March 2020 – Purple Hexing

Working From Home and Privacy

My organization is fairly new to working from home as a structural situation. Usually, fulltime employees can get one day per week working from home as a standard benefit, if possible, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, everybody is working from home all at once. So, many of us are figuring out a new way of working, using more of the tools that we’ve always had but never used. However, I’m also noticing colleagues suddenly going overboard with it.

Social Distancing

I’ve known for a long time that I’m a bit of a curious person. Back when I first started uni, I studied Psychology for a few years (never did finish, though—that’s still something of a regret). One of the things that we were required to do was to be test subjects for other students’ research project. It was a way to both familiarize students with psychological testing and its methods, to create understanding of test subjects, as well as to just create a standard population for the upper years’ to do their research projects (don’t get me started on the selection bias there and the influences on their conclusions). It also gave you a wealth of information about yourself, as you could usually request your own data.

Well. That’s a big hurdle.

Back in November, we got the news that Tracy’s father was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Already in January 2019 he was diagnosed and beat asophageal cancer, but in November, he had a new tumor in his liver. Thanks to the help of a friend, we managed to visit Tracy’s family in December, to make sure we got to see him. A few weeks ago, we were told it wouldn’t be too long. A few days ago, he passed away.

Express Entry Seems the Best Canditate

Exploring our Visa options, it does seem as though Express Entry is the best option for us to emigrate to Canada. From the slew of temporary work programs (which run the risk of us being sent back), or the options available to Tracy (being American, she has different treaty options), Express Entry offers us hope.