You are hired!

26th February to 28th February. It was already clear to us in advance that we would need to work during our stay in Canada, and this became even clearer during our first days in Vancouver. After all, rents in the major cities of British Columbia are absurdly high. Just like the cost of groceries. And, oh yeah, didn't we want to tour 'a little bit' through North America? That also requires money (a lot of it).

In mid-February, we had already worked a few hours through a temp agency. But the daily routine of getting up at 5 o'clock, the uncertainty of actually getting a job for the day, and the hours of waiting in an unheated office (yes, it can get cold in Canada too) made us quickly look for other jobs.

A few days earlier, we had distributed our resumes to various retailers, hotels, and car washes, written online applications, and even landed job interviews. We could finally show some small successes: we had job interviews. Bella at a clothing store (Reitmans), a hotel, and a second-hand store (Value Village). Me at a car wash, a hotel, and also at the second-hand store. Coincidentally, it was more of a last-resort application at the latter ('What do we have to lose? We can still get rejected.'). After receiving negative feedback from both hotel jobs and no response from Reitmans ('We'll get back to you by Tuesday, 27th February.' They haven't contacted us until today, 9th March. That's what I call hospitality.), only Value Village was left. We had interviews with them on Monday and Tuesday. Quite laborious and not particularly efficient, but apparently part of their business policy. The second interview, in which we had to answer the same questions as the day before (they have a special questionnaire for job interviews), asked by a different person, ended with the sentence: You are hired! Whoop Whoop. Finally, a job. Full-time. $13 per hour (above the minimum wage of $11.35). So, our last resort would be our future employer. I just had to decide whether I should work at Value Village or in the car wash. I chose Value Village. Mainly because of the money, because in the car wash, it would have been just the minimum wage, which adds up to around $300 at the end of the month. Money we urgently need.

The next day, we were asked to come back, and our new work environment was introduced to us, and our positions were assigned. Bella gets to work in the 'production' and I in the donation center, which work we would be doing in the next few months - became clear only in the following days. Our new supervisor, an Indian woman with a strong accent, gave us countless documents to read and fill out. A binder contained everything about 'labor law' in this company - these paragraphs made us smirk, but also really marvel. Slowly, it became clear to us that there were hardly any differences in 'working conditions' between the United States and Canada. In Canada, an employee has about 2 weeks of vacation per year, but they must have been employed for at least one year. If someone has worked for the same company for 5 years, the Canadians are also generous and increase the vacation entitlement to 3 weeks. Canadian employers are even more generous when it comes to sickness, as there is simply no pay - well, who gets sick anyway - their own fault. The same applies to someone employed as a juror in court, there is also no pay for absence, which is obvious - if you don't work, you don't get paid. In the case of pregnancy or parental leave, there is also no pay (absolutely nothing), but the employer is obliged to grant a newly minted mother a break of up to 35 weeks. Better than nothing.

The document also mentioned the dress code, no shorts or dresses that end above the knee. We are also not allowed to wear tank tops, which will be difficult for Bella. It is best for us to wear clothes in black, red, or white... ahem okay. In addition, we must appear at work well-groomed and smelling good. No problem. After reading about 20 pages of English jargon and being unable to absorb any more information, we still had to read and sign a document about sexual harassment. While reading, it became apparent once again how far behind Canada is in its development. Because in their pamphlet, they naturally only talked about how men harass women. Welcome to the 21st century. Women were also reminded how to dress so as not to be sexually harassed. There were also beautiful examples that fulfilled all stereotypes. Oh Canada.

After signing all the forms, we had to register online at Value Village. We still haven't fully understood the purpose of that - but maybe we'll have the inspiration soon. Our email that we received afterwards was much nicer, it featured our password in black and white. Maybe, if we ever forget it, it's definitely in our email inbox. Really practical. After a two-hour struggle with Canadian bureaucracy, we were allowed to go home again. However, we later realized that we hadn't even signed an employment contract... mmmhhhh that's peculiar. Arriving 'home', questions tormented us like: 'Are we officially employed now?' / 'Are we really getting $13 per hour?' / 'Why was there no employment contract, is that even legal?'

All these questions would be clarified in the coming days.