A few weeks ago, I started another counting project, similar to the Commuting by Numbers series I’ve been running on and off since February. But this one is much simpler:
I’m counting the ratio of construction workers visibly working to those just standing around.
I pass about a dozen enormous construction projects on my way to work each day, and I can’t help but marvel at how much standing around is getting done in this fair city.
Don’t get me wrong, construction is a tough gig. I’ve done it, and while it doesn’t rate among the worst jobs I’ve ever done, it wasn’t easy either, and I count myself lucky to be doing what I do today.
In construction, some measure of standing around is necessary. You can’t swing a hammer or work a shovel for eight hours straight - everyone needs a rest. And building a skyscraper is a complex puzzle of interwoven tasks that can’t all happen simultaneously.
But still… it doesn’t exactly look efficient. At the job site beside my workplace, it seems like at any one time, half the workers don’t appear to be working. So I decided to see what the proportion really is.
So, the task is very simple: take a look at any job site, and count how many people are working and how many aren’t. To make it fair, I use a very liberal interpretation of “working”: sitting in a truck or crane even if it isn’t moving; touching a tool or carrying anything (a piece of paper will do); holding a sign or looking around as if you are monitoring something - these all count as work.
Not working includes standing or sitting alone, eating and drinking, smoking, and the ever-popular watching someone else work (without at least making foremanly gestures).
Standing, like the gentleman pictured above, on the sidewalk with an upside-down traffic sign and leaning on a rail doesn’t count. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t give you the cutline about such sign-holders from a friend of mine: ‘Slow’: It’s not a sign, it’s a label.
Here are a few of my activity observation notes:
Construction site: RBC Centre and Ritz-Carlton, Wellington St., Toronto
Date: July 17, 2007 - 3:00 p.m.
Working: 10
Not working: 25
Date: August 29, 2007 - 2 p.m.
Working: 17
Not working: 27
Date: September 17, 2007 - 9:30 a.m.
Working: 39
Not working: 36
Date: September 21, 2007 - 4:00 p.m.
Working: 11
Not working: 16
For those keeping score at home, the proportion is 77:104 - at any one time, 43 per cent of employees were visibly doing something.
In the future, I may break this down by day of the week and time of day - for examply, anecdotally it would appear that much more gets done in the early morning.
So - take a look at a job site near you, and send me some numbers! I’ll post them here. And if you’ve ever worked construction, let me know what it’s been like.
Today is “Taking Care of U” day at CBC - a “wellness fair” where employees can check out exhibits and take classes on stress reduction, health, nutrition, etc. I’ll probably drop by (but I’m eating a bowl of Smarties ice cream as I write this.)
Anyhow, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to update you on my ongoing battle with “internet elbow.”
I first brought this up almost a year ago in a piece called More worn-out elbows. I had discovered that many of my shirts had developed holes in the left elbow, and I attributed it to computer use, and leaning my non-mouse arm on the desk. There wasn’t anything on the internet about it, and in fact one of my commenters used that post to coin the term “internet elbow”. The word has since found some currency.
It seems plenty of people have this problem; solutions range from elbow patches to rolling up your sleeves to using a stack of napkins (suggested this week by Darren.)
But none of those solutions get to the root of the problems, which is bad posture/bad desk layout. In May I had a visit from the official CBC ergonomist, who analyzed my desk and agreed that the posture of leaning forward into the crook of an L-shaped workstation was probably at the root of the problem (as well as that crick in my neck.) I wrote up those results in an entry called Fixing the ‘Internet Elbow’.
Well, to their great credit, the folks at CBC took my issue seriously, and fixed it.
Here’s how it was laid out before - CRT monitor back in the corner, so I leaned forward on my non-adjustable chair:
I was able to acquire an LCD monitor, and a new chair with many more adjustment features (including the arms.) This let me face the computer on the flat part of the desk, and sit properly with my arms resting on the armrests, not the desk:
So far, so good! No new holes in my shirts (though it has been mostly T-shirt weather…) and more importantly, my neck and back feel much better. And I’m pleased to say that it looks like a more ergonomic layout is coming for my colleagues too - when we move into new offices this winter, the workstations will likely feature adjustable, curved corner keyboard trays and flat panel monitors.
So, on wellness day, I must tip my hat to my employer for taking my posture seriously. I know that not everyone out there will be able to convince their boss to shell out $500 for a chair and $300 for a screen. But considering I had the last chair for 10 years and the last screen for five, it isn’t a massive investment in the long run (it’s probably about .2 per cent of my salary over that period.)
That’s a bargain, really - one U.K. study suggested that more than 4 million working days were lost each year to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. In the U.S., one half of all working Americans report back pain symptoms each year - it’s the number one cause of missed work, and second only to respiratory infections in doctor visits.
And have you seen the cost of elbow patches these days? (Actually, has anyone even seen an elbow patch these days?) Maybe the napkins aren’t such a bad idea.
I’ve been on a bit of a water theme here recently - watering cans, car washes, hat washes - so I thought I’d give you another one.
You may recall my (completely unjustified) pride to discover that my photo of a watering can fountain had been selected for a Flickr group devoted to, er, watering cans. Well, just a week later, my achievement was matched by my three-year-old daughter.
She’s really interested in the digital camera, so we’ve been showing her how to use it. There are megabytes full of blurry photos of the ground, but these are easily deleted, and she’s really getting quite proficient lately. I’ve uploaded some of her photos to my Flickr account, including this one she took of the fire hydrant up the street from our house:
Well, wouldn’t you know it? The next day, there’s an inquiry from the owner and operator of the Canadian Fire Hydrant Museum. Yes, there really is such a thing, and yes, my little girl’s picture caught its attention. Now, if there’s a Museum of Toy Dinosaurs Encrusted in Dried Play-Doh, she’s gonna make me rich.
She sure does take a lot of pictures of her toys, but it’s her pictures of people that are really interesting. See, people just look at kids differently than they look at adults. Can’t help it. So her pictures of people capture expressions that adult photographers never see. It’s subtle, and I can’t show you what I mean because I’m a bit of a tight-ass concerning privacy settings on family photos. But here are a few she’s taken of me.
See what I mean? Unless you are three, and my own issue, I doubt I’d look at you like that - or let you take a picture of me half asleep. Anyhow, here’s another smattering of their photos. I particularly like the fact that the Barbies are skinny dipping while the dinosaurs wear their clothes. Heck, it beats dried Play-Doh.
(Last minute update: Tonight, as she was washing them in the tub, my three-year-old told me the names of her Barbies: Leila, Janet, Princess, Skinny Legs and Good Hair.)
Yesterday, at the invitation of a colleague, I gave two lectures on blogging to journalism students at Guelph-Humber. They were smart kids, and a few of them could no doubt have given the lecture themselves. But it was interesting to present blogging from the perspective of a working journalist and potential employer, and hear their questions.
Here’s a list of links to sites I discussed. What would you add?
http://del.icio.us/
Social bookmarking site - bookmark pages and access them anywhere
http://www.cbc.ca/archives
Where I work
http://www.insidethecbc.com
The official CBC blog
http://www.gorbould.com/blog
My blog
http://www.boingboing.net/
Links blogging: A directory of wonderful things
http://twitter.com/
Micro-blogging: What are you up to right now?
http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/
Photo-blogging: Sam Javanrouh’s beautiful Daily Dose of Imagery photo blog
http://www.torontoist.com/
Collaborative blogging: All about Toronto
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/fifawomens/blog-paul/
CBC journalism blog: Erin Paul blogs for CBC Sports from China
http://www.gorbould.com/blog/index.php/2006/07/citizen-kane-journalism/
Your subjects are watching: I blog and link to Jay Rosen; he gives me a piece of his mind
http://www.technorati.com
Getting noticed: The definitive blogging index/search engine/ranking tool
http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs/
World’s top 100 blogs
http://blogsearch.google.com
Google’s beta search for blogs
http://www.blogmad.net
A blog traffic exchange tool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Armstrong
Wikipedia on “getting Dooced” (fired over something you write on the internet)
http://www.dooce.com/
Heather Armstrong’s new site
http://www.blogger.com/
Blogger - one of the easiest ways to start blogging, free
http://wordpress.org/
A free and very customizable blogging program/site. This is what I use
http://www.movabletype.org/
Another popular blogging platform - what CBC uses
http://www.problogger.net/
All about making money from blogs
http://payperpost.com/
A typical site that pays bloggers for “sponsored posts”
http://searchengineland.com/070109-141617.php
http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/03/blog-optimization/
More on blog optimization
http://www.archive.org/index.php
Archive.org: archiving the internet (check out the WayBack Machine)
Yesterday, on a gloriously hot September Saturday, my CBC.ca softball team played its last game of the season. We did all right in the playoffs, wining the semifinal game against a team from HR, then losing the final to an external team.
Second place in the CBC league isn’t bad. As it is with out day jobs, the “new media” team is considered a bit of an upstart (even after fielding a team for six years, and winning the championship once.) If we play our cards right, we might even get T-shirts next year… though they might have to say “Bus Devils” or something (logo: an extra tiny and complicated org chart!)
Anyhow, nothing like 16 innings of baseball, a sunburn and a barbecue to finish off a season. Two seasons, really, because it pretty much finishes off the summer as well.
And, I’m afraid to say, finishes off my hat.
Yes, the sorry CBC chapeau pictured above is facing mandatory retirement. I bought it at the CBC Shop at the start of last year’s softball season (when the shop’s retro line first came out.) After a few dozen sweaty games, my wife has informed me that said cap is an embarrassment, and apparently it smells.
Or so she claims. To me it doesn’t smell much, though after mentioning this I was quickly reminded that none of my other garments are expected to smell at all (with the possible exception of shoes, but those are a lot further from the nose.) I’ve been told the hat must be decomissioned, and she even pressed $20 into my hands to please go buy myself a new one.
If I may devolve for a moment to my caveman roots… I think wives just don’t understand smelly athletic clothing. Mine can go for a two-hour jog (my wife, not my smelly clothes), and come back sweaty, maybe even… scented… but certainly not stinky. And then she washes her stuff.
But she’s never had to deal with football shoulder pads, hockey gloves or even shin guards. Stuff you just can’t wash after each wear; stuff that innoculates you against finding the funk objectionable.
So it’s fine to say toss the old hat in the garbage (preferably triple-bagged.) But she doesn’t know that I’m throwing out 41 base hits (yes, of course I counted - have you not been reading this blog?!?) wide-eyed warning track catches, arguments with umpires, even a handful of home runs. Who knows if I have any more of those in me? In think they are somehow stored up in the brim, as potential energy converted to salt lines. Maybe one day I could release those feats again, had I the right elixir to pour over my head (maybe it’s Gatorade.)
And an old baseball hat is sort of a sacred object. Decrepit though it may be, it’s like a badge of valour, proof of the work you’ve done and the love you’ve poured into the game. It’s utterly delusional, but wearing an old cap makes meu feel earthy and honest, like a farmer, or some character Kevin Costner would play, poorly. Plus, I think the hat finally looks authentically aged to match its 1970s logo.
In the end, I settled on the one option that neither of use like: washing. I’m told that you can wash baseball caps, if you want. Most (including CBC retro caps) are cotton, not wool (so they won’t shrink badly) and the lining of the brim is plastic, not cardboard. There’s a very funny how-to on the subject at Cruft, which points out all the stupid hat-washing schemes out there, and backs up my presumption that “The idea of washing a hat is not usually brought up by a man.”
Short, cold cycle, air dry - it’s in the machine now, and we’ll see how it goes. Even if it doesn’t fall apart, the washed hat will still be faded and stained, but not smelly. I’m guessing it’ll feel like a Costner movie prop. But I owe my wife at least this much after letting me out once a week for two summers. Can we call it even?
No, I didn’t think so, even though I washed her car too. Unfortunately the new CBC retro hats are pretty lame. But that new HNIC one is sharp… hmmm, maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Any time I want new clothes, I’ll just sweat in the old ones! I just have to pretend they are made with cardboard inside. Shhh, guys, don’t tell.
Back to school… wow. I can hardly believe it, but both my kids are now in school, with Thing One entering Grade One and Thing Two off to Junior Kindergarten.
And of course my wife, a teacher, is back to school today also. I come from a long line of teachers, actually. As a kid, Labour Day always meant a barbeque with the families of other teachers - pink fluffy Jell-o desserts, kids throwing crab apples at each other, parents hoping they can drink the impending school year away, crashing the riding lawnmower, etc. Good times.
Anyhow, I’ve developed my own little back-to-school ritual, such as it is - each Labour Day I wash and clean out my wife’s car. I’ve done this for about five years now, though my wife only noticed last year. It’s one of those little things husbands do for wives, and which wives do 100 times more of for husbands.
So, now she can proudly roll into the teachers’ lot in a shiny old Honda Civic, confident in the knowledge that the shocks won’t give out under the accumulated summer’s-weight of trunk sand and fishy crackers.
I usually do this by hand, but this year I took my 3-year-old Junior Kindergartener with me to a touchless car wash. She loves the car wash - and have you seen the rainbow coloured soap they have these days? Awesome! If Dove made that for the bath, she’d be a lot cleaner herself.
And as we left the wash bay sparkling clean, she uttered this little gem:
“Now our car is as clean as a weasel!”
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