't understand the spoken word but can written
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 1:14 am
  #124  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by Siouxie
We have to use Meet and Hangouts ...... the only good thing about Meet is the ability to have sub titles - handy for those people that can't hear so well.... or can't understand the spoken word but can written
Something I'm loving about the project I'm on now is that it's very, very, important, that is, bosses will personally lose money if it fails, and there's very little time to get it done. Thus we have some temporary clout within the organization. Enough clout that we're exempted from using the productivity tools. It's a respite from Teams, from jira dashboards and burndown charts, from daily stand up bonding sessions and from sprint plans and reviews. Agile Advocates do not darken our door. No one is expected to share their feelings on the emotional health of the team. Indeed the project manager explicitly does not give a shit about the emotional health of the team.

Everyone is free to work nearly all of the day rather than grappling with all that bureaucracy and all those feelings. It's wonderful.

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Old Feb 13th 2020, 9:23 am
  #125  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by dbd33
What is Teams replacing where you are?
Skype.... but on the way there, it becomes an occasional but inconsistent comms channel and Planner is used for random unknown people to send me actions. Being able to share and edit a document collaboratively is useful, although not an intuitive exercise.
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 11:41 am
  #126  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by I am I said
Being able to share and edit a document collaboratively is useful, although not an intuitive exercise.
This is something we do all the time, Confluence and SharePoint are a couple of the available tools. If I'm the primary author, as I am for a document at the moment, I send it to each contributor in turn as an email attachment and save the master on my, non-cloud, memory stick. When the version sent out comes back, I replace the master. This approach is superior to the nominally higher tech ones as I don't lose the document to bugs in the software or configuration of the sharing tools and I have access to the document at all hours and in all locations; not just when the cloud is having a good day. This also avoids receiving emails such as "I'm sorry I wiped out you shared document but I'm an auditor/actuary/lawyer not a computer person". From time-to-time, such as this afternoon, I bring in the major contributors and we hash out the next version using a big screen to which my PC is physically attached because no one can work out how to use the big screen attach software and we can all use wires.

The document is, of course, a strategic plan related to the use of computers.
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 11:41 am
  #127  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by I am I said
Skype.... but on the way there, it becomes an occasional but inconsistent comms channel and Planner is used for random unknown people to send me actions. Being able to share and edit a document collaboratively is useful, although not an intuitive exercise.
Do they call you a smee?
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 11:45 am
  #128  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by I am I said
Off topic, but what do you think of Teams? Feels like a solution looking for problems. Or as I put it in a rant yesterday... if i listed the issues i was trying to fix in managing my workload, Teams would not be the answer to any of them.

Feels like IT just lobbed it over the fence and....
Used to use Skype for family video chats but now we either use FaceTime or Google Hangouts depending on who is talking.

Work wise, have occassionally used Skype, once in a while Whatsapp but also used BlueJeans which I don't see has been mentioned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlueJeans_Network

I was in Ottawa, client was in Toronto and Halifax and the other consultant was in a train in the Czech Republic and he was able to change architectural drawings on the train and email them to all to keep the project moving.
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 12:57 pm
  #129  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by Partially discharged
Used to use Skype for family video chats but now we either use FaceTime or Google Hangouts depending on who is talking.

Work wise, have occassionally used Skype, once in a while Whatsapp but also used BlueJeans which I don't see has been mentioned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlueJeans_Network

I was in Ottawa, client was in Toronto and Halifax and the other consultant was in a train in the Czech Republic and he was able to change architectural drawings on the train and email them to all to keep the project moving.
Oh, if you're dealing with people in remote places then WhatsApp is absolutely the choice. I've routinely used it to connect with someone in Bangui, in a refugee camp in Iraq, up an Alp, in rural Afghanistan, even in Vancouver. So long as I'm in a good location for internet it just works. I believe it only works on phones though so you couldn't easily present a PowerPoint or Word document with it.
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 3:35 pm
  #130  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by jayn200
Thank you. I'm sure I'll get a lot of disagreement on that one.

In my work experience in London, I saw it over and over again. All the new hires were always friends of someone who worked there. For example in one job I worked in an office of 80 people and I swear I was one of maybe 2 or 3 people who worked there who didn't have an existing personal relationship with someone who worked there before they got hired. Majority of people came over from 3 different companies. Basically 1 person comes over and then either directly hires or influences the hires of their friends. I never saw anything like it in Vancouver.
That's because people actually make friends at work in London. When ever someone good was hired out of one of my firms in London the hiring company would be interested in the rest of us. It's a good way to add experience and also kill a competitor.

The challenge here in Toronto is typically most companies can't be bothered with offices in Canada so you don't get the same amount of companies in an industry for such a trend to occur. That trend is a powerful one for employees because it helps drive speed of hiring decisions and salaries.

There are certain companies that are viewed well in Toronto and you see a clique of them looking after each other. It's hard to break into. One thing that no one mentions in Toronto is that being jewish does pay certain dividends in the tech space.

Lastly why should or would an MBA matter? That's an industry to make money for universities more than any sort of experience that benefits those of us in real life.
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 3:45 pm
  #131  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by JamesM
. One thing that no one mentions in Toronto is that being jewish does pay certain dividends in the tech space.
.

I've never mentioned it because it's news to me.
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Old Feb 13th 2020, 9:03 pm
  #132  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by dbd33
I've never mentioned it because it's news to me.
In the "Start Up" world Toronto is earning a bit of a reputation for having a "Jewish Tech Mafia".

I didn't pay much attention but after some years there is some anomalies.
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Old Feb 16th 2020, 7:23 pm
  #133  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by dbd33
This is something we do all the time, Confluence and SharePoint are a couple of the available tools. If I'm the primary author, as I am for a document at the moment, I send it to each contributor in turn as an email attachment and save the master on my, non-cloud, memory stick. When the version sent out comes back, I replace the master. This approach is superior to the nominally higher tech ones as I don't lose the document to bugs in the software or configuration of the sharing tools and I have access to the document at all hours and in all locations; not just when the cloud is having a good day. This also avoids receiving emails such as "I'm sorry I wiped out you shared document but I'm an auditor/actuary/lawyer not a computer person".
Also saves being told that you can’t open a document because it’s locked by someone. Even if that someone is you.
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Old Feb 17th 2020, 8:49 am
  #134  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

Originally Posted by dbd33
Do they call you a smee?
Sometimes, but usually far worse.
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Old Mar 2nd 2020, 10:07 pm
  #135  
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Default Re: Office etiquette in Canada particularly Vancouver

My job takes me in and out of offices all over Canada fixing/installing network equipment. Now its worth mentioning I did this in the UK too before I moved to Canada. So I can say I've been in and out of thousands of offices. Now I'm a very chatty person if it seems like that sort of atmosphere. I honestly find Canadians on the whole way more friendly and not so uptight as British offices. My gosh if I dare swore in a British office customers would complain to the company demand you get fired its just a joke. In England because of PC culture everyone seems to not say anything. Judging by your post you were part of the minority with a good place to work.

Ill give you a brief overview of Canadian office culture in provinces I've been working:
Nova Scotia: Definately the best people in all of Canada live here. I've made friends on the job who were literally so funny and friendly I feel like I could call them anytime.
Ontario (GTA): You will just find horrible dull offices and maybe come across the odd nice person
Ontario Rural: Great people and generally fake politeness remind me of Americans
Manitoba: You can honestly find some of the nicest funniest people here. Rarely you come across a quiet office with no banter
Sask: Same as Manitoba pretty much
Alberta: Polite very nice people and depending on where you are very friendly, talkative and funny.
Rural BC: Some of the nicest people live here. Not hugely talkative and open but I rarely get angry customers here
Lower Mainland BC: Customers here are as bad as the GTA in Ontario. Rude and mostly no office culture. It seems everyone is very quiet keeps themselves to themselves (Ironically reminds me of British office culture the most)
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