Day 38: PSA and a discussion on labo(u)r laws!

Oh boy. Today was a day of faux pas.

So, I learned that apparently, um, companies in New Zealand (and I'm sure in the rest of the world) follow Google Alerts on their name and that disabling bots on Blogger does not necessarily exclude this blog from those alerts. That being said, hello inadvertent new readers! If you are still around, I sincerely apologize for any discomfort that I may have caused. I would also like to add that the sheer mortification at my own carelessness and inconsideration has kept me continuously blushing for the past twelve hours. My face is a furnace.

Along those lines, those keen of eye and memory may notice that I've gone back and changed a few details in previous entries. While I would like to remain accurate and detailed for my (intended) audience back in the States, I certainly do not want to cause any more situations in the future. I guess I've never articulated this, but if anyone is ever uncomfortable with anything that I've written, please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you. I am not so important that I place this absurd little blog over anyone else's feelings.

And now, to keep my face from combusting, I am going to move on and pretend that I was never careless enough to put myself in this position. Righto!

The new workplace is good, although I confess I'm still finding it strangely difficult to acclimate to this break schedule. I actually went ahead and looked up labour laws in the States and New Zealand just to see if I was being crazy, and I actually learned quite a bit (assuming I haven't misread entirely).

Apparently in Illinois-- which is one of only eight states that has any sort of regulation on breaks and has the distinction of being my home state-- the One Day Rest In Seven Act (ODRISA) simply stipulates that if an employee works more than seven and a half hours in a day, their employer must provide a twenty minute unpaid meal no more than five hours after the start of the day. (Just for completeness's sake, the eponymous rule also states that in any given week, you must have at least twenty-four hours of rest. See also, the Illinois DOL website) Other states have varying rules and such, but none have anything as detailed (or generous) as the New Zealand regulations. Here, ten-minute breaks and a half-hour meal are actually written into the laws, given x number of hours worked.

I don't mean to put any value judgements on this at all, but I just find that so at odds to what I'm accustomed to. It all makes sense, certainly, but I'm used to just powering through the drooping eyelids and general doldrums. I suspect I may have inadvertently broken some labor laws while working part time as a student (see also: volunteering for various shifts that have lasted as long as 13 hours without so much as a designated meal time), but I've never been conscious of having rights to a break. That just seems so-- decadent. So strangely luxurious.

(Oh hardship, I suppose it will have to be my burden to adjust.)

In any case, that's just the sort of thing that I think about in my free time. Labour laws. It's a wild and exciting thing to be me.

And back to real life, after work (with proper New Zealand designated breaks), Claire and I toddled over to the Film Archives to try and catch Departures*. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, all of the seats were taken, and we were turned away.

On the plus side, that meant we could go back to our humble abode earlier than anticipated. We stopped by the local video store to rent some movies for the week, and it was quite nice. I keep being pleasantly surprised by their selection. It's far from comprehensive (damnit, Netflix, for providing me with instant access to pretentious films and the subsequent - terrible - sense of cinematic entitlement!) but I keep coming across movies that I wouldn't necessarily expect it to have. In a way, New Zealand is really much more international than the States; any movie in a different language isn't necessarily shunted off to a dusty FOREIGN section but can be nestled just as lovingly in the ACTION or COMEDY sections. (Last week, we found OSS 117 and Oceans Eleven side by side. Claire's brain may have exploded from the joy. Mine, killjoy mine, may have twitched a bit at the lack of actual alphabetizing.)

And then, instead of doing anything remotely interesting, like watching said videos or being a social human being, I spent the rest of the evening with my face on fire.

C'est la vie.

* From the Film Archives, a summary: "Daigo Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved. Having decided to move back to his hometown he answers a classified ad entitled 'Departures' thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a 'Nokanshi,' a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife despises the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of 'Nokanshi,' acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living." Even discounting my immediate weakness for anything cello-related, it sounds so good! Civic Video, prove yourself!