Pittsburgh

Manda, Nathan and Bastien are all in Pittsburgh. They left Grand Rapids on Friday. We're going to visit them next weekend and we're looking forward to it. Manda said Bastien made the move ok, although she called me a few times when he was crying and acting funny in his carrier. She had gotten some tranqs from the vet, so most of the time he slept. Poor guy, it was about an 8-hour trip in the moving truck. They still are working on moving Nathan's stuff from New Jersey. Nathan doesn't start his new job until Tuesday, so they have today and tomorrow to get reasonably settled in.

So, now she's without a job or internet service, but she does have a couple job interviews this week. I'm sure she'll find something pretty quickly.

Labor Laws

Do you know that in nearly all states, you can be required to work the whole day on your job with NO breaks? Not for lunch, not for bathroom, not for any reason. You can imagine my surprise when my husband is starting a job working in a factory through a temp agency for only $9.00/hr and he gets 2 fifteen minute breaks over an 8-hour period. I always thought that employers were required to give 1/2 lunch hour break after each 6 hours worked. At least that used to be the law mandated by the Federal Department of Labor. My, my, how things have changed! This is from the Michigan Department of Labor website:

Employees under 18 years of age may not work more than 5 continuous hours without a 30 minute uninterrupted rest period. There are no requirements for breaks, meal or rest periods for employees over 18 years of age.

Which means, in the state of Michigan, if you're over the age of 18, an employer is NOT required to give you ANY breaks. Period!

Seems like this is all perfectly legal now in most states. You can find a list here of the states that do have laws regarding lunch breaks at work:

http://www.dol.gov/esa/programs/whd/state/meal.htm

If your state is not listed here, perhaps it's time to write to your state representatives to ask why there is no requirement in your state for workers to get lunch breaks.

You know, I've never been pro-union. I always felt that the government had labor laws to protect workers. Now, I'm not so sure anymore.

Yeah, It's Been Awhile

I know I haven't been around for a long while. Life is still too crazy. Husband's still out of work, no jobs in sight. I'm doing the best I can trying to earn enough to support us.

I'm studying for my Network+ Certification now too. I'm doing ok except for subnets. Trying to understand all this and how it goes together. It is all confusing at times. But, I've got a lot of learning tools, so hopefully within the next year, I'll be certified (if not certifiable).