Slaves.ie – my thoughts

- paul

On Thursday, 4/8/2011, www.slaves.ie went live, thanks to the nice design work of James from Forbairt.ie. The idea to bring some attention to the increasing numbers of requests for unpaid interns in Ireland. Here are my thoughts on this project.

Myself, Michele & James, over an online discussion thought it would be a good idea to have a website to bring attention to the increasing trend of companies requesting people to do, what seems on paper at least, a job you would expect someone of experience/skill to perform. These jobs are often pitched as an opportunity to get experience or a start in an industry, but the employer is not willing to pay these people for their time.


Some employers even say that they’ve hired many people after these types of intern postions. But this carrot dangling really doesn’t justify someone receiving at least €8.65 per hour, the current minimum wage in Ireland. If you perform a task, that potentially someone else is paying for, i.e. a client of your employer , and you just get ‘experience’, there does seem to be some level of exploitation here.

Collins Dictionary, via thefreedictionary.com, defines the word slave as

slave [sleɪv] n
1. (Law) a person legally owned by another and having no freedom of action or right to property
2. (Business / Industrial Relations & HR Terms) a person who is forced to work for another against his will
3. a person under the domination of another person or some habit or influence a slave to television
4. (Business / Industrial Relations & HR Terms) a person who works in harsh conditions for low pay
5. (Engineering / Mechanical Engineering)
a. a device that is controlled by or that duplicates the action of another similar device (the master device)
b. (as modifier) slave cylinder

Because of #4 I feel that the word slave is an appropriate word to use. The harsh condition being the fact that you don’t receive any wages for the work performed.

There has been some debate over the last 3 days about this topic, it even trended on twitter at one stage. It’s great to see that in some way slaves.ie has aided this debate. Some people were offended by word slave, to that I am sorry, that was not the intention. Others seem to have used it to pull some punches at companies, this was also not the intention of the website.

Irish Unemployment

With the rate of Irish unemployment hitting 14%, there are lots of capable people out there looking for work. It’s sad to see that people feel like they have to take these positions, as that’s what it’s now come down to.

Recently the Irish government launched an initiative to get people on the dole, into jobs. JobBridge allows employers to advertise these internship positions. The employers only have to pay their workers €50 per week, but they will continue to receive their unemployment benefit. People seem to be happy to apply for these positions, and I think it can be a win-win situation for both the intern and the employer. Where things could get dodgy is when these intern positions should in fact be full time positions. JobBridge define an internship as :

The aim of the National Internship Scheme is to assist in breaking the cycle where jobseekers are unable to get a job without experience, either as new entrants to the labour market after education or training or as unemployed workers wishing to learn new skills.

I hope they don’t have too hard of a time policing these jobs. JobBridge is a great idea, and I would love to see it succeed.

Internships are great

Personally I’ve only good things to say about my experience with internships. But they were all paid, I was able to learn and earn at the same time. It showed me that the employer valued an intern enough to give them a wage. I was given responsibility, but I was also given the opportunity to learn something new. If I wasn’t paid I don’t think I would have been able to do one for 5 months while living in Germany for example.

I do wonder about these employers who don’t offer wages in return for work, I mean we all have to survive, pay rent, bills and eat every now and again. Expecting someone to work for free won’t help them in any of these tasks. Some even say they are creating jobs, but without an employers PRSI contribution I don’t think this qualifies as ‘a job’.

Both Michele & James have also expanded on their thoughts on this and are worth reading.

Sam I’m not your father

- paul

I’ve been getting an increased level of emails from people I don’t know. I don’t post them all here, but they’ve been concerning various random topics, from readings of my gas & electricity in the UK, to an ad for a 2001 Chevy van 2500 in Elmira NY, to investment details from Hinduja Bank in Switzerland. I really don’t know why people don’t check email addresses, or make sure that they are giving out the right email addresses when they sign up to services. It can’t be that hard, and if you are having issues telling people your email address, then you should either get an easier one, or maybe consider giving up on email all together.

This morning I was greeted with another one, from Sam who was looking for his father. What’s interesting is that Sam sent the invite to gmail to a gmail address, wft ? Either way, Sam I’m not your father….

Hitting goals

- paul 4 Comments

After talking about loosing some weight at the start of 2009 and again in early 2010, I can now report things are going a little bit better in 2011. Similar to 2009, I came back from a month long visit to the US with a few extra pounds. In fact I was about 83.5 kgs, and for someone my size it was really too much. I was helped along with a few friends to get me started with swimming & going to the gym. And then after a while increasing the frequency of excerise from 1 to up to 3 times a week. I try to get at least one session in, whether it’s a run or a swim, or some Gaelic Football. The main idea was to do something physical to bring myself to a sweat.

Detoxing

Before starting with the exercise myself & lauren did a 3 week detox. This was pretty hardcore, no coffee, no alcohol, certain fruits that were high in sugar (like bananas) and lots of organic vegetables & chicken. This was particularly good for removing that extra water weight, as diet low in salt and other foods that people can have allergic reactions to. If you are interested in reading the plan drop me an email.

2011 Results

The gray dots are some of the measured points, and the blue line is the average weight and predicted time I shall hit my goal. My current goal is 75kgs, which I should hit in the next few months. Right now I’ve lost a total of 7.78% of my initial body weight.

The other day I carried a 5kg bag of coins that I was hoping to bring to the bank, and I was amazed after caring just how heavy an extra 5kg’s was. Try it yourself ! I was able to clearly imagine the extra stress and strain a few Kgs can put on your joints.

Some motivation

This post isn’t meant for me to say how great I am, rather to be more of a motivational post. The hardest part of anything is starting. Once you get going, and start to see the results, you’ll find that your body will start to crave the adrenaline rush that you get from a tough workout. You just have to stick with it enough to create the habit.

For more motivation I suggest you have a look at this video about a kid learning to cycle a bike for the first time.

Hat tip to one other great lad who’s progress I’ve been tracking this year.

Tweet Up in a Brewery #tub5

- paul

The snow is back, and but that doesn’t matter ! Munich is experiencing a nice cold snap and it’s time to meet indoors in a nice warm Brewery. This means, #5, of Tweet Up In A Brewery {aka #tub5} is on.

About Tweet up in a Brewery

A few English speaking tweeters in Munich have come together and decided to have an informal tweet up. It’s open to everyone, the language is generally English, but most of us speak-the-german too. Think of it as an open coffee club meeting with beer ! We generally meet after work in a central bar / brewery in Munich and chat about a whole host of topics.

Details of TUB

  • Date : Wednesday, March 2nd 2011
  • Time : 19:00 (7:00pm CET)
  • Location : Gasthof Obermaier (www.gasthof-obermaier.de) – chosen by Carlo Zottmann
  • Address : Truderinger Str. 306, 81825 Munich
  • How to get there : You can take the S-Bahn or U-Bahn, to Trudering, or you can take the 146 bus from Ostbahnhof. Although this is a little outside Munich center, it’s pretty easy to get to.

Map



T marks the spot

Signup for TUB5

[EVENTR REGISTRATION 5] Upon sign up you’ll be send to the twitter search results page.
[EVENTR ATTENDEES 5]

Previous Tweet up in a Brewery

This is the 5th meeting in the series. [1] [2] [3] [4]

HashTag for the event : #tub5, a list of some previous attendees can be found here.
See you there !

Tweet Up in a Brewery #tub4

- paul

Christmas is well and truly over, the Christmas markets are disassembled and people are back in work, so it would be the perfect time for some midweek beers to talk about random tech stuff. So presenting the next instalment, #4, of Tweet Up In A Brewery {aka #tub4}.

About Tweet up in a Brewery

A few English speaking tweeters in Munich have come together and decided to have an informal tweet up. It’s open to everyone, the language is generally English, but most of us speak-the-german too. Think of it as an open coffee club meeting with beer ! We generally meet after work in a central bar / brewery in Munich and chat about a whole host of topics.

A quick thanks to equinux who sponsored a few beers at tub3. They showed off their new prodcuct Tizi, which turns your iPad into a digital receiver, and picked up the tab while we oooh and awwwed over it.

Details of TUB4

Signup for TUB4

[EVENTR REGISTRATION 4] Upon sign up you’ll be send to the twitter search results page.
[EVENTR ATTENDEES 4]

Previous Tweet up in a Brewery

This is the 4th meeting in the series. [1] [2] [3]

HashTag for the event : #tub4, a list of some previous attendees can be found here.
See you there !

Revenue.ie : Phishing attempt

- paul

Just a quick warning to people who might see the following email in their inbox titled “Recalculation fiscal activity for 2011” supposedly from Revenue.ie.

The email appears to be sent from confidential@revenue.ie, but this is just spoofed (email spoofing is just too easy). The text of the email says

Dear Applicant:

Please note that you can apply for tax refund, today we have sent your tax file number (TFN): 2 7 9 0 2 1 6 8 1 5
(See the tax privacy note in the Taxpayer’s declaration on page 8 of your tax refund) and is valid only 24 hours for security reasons.
Please take a few minutes of your time to complete the form, for your safety please do not reveal your TFN number to others.
In order to complete, please follow this link:

http://www.revenue.ie/refunds

The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential and as applicable, copyright in these is reserved to Irish Tax and Customs.
Unless expressly authorised by us, any further dissemination or distribution of this email or its attachments is prohibited.

Sincerely,
Irish Tax and Customs

and it has a link to
http://www.znovuzrozeni.cz/images/form_payment.pdf.html
and not the official http://www.revenue.ie/refunds website. If you have received such an email, according to their security advice, you should forward the email to them.

The idea of such an email is to trick companies to fill out their personal details, such as credit card details, which will probably be used against them. The phishing site is very, very poorly done.


If you have filled this out, you should call your credit card company and cancel your card, and contact the revenue commissioners.

Travel travel travel

- paul

Last year was a very strange year for me, strange in the new sense of the word. I started to travel for work contracts, and got to see some amazing parts of the world for the first time (especially the Baltics). There was a few firsts, like going business class trans-atlantic flight and navigating cities like Belgrade on my own (top tip, make sure you get a map that has Cyrillic names of the streets, and make sure the address you want to go to also is in Cyrillic), and having a business trip based on hobby website of mine, (my skiiing tips website).

Travel for work can be fun, but it can als be a little over rated, it’s great to get to see these places & meet people face to face, but besides that, there generally isn’t such a great attraction to travelling for work. More often than not, travelling for work is done on tight schedules, so you don’t always get a full feel for a place, like you would on holidays. On the other hand, trips are a great change from working in an office on your own, where after a while the walls start to get a little too familiar.

Later on in the month I will try to do a post with my favorite picture form each place I took. But for now there is just a list.

The trips taken in 2010

  • Cork, Ireland
  • Boston, US
  • Florida, US
  • Zurich, Switzerland
  • Austria
  • Rome, Italy
  • Paris, France
  • Valetta, Malta
  • Dublin, Ireland
  • Krackow
  • Galway, Ireland
  • Skopje, Macedonia (Former Republic of)
  • Tallinn, Estonia
  • Belgrade, Serbia
  • Florida, US
  • Jamaica
  • Dublin, Ireland
  • Cork, Ireland

I’ve started to put some of the trips on Dopplr, (my profile) if you are bothered to look. What does 2011 have in store for itself ?

Update : 18/2/2011 There is another email doing the rounds, this time from http://www.revenue.ie.casefileform.com/refund.php?form=19294030 Again it is a phishing attempt to get you fill in your details. On the 2nd page it take you to a page where they ask you for your credit card details. The from email address is listed as service@revenue.ie