The Importance Of RIM

If you have been following business news lately then you must have heard that Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry smart phone, is not doing so well. Actually, to clarify, they are not doing as well as they used to or that they thought they would but they are not exactly doing badly. The price of their stock is of course down by about half and their recent smart phone releases haven’t exactly set the world on fire but they are not dead in the water and there is hope that they can make a comeback.

There is some criticism about RIM launching new BlackBerry devices that are not a huge leap forward in light of their recent lackluster performance. You have to keep in mind that any product that is ready for launch has most certainly been in development since before their recent troubles started and to cancel a ready-for-market product at this stage would result in the loss of millions of dollars in revenue and the millions of dollars that they put in to development would simply be wasted. They might not be doing that great right now but I don’t think anybody wants to see them do any worse.

Some people I know have made comments to me that RIM’s time is up and that Canadians and consumers should just let them die. One particular individual told me that he doesn’t think that Canadians should buy BlackBerry phones out of patriotic loyalty to RIM since RIM has done this to themselves. He throws his support behind the Android smart phones. I would say that he is in fact a little malicious in his desire to see RIM fail.

This is actually a sentiment that I encounter frequently. I don’t hear it from everybody but I hear it often enough. I don’t think these people realize how important RIM is to Canada.

Since the fall of Nortel, RIM is the largest player in Canada’s telecommunications industry. Considering that that in 2009 the information and communications technology sector was 5% of Canadian GDP this makes RIM quite important. Also, don’t forget that RIM contracts a lot of its software and hardware needs to other companies. If RIM were to fold many of these other businesses would fold as well. RIM alone employs about 17500 people. If RIM were to fold it wouldn’t be a devastating blow to the Canadian economy but it would be significant.

The opinions of the above mentioned individual are ill-informed and short sighted. Based on a current downturn in performance he is advocating the abandonment of RIM. What he fails to realize is that companies face hardships all the time and recover just fine. In the 90s Apple was near bankruptcy. They found it difficult to compete with Microsoft and they were not profitable. They also took hits to their reputation due to a series of major products that were complete failures. It was until the late 90s and early 2000s that they returned to profitability with the launch of the iMac and later on, the iPod. Also, the Nexus One had its sales drop and it was discontinued despite initial success at launch.

RIM has still has life and with a few strategic changes can come back and be an industry leader again. I have faith in RIM and will be a BlackBerry user until either the company folds or I die; whichever happens first. I plan to be an early adopter of the new line of phones coming next year that will be using the QNX platform next year.

The criticism of RIM is warranted but the death sentence that a lot of consumers feel it deserves is not. Now and forever I throw my unwavering support behind RIM and the BlackBerry product line.

The Horrors of Working For Lawyers

Every single joke ever told about lawyers is completely justified. This is something I learned while I was working for a few of them.

A few months after I graduated with my bachelor of commerce, I was hired by a small criminal defense firm as their bookkeeper. For the first while I was working there it was great. I was getting along with my coworkers and I was enjoying my work. I was so happy to have a real job that earned me a real salary in a real office. It was pretty much exactly what I was hoping I would get. It seemed perfect.

The day before I started I got a call from an insurance company I had applied at asking me for an interview. I politely declined the interview as I had already accepted the position at the law firm. The salary range was the same and it was a larger more established company which meant it probably had more rigid and defined policies and procedures. Something that I have discovered the hard way is what I need to be successful in a job. I was aware of all of this at the time but the real reason I turned down the interview was that the law firm has an annual office trip every fall and I was told that I would be included in that year’s trip. In hindsight I hate myself for being bought with a trip to Las Vegas.

Things were mostly fine from when I started in the middle of September until the beginning of November. Right around the first of November I got called into my boss’ office and was subjected to something that I still consider to be one of the worst atrocities an employee can be put through. I was told that I was subject to a different dress code than the rest of the support staff. When I started working at the firm I was told by more than one person that the office is pretty laid back and casual dress is acceptable. Obviously I used sound judgment and didn’t wear my Megadeth t-shirts to work. But, jeans were acceptable as well as tops that did not have graphics or logos on them. I would say that three or four days a week I would wear business casual but one or two days a week I would dress down and wear jeans and an appropriate top. I certainly never wore anything with holes or that would be otherwise inappropriate.

When I had this rather unpleasant office meeting I was told that my attire was inappropriate and that they like to see a more formal dress around the office. I was told to not wear jeans anymore. This in and of itself is not really all that much to be concerned about. But, it was in stark contrast to what I was told when I started. I had no idea that I was doing anything I shouldn’t. Also, I need to stress that all of the other support staff wore jeans on a daily basis. In fact, the legal assistant to the lawyer that was my boss never wore anything but jeans. On this particular day I was wearing a pair of clean and hole-free jeans and a black lulu lemon hoody. This happened to be the exact same thing that my boss’ assistant was wearing that day except her hoody was purple.

From that day on I wore nothing but shirts and ties and dress pants. I really classed up the place. In fact, the day after the meeting I went to the mall and spent $800 on new clothes for work. Everyone else continued to wear jeans and hoodies on a daily basis and were never told anything akin to what I was told. Even more shockingly, Ed Hardy attire and lulu lemon spandex pants made regular appearances as well.

The reason that this bothered me so much was that it was presented to me in a way that I thought was a bit too much like a personal attack. If they had presented this to me in a different way that offered a bit more of an explanation then I wouldn’t have felt quite so slighted. Also, when you subject one employee to terms and conditions that other employees are exempt from it is illegal. If the conditions are so severe that it causes that employee to quit then it becomes a case of constructive dismissal and you can sue your employer for it. In my case I was still on probation so I had to just grin and bear it. At the time I still wanted to keep my job.

The next time I saw my boss she was wearing some sort of suit that looked like it would be more appropriate for a night club than an office. It was this brown thing with a skirt that was so short it could have qualified as a belt. I’ve seen hookers dress more conservatively. Keep in mind this is a woman that is pushing forty and has had two kids.

When I was let go I was told by her husband who was the other senior partner in the firm. She didn’t even come into the office that day. It was a wise decision on her part because if it was her that terminated my employment I probably would have punched her in the face. I told the lawyer that let me go that it is wrong and illegal to subject your employees to conditions of employment that apply to only them. He said “Yeah, I never did think that was right. Sorry.”. Really!? Then why the fuck did you allow it? It’s just as much your firm as it is hers. I think we know who wears the pants in that marriage.

This is just one of the horrors I experienced while I was working at that firm. There are many more that I will write about but this is already at 1000 words so I will save them for future entries. Until then, heed my warning and don’t work for lawyers; Especially if they are criminal defense lawyers.

More of That Big Picture Thing

A lot of people don’t really think enough about what their lifestyle actually costs. They don’t realize how much money they waste in any given day on things that they really don’t need. This becomes painfully obvious once you start to track every single dollar that you spend every month. Most people don’t think that spending two dollars a day on their morning coffee is that big of a deal since it is only two dollars. But, that is sixty dollars a month. It’s even worse at one hundred and fifty dollars a month if you’re buying a five dollar latte from Starbucks. That’s $1800 a year assuming you buy one every day. I know most people don’t drink one everyday but it is still shocking when you think about it. Eighteen hundred dollars could be a vacation, part of a down payment on a new car, or anything that is better than an over-priced high-calorie beverage.

Last year I saved over one hundred dollars but putting all of my change that is smaller than a loonie in a jar. A hundred dollars from my quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. It makes you realize that it really is the little things that add up. I also save a considerable amount every month by drinking the free coffee at work. I know it’s not technically free but it is my employer that covers the cost for me. I only make coffee at home for myself on the weekends and I make a seven dollar can of coffee last for months. This is only a problem on days like yesterday when the coffee maker at work is broken. That was pretty rough.

This is true for a lot more things than people realize. I was talking with a friend of mine (the same one that is obsessed with credit card interest) who told me that I should get a bus pass to go to and from work. I told him that is wasn’t worth it for me to do that. Someone once told him that is was cheaper to take the bus than it is to drive and now he won’t let it go. I had to walk away from this conversation before I started yelling and throwing things. He didn’t understand the math.

I only live 3.1 km from work. So 6.2km a day for the round trip at 12 L of gas per 100km and $1.10/L works out to about $16 of gas per month to drive to and from work. If a bus pass costs $85 dollars then gas can go up to about $5.60/L before it is cheaper for me to take the bus to work. This would not be true if I had to pay for parking. I’m lucky enough to have free parking. This also doesn’t take into account what I pay for insurance and maintenance on my vehicle. But, since I have no intention of ever getting rid of my car for evening and weekend excursions, my costs for insurance would remain the same and my maintenance costs would not decrease enough to make taking the bus more cost effective.

A lot of people just have certain ideas in their head that they seem to be stuck on. They can’t see the forest for the trees. If people would just sit down and analyze their lifestyles a little more closely they would find that they could potentially save hundreds of dollars a year. Just like Scotiabank’s slogan says, you’re richer than you think.