Andrew Seale

Contributor for Yahoo Canada

[whenwedrift]

Digital detoxing without losing your job (or your mind)

[It’s hard to put down the digital devices, but every once in a while, it can be the right move.]

Michael Harris convinced himself he was the world’s greatest multitasker, able to seamlessly navigate the three screens on his desk and the dozens of windows they had open.

“I was living with a kind of ambient awareness of everything, (my) attention 10 per cent on 10 different things,” says the former magazine editor and author of the Governor General’s Award-winning “The End of Absence,” an exploration of the way being plugged in has changed our lives practically, socially, intellectually and emotionally. “I was staring at glowing rectangles and realized this wasn’t the life I imagined for myself.”

So in 2012, he quit his job and decided to focus his attention on writing “The End of Absence,” complete with a 30-day digital detox. Now before you jump to the comment section, it’s worth noting that Harris knows his stance is a somewhat privileged one.

“For most people, taking 30 days offline while still trying to be a productive member of society is not reasonable,” he says, adding that pulling off a digital detox is actually possible for “99 per cent” of society.

Yahoo Canada Finance spoke with Harris and fellow Canadian digital detox expert Christina Crook whose book “The Joy of Missing Out” looks at finding balance in a wired world, about how to escape from the moment-to-moment connectivity without losing your mind and your job.

Decide on your ideal media environment

“When we look at the Internet as a tool, it helps put our use of it into perspective,” explains Crook. “Start by asking the right questions: how is the technology serving me and is it actually serving me in the ways I want it to?”

Defining what goals you want to complete with or without technology can be anything from writing out a list of planned accomplishments to developing a hard schedule.

“Social media is basically a technological meme that has evolved with the expressed purpose of filling in any gaps that you leave, so you can’t be passive about your day’s schedule,” adds Harris. “If I know I’m doing three hours before lunch of concentrated creative work (then) the media environment I require is one of total digital silence – no phone and no email.”

Make your media diet 

“The jolt of dopamine you get when you check your phone or email and there’s a message (is) the real reason you’re running back to your inbox,” says Harris. “In the same way we are designed to hoard sugar and fats and oils and have to make a decision to not eat McDonald’s everyday, we have to craft a healthier media diet for ourselves… which (requires) using a bit of willpower.”

Harris advocates spending at least one day every week or so unplugged while Crook recommends taking an afternoon a week where you unplug and do other activities like exercise or non-digital work.

“Leave the house and your phone behind or if you take it with you, have it off or have the data off,” she says. “Just give yourself over to other activities as a weekly reset.”

Keep people in the loop

The key to keeping your job while spending less time with your mobile device is to let your colleagues and boss know.

“We all believe the world would fall apart if we left, especially in business,” says Harris. But checking your email from a beach in Hawaii isn’t doing your colleagues a favour. “Usually there’s confusion for about half a day when somebody genuinely goes offline and then people figure it out – just make sure people understand you’re going offline.”

Crook agrees that setting parameters even on a day-to-day basis can help you preserve your online/offline sanity.

“There’s so much unspoken in office,” says Crooks. Which is why managers and employees alike should be communicating what that media environment needs to look like for them to be at peak performance. “We need space with mental real estate for invention – that fuels us creatively.”

[whenwedrift]

Debunking the 'latte factor' and other money-saving myths

[Will cutting out your daily caffeine indulgence save you from money woes in the long run? Experts don’t think so.]

A few months ago Rona Birenbaum’s daughter asked for the latest iPhone so the certified financial planner decided to compare the price online to the cost of getting it through her service provider.

“With taxes it was almost $1,000 to buy outright, I almost fell out of my seat,” says the founder of Toronto-based financial planning firm Caring for Clients. “But then I go to the service providers – to get the phone for $299 flat you had to then sign up for a certain data plan.”

The data plan, Birenbaum explains, came with a two-year term and so she multiplied the monthly costs and even with the discount it costs a couple hundred dollars more.

“There’s a certain amount of pride and satisfaction that comes from getting that (deal) – you’re saving money on one hand and paying more on another – so its more of a psychological exercise than anything grounded in reality.”

It’s akin to the pervasive myth that boosting your budget is as simple as cutting out that weekly latte.

“It isn’t about spending less, it’s about spending well,” says Birenbaum.

Yahoo Canada Finance took a look at some of the most pervasive “savings” myths:

In-store loyalty credit cards

While these types of store-branded credit cards often offer spending rewards and special bonus days, store credit cards tend to carry higher interest rates than traditional credit cards with stiffer late fees and penalties. Case in point: Home Depot and The Brick have interest rates sitting around 28.8 per cent and 29.9 per cent versus the 19 per cent or lower purchase interest rate on a standard credit card. And missing a payment on a store card offering a deferred payment plan – that “No payment for 12 months” scheme – could trigger 12 months of interest.

Monthly insurance premiums versus annual

“Most people do not know that paying a monthly premium for their life insurance or disability/critical illness insurance is actually about a nine per cent premium for the convenience of paying monthly,” says Birenbaum.

If they paid annually they’d get abut one month free a year, adds the financial planner.

Warehouse memberships

With annual memberships to somewhere like Costco ranging from $50 to $100, there’s bound to be some attraction. For anyone who actually owns a membership can attest, just being in the presence of full wheels of Beemster’s Gouda cheese at deep discounts is worth the price of admission. But in reality, is that membership really worth it? If you’ve got a family of five or more, you can most likely put that plastic to good use stocking up on novelty-sized boxes of pita chips or “his-and-her” sets of snowshoes. But for lone wolves, you’re apt to end up with a bunch of stuff you don’t need and a little heartbreak when the mold spores devour the wheel before you get to it.

Free shipping

It’s the perfect crime – that double verifying system that e-tailers seem to have on lock-down: “are you sure you don’t want free shipping? You’re only one product away.” Let’s be honest, they realize they can’t get you with the bright coloured sale signs because there are no digital aisles to place end-caps on but online sites like eBay, Etsy and Amazon have you figured out: toss a couple options for things you’d like and a promise of free shipping if you spend a bit more and you’re likely to take the bait. Don’t do it, free shipping is apt to save you a couple bucks but spending more defeats the purpose of saving, does it not?

Chasing gas prices

And finally, the game we all like to play with ourselves called “chasing the gas price.” Sure, that Esso on the outskirts is offering a better deal but it’s 20 minutes away. So when you account for traffic (i.e. your time) and the cost of gas to get there (i.e. your savings) that deal doesn’t look so attractive now does it?

[whenwedrift]

Knowing when (and how) to break-up with your bank

Karen Collacutt recently went through a tough break-up. Her bank, it seems, just wasn’t that into her – or rather, it wasn’t that into having her business.

“The bank my husband and I had been working with was a smaller (one)… their hours got less and less and their technology wasn’t up to par,” explains the certified financial planner and founder/prosperity coach at ProsperologyU. “It was becoming really difficult to work with them and so we went through this process of: how are we going to change and how do we change?”

Like any relationship breaking up with your bank can be hard to do; there are a lot of moving parts, a lot of things to consider. That’s why Collacutt advises anyone considering making a change to fully examine the root problem first.

“When you have a challenge with a bank, the first thing you want to do is see if you can resolve the problem,” she says.

Typically, the main concerns Collacutt comes across amongst clients are related to customer service or technology.

“Occasionally it’s fees but a lot of people just ignore their fees which is amazing to me,” says the money coach. As for the recent trend of banks offering iPads for switching, Collacutt is quick to cut that excuse. “Don’t just switch because one of the banks is offering free iPads – if you’re brand new to banking and you need your first account, that’s a great way to get a new iPad but this is a huge amount of work (otherwise).”

If the reason you’re moving is a customer service qualm, be forewarned, despite the colour of their couches, the banking experience doesn’t vary widely in the realm of people-to-people interactions.

“You often end up in the same situation,” says Collacutt. Instead she recommends swapping branches with the same bank to try and find a representative you like working with. Technology is the same, most banks employ tweaks on the same type of technology.

“If it’s a fee challenge then get on the phone with the bank or your new customer service person and see what they can do,” she says. “There’s often a variety of strategies you can use to lower your fees.”

When it just won’t work

Of course, Collacutt recognizes that not every problem has a clear fix and sometimes a break-up becomes all too necessary. The first step, says the money coach, is the come up with a list of the criteria, the things you’re looking for in your new banking partner.

“Start looking at your bank options… look at the major banks, look at some of the smaller banks and credit unions and go and actually meet the people,” she says. “Build a relationship and get them to help you as you’re transferring things over.”

She points out that while many banks have some sort of transferring system, ultimately, it falls on you to make sure the transition is smooth. Collacutt say she’s heard horror stories of accounts going into the red over automated transactions.

“People start shutting things down and they think they have moved everything (but) you might not remember all the different (automated transfers) you have,” she says, adding it’d be wise to have a buffer of funds in your old account to avoid missing payments that may still be connected with that account.

“I recommend keeping your old account open for another full month at minimum so you can be sure all the auto transfers are complete,” adds Collacutt. “It does mean you’re paying double fees for a short period of time but it’s better than having an overdraft or an NSF and having to argue with services that didn’t get paid.”

Once it’s time to properly say goodbye to your old bank account, the money coach recommends sealing the deal with some paperwork saying the account truly is closed. She also points out that just because you’re breaking up with a bank doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with the other departments.

“If they’ve got investments and want to move them, that can be really costly, especially if the market is down at all,” she says, recommending leaving them if possible. The mortgage portion of most financial institutions is also typically a separate department so you don’t need to worry about seeing your ex. “For the mortgage department, as long as they’re getting paid, they don’t really care.”

[whenwedrift]

How to prevent networking events from being a waste of time

[Networking events can be a drag, but if you use them to your advantage, they can actually be a good opportunity.]

In a recent piece in the Harvard Business Review, Derek Coburn, author of “Networking Is Not Working,” called networking events both “inefficient and ineffective.”

“Regardless of how you define networking, your success will be directly tied to your ability to interact with people looking to achieve many of the same things you are,” he wrote. “The most basic problem with traditional networking events is that they are mixing bowls for professionals who are there for different reasons.”

It’s an interesting stance to take, especially in a publication tethered to an Ivy League school known for its frequent and global, er, network of networks. But Coburn raises some good points about the lack of authentic connecting going on at these sorts of events.

“Everyone there is focused on his or her own personal agenda, whether it’s signing a new client, creating awareness for their business, or connecting with someone in the hopes of developing a mutually beneficial relationship,” he writes. “Everyone is playing a different game, which is why there are usually no clear winners.”

So how then does one possibly win at networking?

“We need to change, we need to do an un-networking type of networking – call it relationship connecting or relationship building,” says Eileen Chadnick, an executive coach and founder of Big Cheese Coaching. “Networking has gotten a very bad name because it’s misunderstood.”

She says that while she disagrees with Coburn that networking events are, for the most part, a lost cause, she does agree that “people take a superficial approach.” She likens having a good networking strategy to building a proper financial plan.

“I think networking needs to have different parts – to be diverse and strategic and targeted – (something that) speaks to your needs and objectives,” she says. “I also think that network plans and activities need to evolve… just like a financial plan changes over time based on your life circumstances and your life stage, networking will also shift depending on where you are in the continuum of your career.”

Chadnick shared three ways to un-network:

Use LinkedIn the right way

“Too often, people do far too little building and strengthening their existing network… that is key,” she says. “They may be on LinkedIn but they’re not really using it; it becomes a passive list of people.”

Instead, she says, if you’re going to click “yes” on making a connection with someone, put the effort to actually grow that into a relationship. In other words, open a dialogue with them, talk about mutual connections, look for proper synergies there because the tool is already highlighting those common ties.

“Comment on their interesting career, be genuine,” she says. “Just say hello, do an email exchange and it can be just that for now or if there was any merit or reason to set up a meeting, do so.”

If rallying for an in-person coffee isn’t an option, the career coach suggests trying a “virtual coffee” video call.

Try “by the way” networking

Effectively networking in person has its own set of etiquette and quirks.

“A lot of people feel uncomfortable with networking because they think it’s going to push them to be inauthentic and smarmy and ask for things,” she says. “No wonder they feel uncomfortable because that is the wrong way to network.”

Instead, she recommends keeping flexibility in your agenda. Most conversations tend to tilt towards commonalities so if it seems like there’s some sort of connection you can help the person make, be the first to offer.

“In an authentic catch-up conversation, say ‘by the way, I’m trying to do this or that or I’m interested in talking to people doing such and such’ or maybe ‘You know what, I know somebody you should definitely talk to,’ ” says Chadnick. It can strengthen the bond and pave the way for future connections down the road.

Go to smaller events

And finally, if you’re finding yourself helplessly disoriented and short on results at big networking events, why not try going to smaller, more focused meet-up groups.

“It’s a return on investment kind of question, you have to ask yourself: how much time do I want to spend and what do I hope to get back?” she says. Maybe you don’t need to go every month; maybe networking events are just small parts of you diverse networking strategy. “A smaller intimate gathering can be more meaningful.”

Think about your reason for going, she says, and above all don’t be disappointed by the lack of immediacy surrounding building these connections.

“Don’t be hard on yourself if you can’t do as much as you really wish you could and would like to because none of us can,” says Chadnick. “But keep it active, do a little, bit by bit, make it part of your weekly and monthly goal and just constantly be doing something.”

[whenwedrift]

How to find the right home inspector

[Picking the right home inspector is almost as important as picking the right house.]

This fall, Ontario is looking to introduce a bill to regulate home inspectors and create a body to govern the industry. While only 65 per cent of homebuyers in the province hire inspectors to look into their potentially life-altering purchases, the move will bring stronger standardization to an industry that country-wide is, for the most part, still unregulated.

It’ll also add an extra layer of confidence to the sometimes-daunting process of finding the right inspector. But it’s not the only thing consumers need to keep in mind.

Yahoo Canada Finance chatted with Brian Hutchinson, past president of the Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors Atlantic and treasurer of CAHPI National, to get the low-down on finding that right inspector. Here are the 22-year veteran inspector’s tips:

Figure out what you want from your inspector

“More and more inspection companies are starting to offer a menu-driven price list,” explains the Dartmouth, N.S.-based inspector. For instance, a basic inspection may run you $350 to $600 but you’ll have the option of adding other services beyond a standard visual inspection including testing for radon or looking into the sewage lines.

“Some inspectors will do water testing, some will do air quality testing over and above the visual inspection,” he says. “The price can mount up, it’s not hard to spend $1,000 on an inspection if you’re doing all those inspections.”

Look for an inspector with a designation

While homebuyers wait for Ontario to set a precedent, Hutchinson recommends turning to national organizations like the CAHPI or regional ones like the Better Business Bureau.

“Look for a professional affiliation that suggests that the inspector is serious about their profession and has made an effort to ensure his educational standards of practice meet a high level,” he says. The Registered Home Inspector program through the CAHPI, for instance, requires inspectors to have completed at least 250 fee-paid inspections.

He also said consumers can feel more confident with an inspector who’s registered with the Better Business Bureau because it suggests they’re willing to submit to scrutiny.

Visit their website and then speak to them

Often buyers will get recommendations from their real estate agents or friends. Hutchinson points out that even if the trust factor is there, buyers should still look at the website of the inspector before hiring them.

“Take a look at [whether] their website is professionally done or if they have one at all [as well as] customer referrals on those websites and a statement about their level of experience,” he says.

He also points out that while many inspectors will have some sort of appointment booking service online or via phone, it’s good to schedule a face-to-face meeting or speak to them over the phone before hiring.

“You want to get a sense that they have good communication skills – technical skills can be taught but if somebody isn’t gifted in terms of communication they’re going to have a hard time being an effective communicator,” says Hutchinson. “Our work is very focused around effecting communicating of our findings… we’re trying to relay to [customers] the technical aspects of the house they’re buying.”

You can also ask to accompany them on the inspection, which can bolster that ability to communicate.

Ensure they’re insured

A breakdown of communication can prove costly to the consumer. Hutchinson recommends finding an inspector with insurance in the event something goes awry.

“The presence of personal liability insurance suggest they’ve been vetted by the insurance companies somewhat,” he says. “Secondly, if something does come up and you subsequently have to sue the inspector you want to know that the inspector has the resources to pay out any settlement that’s necessary.”

Set your expectations upfront

A lot of inspectors will have their clients sign a visual inspection agreement that outlines exactly what they can expect. The homebuyers need to comb through this and make sure they agree and understand their recourse if things don’t go the way the anticipated.

Some agreements will limit the liability of the inspector to just the fee paid and within a certain time frame from the point of purchase.

“If after two years you make a discovery that I couldn’t make in the three hours I was in the house, it seems unreasonable I would be liable,” says Hutchinson.

But if you do have a problem with an inspector you’ve hired, Hutchinson recommends first approaching the inspector.

“Make it known you’re unhappy and the inspector will have options at that point, whether he refers you along to his insurance company or whether he can come to a settlement with the client upfront,” he says. “As an inspector, the primary interest is your clients – that’s the one that you safeguard without compromise.”

[whenwedrift]

Future of Shomi's content up in the air as service shuts down

[Shomi is shutting down its digital streaming service. (CBC)]

Shomi: nothing. The Rogers and Shaw streaming joint venture has announced it will be shuttering November 30.

“We tried something new, and customers who used Shomi loved it. It’s like a great cult favourite with a fantastic core audience that unfortunately just isn’t big enough to be renewed for another season,” Melani Griffith, senior vice-president of content for Rogers told tech site MobileSyrup.

According to an email to Yahoo Canada Finance from the streaming service, Shomi had “recently approached” 900,000 subscriptions. However, it’s unclear whether or not that takes into account Rogers subscribers who received the service free with their wireless package.

According to Solutions Research Group, a Toronto-based data tracking firm, Shomi is used in less than four per cent of Canadian households.

“I’m not an insider, but their business model is likely not competitive, or even realistic, in an ecosystem trending towards a global delivery model, with Netflix demonstrating unbeatable first mover advantage,” Irene Berkowitz, an expert on the impact of digital media on television and an instructor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management, told Yahoo Canada Finance.

Simply put, Shomi likely has too few subscribers and moreover, only a Canadian footprint, which further limits the potential subscribers. Even at 900,000 subscribers, they wouldn’t be close to Netflix’s five million.

“They likely don’t have revenue or even potential revenue necessary to compete for top content,” she says. “They lack scale and the imperative in the new eco-system.”

But the closure of the streaming service, which will result in a $100 million to $140 million write-down on the Roger’s third quarter, is a peculiar one in Canada’s still-fresh-faced streaming ecosystem.

In the past when a Blockbuster or Jumbo Video closed its doors, cinephiles could make pilgrimages to buy the excess titles at deep discounts — but what happens with all those leftover licenses?

According to an emailed response from Owen McCorquodale, a spokesperson for Shomi: “In regards to the content on shomi, we are in the process of working with suppliers on next steps and the details of which are a proprietary matter.”

The company declined to provide any other details but Berkowitz says the fate of the licenses and rights to that content is a complex situation.

“There may be different exit clauses, penalties, and/or conditions per contract,” she says. “I would hypothesize the risk of continuing was assessed as greater than cost of shuttering.”

With Shomi, which launched in beta in November 2014, typically signing two-year deals for the content, those licenses are likely running out in step with company shuttering.

For Netflix, the impending demise of Shomi will likely go unnoticed but Bell took to the airwaves saying that for CraveTV it’s business as usual.

“There’s no change in the status of CraveTV,” George Cope said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “It’s meeting our expectations, continues to grow and Canadians continue to subscribe to that service, so we’re going to keep competing in that marketplace.”

But whether or not homegrown streaming services succeed, there’s no shortage of global licenses to be had. Berkowitz points out that currently five main streaming services have 50 per cent of global over-the-top content revenue – Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, HBO and Hulu.

“All are strategically positioned for growth with respect to both scale/distribution reach and content creation (so) their presence – or not – in Canada depends on possession of content streaming rights,” she says. “The new eco-system is still emergent and rapidly evolving – watch closely.”

[whenwedrift]

Forget about raises next year says Corporate Canada

[If you’re hoping for a raise next year, we’ve got some bad news for you…]

If you’re hoping to be handed a raise next year, Corporate Canada says forget it.

Base pay for Canadians is only expected to grow by 2.8 per cent in 2017, slightly higher than 2.6 per cent in 2016, according to human resources firm Aon Hewitt’s 2016 Canadian Salary Increase survey of 347 companies. The slight increase keeps pace with inflation but doesn’t signal much hope for Canadians looking to boost their pay. Variable pay – which includes additional compensation like bonuses – is expected to stand at 15.4 per cent for next year, echoing 2016.

“The Canadian companies we surveyed are clearly reluctant to earmark higher compensation increases as they prepare for a highly competitive landscape in 2017,” Suzanne Thomson, senior consultant for global data solutions at Aon Hewitt said in a release highlighting the findings. “On the plus side, fewer of them expect to freeze pay or cut salaries, and they are planning to keep already strong budgets for variable pay intact. That’s a key factor in their ability to attract and retain high performers.”

In 2016, 4.5 per cent of employers froze salaries – predominantly as a result of challenges in the oil and gas sector. In 2017, only 0.4 per cent of employers have plans to lockdown salaries next year.

“For 2017, employers, including those in the oil and gas sector, may be feeling confident that the worst is behind them,” added Thomson. “From an employees’ perspective, there might not be much upside when it comes to pay increases, but they can find some solace in the fact that the downside might be more limited.”

But for go-getters willing to put in effort for a raise or boost their earnings, Corporate Canada seems open to the idea. According to the survey nine out of 10 surveyed organizations offered up some sort of variable pay or bonus plan and so-called high potential employees saw an average “merit increase” to their pay by 4.4 per cent.

Bruce Sandy, principal career and leader coach at Pathfinder Coaching and Consulting in Greater Vancouver says even for employers showing austerity, there are ways for Canadians to grow their compensation outside of their salary.

“Ask for additional paid vacation time, flexibility – like work hours and working remotely – funding for courses and other professional development activities, and/or increased pension contributions,” Sandy told Yahoo Canada Finance. “Indicate that you will be willing to forego a raise this year due to the current economic climate but that you will want higher raises in the near future.”

It’s also important to try and get these sorts of commitments in writing as part of your performance review process. According to the Aon Hewitt survey, two-thirds of organizations say they offered some form of long-term incentive plan whether it is performance-related share grants or restricted stock.

If you’re willing to job-hop for a raise, Sandy recommends networking and seeking out other job opportunities.

“One needs to do their research on different sectors, companies and compensation and pay levels,” he adds. “This will help in current and future negotiations with your current company.”

And if you are serious about moving in order to grow your career, tell your employer.

“Let your current boss know that advancing your career and being appropriately compensated are important to you,” adds the career coach. “As a result of not receiving a raise – or receiving a minimal raise – that you will continue to be open and look for other opportunities both in and out of your current company.”

[whenwedrift]

Two-thirds of Canadians are prepared to leave their employer

[The majority of Canadians are prepared to walk out the door if they had a better employment opportunity come along.]

Two-thirds of Canadians are ready to leave their jobs today should an opportunity arise with a higher salary or better work-life balance, according to the latest

study

by human resources and payroll services giant ADP.

“Any given day a portion of the workforce is going to be looking for greener pastures, I think that’s human nature, but we were a little surprised it was over 60 per cent,” said Elizabeth Williams, director of brand and communications for ADP.

Of the more than 1,500 Canadians surveyed, 33 per cent say they don’t feel much loyalty to their employer, while 16 per cent say they are actively working for a new role. Another 16 per cent say they’re “casually” looking for a new role.

“Most people would tell you ‘if the right thing came along, well of course’ but I think the thing surprised us was that 32 per cent of the full workforce is actively or somewhat actively looking for a new role,” says Williams.

According to the survey, the majority (66 per cent) of those looking to try out something new cited compensation as a major driving force in their top two reasons for making a move while 56 per cent put elements like better work/life balance, fewer hours, less stress and shorter commutes or better locations as the reasons for considering ditching their current job.

“Workers increasingly are looking for meaning in their work and they’re less interested in climbing a corporate ladder than they are in doing work that matters to them or the feel is making a difference to the world around them,” she says.

Williams points out that while ADP expected millennials to lead the charge with the exodus, Canadians are considering making a change much later in life than they previously might have.

“We also found the next generation up, people in that 35 to 44 cohort who you would think are getting a bit more senior – they’ve got some financial pressures and are maybe not inclined to take a risk – are right there with the millennials saying ‘heck yes, if the right offer came along we’d jump.’ ”

About four in ten employees in the 18 to 34 year old age group say they’d leave their jobs for something better compared to 32 per cent in the 35 to 44 year old bracket. The 45 to 54 year old age group was closer to one in five. Only seven per cent in the 55 to 64 category are considering a move.

While its easy for employees to push their disdain for their job on their employers, Williams points out that it is a two-way conversation, employees need to be open with their employers and tell them exactly what they’re looking for in their job.

“I cant think of an employer who wouldn’t want to have an employee standing in their doorway saying give me more meaning, let me make a difference, let me really dig in on something – that’s the inspired workplace that most of us really dream of working in and many of us would jump ship to find,” she adds. “Make that known by asking for the opportunity to strive – the worst that happens is they say no.”

[whenwedrift]

How immigration can help foster innovation in business

[Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates receives a hug from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (R) at the Global Citizen Concert to End AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Montreal, Quebec, Canada September 17, 2016. / REUTERS/Geoff Robins/POOL]

In essence, immigration is innovation. It’s looking for a better way, a new path, chasing opportunity. And, as Bill Gates pointed out at the Emerging Cascadia Innovation Conference last week, it’s also good for business.

“I think Canada’s very well positioned. It’s got good, strong universities, good policies – certainly more enlightened immigration policies than most countries have, which is a real asset,” said the Microsoft co-founder to attendees at the conference, which was set up to bolster the technology and business links between British Columbia and Washington.

Gate’s sentiment mirrored Canada’s Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains earlier comments that while boosting domestic talent and education through training is key, supporting immigration, and by proxy, immigrant entrepreneurs, through grants and funding is also a vital part of growing the economy.

“Those kinds of investments attract the best and brightest to come to Canada, and then if we create an environment for them to grow their company, succeed and we provide a good quality of life, there’s a good chance we’ll be able to retain them,” he told reporters. “When individuals start up companies and grow companies, then they employ Canadians. That’s the idea. We want to create an innovation culture.”

Part of that innovation is driven by the cross-pollination that can occur where newcomer entrepreneurs are starting businesses out of incubators or accelerators alongside equally innovative startups. In fact, immigrants are far more likely to start businesses – 19.6 per cent of immigrants are unincorporated self-employed persons according to StatsCan – than their Canadian-born peers at 16.1 per cent.

[Syrian chocolatier opens factory in Antigonish. Trudeau recently shared the story of Tareq Hadhad and his family’s success since their arrival in Canada from Syria at the United Nations. / CBC]

“A lot of immigrants are shut out of certain jobs in Canada because the skills aren’t recognized easily and that drives entrepreneurial activity,” explains Andreas Schotter, assistant professor of International Business and Global Strategy and the academic director of Ivey Business School’s Masters of Science program at Western University.

While Gates and Minister Bains have glowing praise for the policies, Schotter – himself an immigrant having come as a student from Germany in 2005 and become a Canadian citizen in 2011 – says we’re missing the mark by not structuring our immigration policy around skill sets.

“I live here for a reason and it’s a great country – I believe in the value of Canada,” he says. “But I do think we need to do a better job in making it easier for skilled people to come to Canada.”

He points out that while newcomers are starting their own businesses, the immigration is not really conducive to these business owners scaling those companies up, especially in more complex value-adding industries where they’re competing with homegrown firms for highly skilled talent.

“If you have difficulties hiring locally and then you have also difficulties in bringing potential friends or someone from their (home country) who can fill that skill gap, your activity is quite limited,” he says adding that transferring skilled immigrants into our talent pool is key to innovation.

Schotter says he feels Canada lost a bit of an opportunity after 9/11 when the U.S. tightened its borders. Canada, he explains, could have streamlined its rules to make it easier for firms to bring in talent from elsewhere.

A recent column by John Stackhouse, former Globe and Mail editor-in-chief and current senior vice president to the Office of the CEO at RBC, highlighted the role of diversity in driving innovation.

“Many of the world’s innovation hubs are places to which talented immigrants flock – think Hong Kong or New York or London – where differences in background, choice and perspective come together to create excellence,” he wrote. “The qualities that define immigrants – risk-taking, openness to new ideas and manners, an ability to build something from scratch – are also at the heart of innovation.”

Like Stackhouse, Schotter also points to countries like Singapore or Hong Kong as prime examples of skill-based immigration policies. And maybe that’s it, coming up with policies focused on these regions.

“But again – Hong Kong, Singapore… these are city states,” he says. “Maybe Canada needs to look at that more, we are kind of a cluster of city states in a way.”

[whenwedrift]

Bahamas leak reveals Canadian banks' offshore dealings

[BERLIN, GERMANY – APRIL 13: Activists wearing suits throw fake money into the air while demanding greater trasparency in new legislation following the ongoing Panama Papers affair on April 13, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)]

Big Canadian banks are once again in the spotlight for their involvement with tax havens, this time in the Bahamas, an island nation synonymous with offshore banking secrecy.

According to a cache of leaked internal documents from the corporate registry in the Bahamas, since 1990, RBC, CIBC and Scotiabank have provided services to nearly 2,000 offshore bank accounts, trusts and foundations throughout the database of 175,500.

While the data doesn’t indicate any wrongdoing from the banks, RBC registered 847 companies, CIBC registered 632 and Scotiabank registered 481 on the island nation between 1990 and May 2016. The findings were leaked through Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper – the first outlet to release the Panama Papers – and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which includes CBC and the Toronto Star.

Canadian lawyer Martin Kenney, one of the world’s leading authorities on international fraud and asset recovery, told Yahoo Canada Finance that when contrasted with the Panama papers, which included 11.5 million documents, the leak is “minor” both in scope and information.

“The data on the corporate registry is already publicly available,” he says, adding that they typically consist of ground-level data, names of the companies, creation dates, addresses and in some cases they’ll have director or owner names. The documents can be accessed for a $10 fee per document but the ICIJ released the documents en masse for free.

Kenney points out that only a small percentage of those companies may be involved in criminal activities.

“There are situations like a husband trying to hide money from his wife in a divorce or something like a wealthy family trying to protect their wealth in trusts in the case of a kidnapping,” he says, adding that there are also “lots of legitimate reasons for setting up a bank account in the Bahamas.”

Dennis Howlett, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness – an organization that frequently lobbies the government around policies to close the loopholes that make places like the Bahamas attractive to wealthy individuals and corporations, says that although the volume of findings in the Bahamas leak is smaller than the Panama Papers, it has more relevancy to Canadians.

“The Bahamas is a much more (prominent) Canadian destination of investment then Panama,” he says. “What’s most striking is the huge involvement of federal Canadian banks… that’s what jumps out at me.”

Howlett told Yahoo Canada Finance that the CTF estimates one third of the offshore investments are wealthy individuals.

“Which is, for the most part, completely illegal tax evasion and most of that is totally secret… it’s unreported,” he says. “Two thirds of the offshore activity is corporate and a lot of it was able to be done legally although there is the problem of companies crossing the line knowing they can get away with it.”

Bahamas ranks sixth on the list of destinations for Canadians’ money legally going abroad. According to Stats Canada’s latest numbers, Canadians have more than $33 billion parked there.

“It continues to go up every year,” says Howlett. “And that’s just the officially reported amount.”

He points out that the growing amount of data leaks in the past few years have spurred a crackdown on tax evasion. In July both RBC and Citibank agreed to hand over account information between Canadian residents and the Cayman National Bank.

“There is a lot more pressure on policymakers to do something,” says Howlett. “It does give pause to some of the companies and wealthy individuals and make them think twice… but it’s still a huge problem.”

[whenwedrift]

Who keeps the house in a divorce?

[Splitting assets in a divorce isn’t easy, and determining who gets the house is one of the toughest to determine.]

The current housing market is creating some tricky conditions for Canadians going through a divorce who are trying to decide who keeps the house. In the past, a partner who wasn’t named on the title to the house as an owner was still typically entitled to half via equalization of net family property, a process that adds up the couples’ assets and debts at the point of separation. But with the rapid rise in housing prices – the average price of Canadian homes rose 1.5 per cent alone, just in August – dividing the family home is becoming a contentious issue.

“This kind of real estate market it makes a huge difference because if I’m on title of the home and the house goes up in value before we make a deal but after separation, the starting point is I get all that increased value,” explains Andrew Feldstein, founder and senior partner of the Feldstein Family Law Group in Markham, Ont. “The non-titled spouse doesn’t get anything.”

In effect, the market conditions could create some lopsided divorce settlements. A Vancouver divorcee recently tried to use the housing market and the rise in the value of his wife’s primary asset – he kept the RRSPs and she kept their Vancouver home – to have his spousal support payments dropped. Unfortunately for him, the judge didn’t take his side.

“The increase of the value of the house does not change the present day financial circumstances of the wife in the slightest,” wrote Justice Frits Verhoeven in a decision released in March. “No argument is made that she could or should sell it. It is her residence and that of the two children of the parties. It is the same modest house the parties bought together in 2004. The value is in the land, not the house.”

The scenario is one of several outliers that arise in Canada’s otherwise relatively straightforward approach to deciding who gets to keep the house in a divorce. While there are some provincial quirks, divorce in Canada is governed by the federal divorce law. When it comes to deciding who keeps the house – often called the matrimonial home – there are three main scenarios.

  The first is sole possession, which usually results in one partner buying out the other.

“Frequently people will negotiate a buy-out with their spouse because maybe they want their kids to stay in the house,” says Feldstein adding that an appraisal is done on the current or fair market value of the home. It has the benefit of allowing one partner to get their money in 30 to 60 days without the headache of trying to sell the home.

Co-ownership is another option. In this case, partners in an amicable divorce can both remain responsible for payments and when the home sells, both get half the funds. Of course, there’s also the caveat that while both parties are responsible for capital gains on their share of the profit, the spouse who stuck around living in the house might be able to tap into a capital gains exemption.

Then there’s the sell option where the house is listed and both parties split the profits, even if they’re common law married.

“(But) if they’re common law and they’re not on title then the spouse who isn’t has to make an argument to say that they have a beneficial interest in the home in order to get any money,” explains Feldstein. In the case of common law, partners aren’t entitled to equalization automatically, which means they’ll need to build a case around what they’ve contributed to the home in terms of “sweat equity” as part of a trust claim. If successful, that partner can recoup some of the benefits of sharing a home during their marriage even if they weren’t an official owner.

It all comes down to negotiation. And the decisions made during the marriage can create challenges in the event of a divorce.

“It’s really a question of if you want to be on title because being on title gives you a better advantage,” says Feldstein. “A lot of self-employed people don’t want to be on title and when they separate they need to fight to have a beneficial interest in the home.”

[whenwedrift]

Ontario-based company Airvinci wants you to commute with a personal helicopter

[Tarek Ibrahim stands next to the prototype of his Airvinci personal helicopter. (supplied)]

Late for a meeting? Tarek Ibrahim wants you to be able to call a heli-taxi.

His Mississauga, Ont.-based company Airvinci is in the midst of manufacturing the first prototype for its Airvinci Backpack Helicopter, a cross between a personal helicopter and an autonomous drone. The concept, which looks a bit like a UFO, uses a gas engine and has a ducted fan to protect it from collisions and a fixed-pitch rotor to make it both easy and safe to fly. It’s capable of vertical takeoff and landing and has an enclosed pod to protect passengers from the elements.

“It’s not the same efficiency as a normal helicopter but the safety factor goes way up because now you can lightly hit things and the helicopter won’t crash, it won’t fall out of the sky,” says Ibrahim, an outspoken proponent of personal aviation who delivered a TEDx Talk in Toronto on the subject last year.

[Computer rendering of what the Airvinci will eventually look like. (supplied)]

The key, he says, was creating a concept that didn’t necessarily require new or unproven technology. With the ability to travel 12,000 feet high, carry 260lbs and move at speeds around 70km, asides from being an autonomous taxi, Airvinci’s helicopter could be used for deliveries, skydiving, search-and-rescue operations and sightseeing. They expect the first version to retail for around $100,000 with the price falling to about $30,000 as they perfect the technology.

The company plans to run the first test flight in late October after nearly two years of research and development. But it’s also just the beginning for AirVinci’s hurdles.

“There’s going to be some growing pains for sure,” admits Ibrahim.

For one, Transport Canada is still struggling with putting regulations in place for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – colloquially known as drones – so personal flying machines aren’t really on the radar yet.

[Rendering of Airvinci personal helicopter showing where the person would sit inside (supplied)]

While the federal government has promised more sweeping rules come mid-2017, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration released their rules earlier this week, outpacing Canada which was once seen as a leader in regulating drones.

“Transport Canada and the FAA, they’re more geared towards big airliners than towards small aircrafts – they’ve been doing an awesome job but they don’t really know small aircraft traffic yet,” says Ibrahim, adding that he suspects eventually air traffic will start migrating towards automated systems to manage the growing amount of aerial traffic.

As for the general public, there’s apt to be some skepticism there too, he says .

“Like any technology, there’s going to be the early adopters that are going to love it and be like ‘this is amazing, I want to do it all the time,’ ” says Ibrahim. “The rest of the public it’s definitely going to be a hurdle just like the electric car, like Uber – like anything new.”

[How Ibrahim and his company envision Airvinci one day being used. (supplied)]

In the meantime, the company is trying to raise its profile, recently entering a contest with promotional material company StickerYou where people can vote on the feasibility of the business. The winner gets $10,000 worth of marketing materials. They also plan to live stream the test launch.

He’s confident the idea will gain traction.

“I know that nobody is ready for us, that’s fine, they will be,” he says. “It’s not a matter of if it will come, it’s when… if it’s not me it’s somebody else, it will happen.”

[whenwedrift]

Breaking the paycheque-to-paycheque cycle

[Almost 50 per cent of Canadians would be in trouble if their paycheque were delayed by a week.]

Half of Canadians are working with a pretty tight monthly budget according to recent figures released by the Canadian Payroll Association.

Of the 5,600 employees surveyed, 48 per cent say a week’s delay in their paycheque would strain their finances while 24 per cent says they’d be hard-pressed to come up with $2,000 within a month in the event of an emergency. And 39 per cent reported feeling anguish and overwhelmed surrounding their debt with 11 per cent say they think they’ll “never be debt-free.”

It’s understandable. When you’re struggling to keep your head above water, it’s hard to see forward to that point where you’re living beyond a paycheque-to-paycheque lifestyle but Leslie Gardner, a money coach and certified financial planner with Money Coaches Canada, has helped a number of Canadians get out of that cycle.

To her, a lot of it comes down to keeping track of the finer details of what’s coming in and what’s going out.

“A lot of people don’t understand how their paycheques work,” she says. Sure, many know what they make but when they’re budgeting they often don’t account for what is physically going in the bank account after CPP, EI and any other taxable benefits come off the paycheque.

“We’ve clients (making) around the $55,000 to $65,000 mark and they don’t realize their CPP and EI max out part way through the year,” she says. “They just notice their paycheque bumps up and they wonder why and then come January it goes down again.”

The key to breaking the cycle is tuning into the details and physically writing it down or putting it into a spreadsheet, starting with what your actual take-home pay is in the “Net Income” category. Next, you look at expenses, starting with the “Fixed” expenses category.

“What do you have to pay – rent, mortgage property taxes?” she says. “And we list those because those are the things that if you don’t pay them somebody is either going to take something away or cut something off.”

This also includes smaller monthly payments like bank fees, cell phone bills and insurance. After that, she recommends combing through spending using receipts or a tracking app like Mint and adding them up. This, she explains, is where the little expenses, the kind that pull you into that paycheque-to-paycheque territory, are often found.

For example, people forget about holidays and anniversaries, or the fees they pay to put their kids in hockey or buy sports equipment.

“Hockey season starts in September, parents have to pay the fee at the end of August, they’re not thinking about that in January but we’re saying, yeah, you need to,” says Gardner. “They really need to firm up on the numbers.”

Once you’ve got a holistic understanding of expenses, you subtract that number from your income. If the number puts you in the red, then it’s time to start carving off the “nice to haves.” Do you spend too much on food? Make a fixed cash budget. Do you have a couple of magazine subscriptions you could do without? Cut them off.

“It’s all about negotiations,” she says.

Gardner recommends opening a series of e-savings accounts with nicknames associated with a certain kind of expense like “fixed”, “car”, and “family activities.”

“Your paycheque goes into that fixed account, all your fixed bills go out of that and then you transfer a certain amount to what we call your monthly spending account (with) debit card access,” she says. “That’s the card you take into the grocery store or get gas on.”

The remaining money outside of fixed expenses and what you’ve budgeted for monthly spending goes into the nicknamed accounts to start building up those savings for when you need an oil change or to buy hockey gear.

“It makes you stop and think before you just go ‘I’ll put it through that account,” she says. “I know it sounds like a big job, it is overwhelming but once it’s up and running, its so much easier – and when you need (money) it’s sitting there waiting for you.”

[whenwedrift]

One million Canadians at risk of payment shock if interest rates rise

Nearly one million of the 26 million credit-active Canadians could be in for a “payment shock” if the Bank of Canada ups its interest rates, according to a new report by credit information giant TransUnion Canada.

A 0.25 percentage point increase to the Bank of Canada’s Target Overnight Interest Rate, which currently stands at 0.5 per cent, would cost nearly one in six borrowers an extra $50 a month, while a a one percentage point increase would tack on a $50 or more charge for 40 per cent of Canadians with a variable rate mortgage or line of credit.

While the central bank has given no indication towards boosting rates anytime soon, the record lows the Bank of Canada has maintained – down from a high of 4.5 per cent in 2007 – are meant to stimulate the economy and are apt to rise in tandem with recovery.

For the seven million Canadians with a line of credit or variable-rate mortgage, preparing for those increases means focusing on the larger debts like your mortgages and paying them down while the interest is still low, says Wade Stayzer, vice president of sales and service at Meridian Credit Union.

“We’ve all heard it ad nauseam… pay down your highest debt first,” says Stayzer. “But when we talk about rate increases, the biggest impact there is going to be on your mortgage.”

He points out that interest on credit card debt typically stands around 21 per cent so “it’s not likely to move that much.”

“But it’s really about if the environment changes, am I able to continue to afford to live the way I am?” he says.

A good way to find out is to “stress test” your mortgage.

“Add two per cent to your interest rate, find out what that payment would be and then take a look – how does that impact your financial position and what can you and can’t you do,” he explains. While the ideal time to stress test a mortgage is before buying, it’s important to do regular pulse checks as the economic climate evolves.

“That’s a process that’s best practice,” says Stayzer. “Everyone should be stress-testing their mortgage because interest rates are at an all-time low now and have been that way for some time… I think we tend to get lulled into submission.”

Another piece of advice, especially for those whose mortgage is up for renewal soon, is not to reduce your payments.

“If you’ve established that you can live paying $500 bi-weekly then regardless of what your mortgage comes back at for renewal, because likely the interest rate is going to be lower, we would encourage folks to maintain that payment,” says Stayzer. Ultimately, this strategy can help you pay down your mortgage faster.

As for the dreaded credit card debt, he doesn’t see it rising all that much because it’s already a significantly higher rate. But for those who are carrying high levels of credit card debt and are concerned about the increase he recommends consolidation.

“Work with a financial institution to get that at a lower interest rate,” he says. “Because a consolidation loan is, although possibly higher from an unsecured perspective, from a rate perspective is not going to be anywhere near what a credit card is going to pay and charge.”

[whenwedrift]

Indian startup turns air pollution into ink

GURGAON, INDIA – DECEMBER 8: Cyber city in office hub witnesses a low visibility due to air pollution on December 8, 2015 in Gurgoan, India. (Photo by Priyanka Parashar/Mint via Getty Images)

Art has often been used as a medium to raise awareness about pollution but an India-based startup is taking the concept further, creating paint and ink from the pollution itself.

Developed by self-described chronic inventor Anirudh Sharma via Graviky Labs, a spin-off from MIT media labs, the idea for Air Ink grew out of a conversation between the researcher and his peers about the stains left on their clothes by heavy air pollution.

“We built this contraption that we connect the exhaust on the tail pipe of the car,” explains Sharma in a video about his invention. “After we are done capturing the raw carbon, the soot, we take it through a purification process and then we convert that air pollution into printing ink.”

He points out that the same process can be used with boats or chimneys to capture some of the effluence and convert it into ink. The startup partnered with the Heineken Asia Pacific-owned alcohol brand Tiger Beer and collectively they’ve transformed air pollution into 150 litres of Tiger Air Ink.

To put it in perspective, a 0.7mm round tip pen consists of approximately 40 minutes of diesel car pollution.

Tiger and Graviky teamed up with ten Hong Kong-based artists to test out their product.

“When you start talking to people from different disciplines, they show you things about your own technology in a way you never imagine before,” says Sharma in the video.

Graviky isn’t the first to use art to battle pollution. Artists have tried tackling similar challenges in novel ways in other cities like Beijing where smog alerts are a regular thing.

Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde is set to test out his seven-metre-tall air purifier in the city of 21 million this September. The $125,000 “smog free tower” – which Roosegaarde has already piloted in Rotterdam – is capable of eliminating 70 to 80 per cent of pollution in an area the size of a football stadium over the course of 36 hours. Carbon particles stripped from the air will be compressed and sealed into acrylic rings, cuff links and other designs and sold to fund further research and construction.

The project was commissioned by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and has already piqued interest in other cities like Santiago, Chile; Mexico City, Mexico as well as New Delhi and Mumbai in India.

And a Canadian startup has taken its own peculiar approach to clean air, selling bottled air (yes, it’s real) from the Canadian Rockies. Edmonton-based Vitality Air made headlines all over the world last year when it started selling bottles of fresh air for $15.

While the founders Moses Lam and Troy Paquette admit it started as a joke, they decided to seriously pursue it after a Ziploc bag sold for about $220 online.

“Literally we waved it and then we sealed it up and taped it up,” Lam told the CBC adding that the companies target markets are China, India and Dubai – “the world’s most populated cities.”

While it’s definitely a more bizarre solution to air quality woes than Graviky Labs inks, there are plenty of lines to be drawn to the artistic approach taken by others. And it’s this out-of-the-box thinking that Air Ink’s Sharma champions.

“That fusion of art, that fusion of expression, and science when it happens, I think new magic appears,” says Sharma.

[whenwedrift]

Navigating your child's first cellphone

Schoolgirls using smart devices on school bus (Getty)

With kids getting back into their daily routine of travelling to and from school, some parents are taking advantage of the back-to-school plans offered by phone providers to get them connected. And many are starting them younger than they have in the past, says Matthew Johnson, director of education at MediaSmarts – Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy.

According to a survey by MediaSmarts conducted in 2015, more than a quarter of kids in grade four owned cellphones and another quarter had access to cell phones. By grade 11 it was about 85 per cent.

“It depends primarily on whether or not your children’s peers have them, that’s when they’re most likely to be asking for them,” says Johnston. “I know that parents will often give kids cellphones when they start walking to school on their own because they’re anxious about their kids being out of reach.”

But even once you’ve decided to get them their first phone, figuring out which device and plan to get, and cultivating a responsible cellphone user presents a series of challenges.

Phones and plans

“In the case of really young children, they’re usually looking primarily for emergency-use purposes or communication with parents and less so about consuming high amounts of data and playing online games and things like that,” says Branden Shortt, founder of comparison site The Informr.

He recommends a no-frills prepaid phone plan like SpeakOut wireless by the 7 Eleven group.

“Face value plans like $25 a month unlimited long distance within Canada,” he says. And you can even add on a bundle of data for an extra $10.

Pre-paid also has the added benefit of teaching a kid how to budget. If they run out of minutes or data one month, it can be used as a tool to teach them conservation the next month.

It introduces them to making responsible choices on the usage themselves, adds Shortt.

On their own, phones usually make up the bulk of the startup cost which is why Cameron Craig, founder of comparison site WhistleOut suggests skipping over the latest tech and buying something refurbished or, better yet, passing on a hand-me-down.

“I don’t believe any 11-year-old deserves an iPhone 7,” says Craig. “You can get an iPhone 6 or 5 refurbished rather than buying a brand new for over $1,000.”

Shortt also points to Blu, which makes “decent quality” Android smartphones for $150 and under.

Family affair

Another route to go is the shared plan where kids can be added onto a main plan under the parents’ name.

“It becomes pretty efficient to add another line to the family plan,” says Craig adding that it costs $40 to $55 per line per month on the big 3 carriers (excluding any costs of the phone). The downside, he explains, is your kid now shares in the data.

“The main thing with wireless and kids is education – it’s a mini-computer that can look up anything on the Internet at anytime, connect with any type of person and run you up a huge bill.”

While excess data often costs around $0.06 per MB, that can quickly swell to $60/GB if your kid is cruising Netflix during those hour long car rides.

“When adding to your own existing share plan, educate your kids about value of the data bucket and not to accept any opt ins for going over your data and using the excess data rate,” he adds.

Johnson agrees that education is key.

“We found, for instance, that having rules in the home about various online behaviours had a really strong relationship with how kids actually behaved and that was true even with teenagers,” he says. “It’s important as soon as your kids start using network device (to talk) with them about how to use these devices safely and responsibly.”

He also points out that it can’t be a one-time conversation.

“(It’s) something that keeps on going as they’re getting older and expanding their horizons and encountering new challenges,” he adds.

For information about specific phones or to compare rates, visit The Informr or WhistleOut.

[whenwedrift]

Consider this before pitching a pooch-friendly workplace policy

Portrait of curious dog lying on rug in an office (Getty Images)

Visitors to the Tract 9, a technology and design startup incubator and co-working space in Toronto’s Queen West neighbourhood, are apt to be greeted by Broscoe, quite possibly one of the most ambivalent secretaries of all time. But his complacency is a good thing; after all Broscoe is Tract 9 creative director and co-founder Benjamin Gibson’s Boston Terrier-Jack Russell dog and a permanent fixture at the cavernous creative space.

The dog-friendly policy created by Gibson was a way to boost the experience for members and make the space “more creative.”

“If we’re working on projects for the agency side, we’re spending whack-loads of time in the space,” says Gibson. “It’s next to impossible to have a dog (but) at least you can bring them along for the most part and they stay quiet in confidential meetings and stuff.”

So far, the creative director and another user of the shared workspace (owner of an 11-year-old labrador-poodle cross), are the only one’s taking advantage of the policy.

Lisa Kay, president and lead consultant at Peak Performance Human Resources Corp., says that while she’s never been asked by a client to help coordinate a “pet-friendly policy” she isn’t entirely surprised by the surge in stories surrounding the practice “given the place of animals in our lives today.”

While there are no stats specific to Canada, a 2015 Society for Human Resource Management survey found eight per cent of workplaces in the U.S. allow employees to bring dogs into the workplace, up from five per cent in 2013.

“It really has evolved, people really see their pets as a part of their families,” she says. “I would imagine for dog lovers there is a therapeutic aspect to it… they’re calming and reassuring – you want employees to feel comfortable at work, to feel at home and be creative and be able to get their juices flowing.”

And scientists agree. An oft-referenced 2012 study by the Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Human-Animal Interaction, found employees who brought their dogs into work saw lower levels of stress during the workday.

“For a lot of people with dogs, they’re going to have to hire walkers and dog sitters, so there’s an expense that they’re able to save,” says Kay. “(Plus) there’s a lot of people that won’t even get a dog because they feel guilty about leaving it at home.”

But having a pet-friendly policy isn’t a fit for every company and for employees looking to be the first to bring their furry friends into work they might face a series of hurdles.

“Dealing with employees without pets tends to have a number of things you have to consider (when creating) policies… adding pets is a whole other species, so it’s a whole new equation,” she adds. “The same way you’d have a probationary period for an employee, I’d imagine you would need something similar for a pet.”

And even then, it could be a tough sell with elements to consider like employees with allergies, which employee gets to bring their pets, and how it could effect hiring and retaining talent.

“There are so many questions… you’d need to get buy-in from everybody,” says Kay.

And even then, as any pet owner can attest, you can’t truly guarantee your pet will always behave.

Gibson admits that sometimes the dogs at Tract 9 will bark and play loudly.

“When they bark it’s a bit annoying,” says Gibson. “But for the most part, Broscoe is super chill, he’s a really socialized dog – it all depends on the level of socialization of the dog.