Category Archives: Quality

Consideration, Impressions, Quality

Food Allergies

Leave a comment

This blog is not directly related to day to day business, however it is being posted as a reminder to people that food allergies go way beyond peanuts and other nuts. It has become increasingly clear that a lot of people are not aware of a couple of other allergies which are equally dangerous, being shellfish such as lobster and shrimp, and blue cheese.

Unfortunately a lot of people add blue cheese to hamburgers, cole slaw, cheese plates, salads and even chocolates. As it is not easily visible, and mixes easily it is extremely dangerous.

If you are among lucky people who have no food allergies, I can only say I am extremely jealous, as food allergies are tiresome, irksome, and generally a total nuisance, however, they can also be the difference between life and death.

Shellfish luckily tend to be more obvious, as due to their bright colour they are harder to disguise, and most people will proudly announce a seafood plate.

I was recently reminded of an incident which occurred at a party over 10 years ago where one guest brought a salad with blue cheese dressing and didn’t bother to tell anyone. It was placed on a serving table with no explanation, and we were invited to help ourselves. I made the mistake of taking some, as one would presume that salad was a healthy option, not this day. I took one bite and my mouth lit up …..it is hard to describe, the best way is to say very unpleasant tingling…..luckily I was near a sink and I quickly spit it out and rinsed my mouth, then I gargled. To say I wasn’t elegant is an understatement. From there I quickly took an antihistamine and hoped that I had been lucky enough to get it all out of my mouth. I announced to the room loudly that Blue Cheese could be fatal to me, so that in the event I passed out  and they called the paramedics, it would be clear of the problem, and could be properly ventilated. I was extremely lucky.

It would appear that I offended someone at the party, and as the expression goes, couldn’t give a rat’s aXXX about their feelings. As they put my life and the lives of others at risk through total ignorance. So to all you readers,  this is a reminder to be extremely careful about planning group meals. Inquire about nuts, peanuts, shellfish and blue cheese. Anyone allergic to mould or Penicillin is violently allergic to blue cheese. If it touches the back of their throat they will choke to death within a few short minutes.

Hallowe’en will be here in a matter of days. Leave out the Peanut butter cups, leave out the candy bars covered in peanuts, and save a life. Children are very careless, and don’t tell the truth when it comes to candy.   Some people I know actually had a child die at their party because one child snuck  peanut butter and chocolate candy In their backpack and then shared it when the parents weren’t around. The child was dead before the paramedics arrived.

Somehow I think having one person’s feelings hurt is preferable to a dead dinner guest or a dead child.

Your thoughts?!!

Consideration, Impressions, Quality, Relationships, Socialites

EGO is ALL

Leave a comment

‘Now it’s all about ME”

Andy Warhol once spoke of everyone having their 15 minutes of fame. Today many people are running their lives to have the exact opposite effect. Privacy is now becoming the new ‘in thing’ with the elite while the rest spend their lives  concerned about social networking and how many ‘friends’ they have.

I can’t imagine why anyone in their right mind would care to read a ‘tweet’ every few minutes from some ostensibly famous person brushing their teeth or going to the grocery store.

We see grown men stomping their feet and throwing major temper tantrums when they don’t have their way, and then bullying in order to have their way. Not cute. Not funny. Yet, for some indescribable reason it is acceptable by some people, and given the feeble excuse that the perpetrator is ‘charming’. Unless one is the recipient of some kind of generosity or recognition I can’t imagine why this intolerable and belligerent behaviour could be socially acceptable.

One woman, desperately seeking a wealthy husband so that she never has to work again, and can have the lifestyle she believes she deserves, exclaimed to a group of friends that ‘now it’s all about me’ and went on to explain that unless her friends were going to introduce her to rich, available, single men, that she no longer wishes to spend time with them, since they aren’t promoting her cause.

Well, I guess that leaves no room for doubt!

Young people are spending hours on Facebook, photographing themselves and posting the photos of their latest greatest coup, bragging about their newest bestest friends, yet, do they actually know how

To make and retain a real friend which will endure a lifetime?

The superficiality of many people is obvious, and actually quite frightening. Constantly seeking out their ‘new best friend’ , or who can help advance their career or social life, and giving little or nothing in return, and thinking that this is perfectly ok.

What had once been described as the ‘ME’ generation has now expanded to include adults who should know better.

It used to be that one aspired to see their name in print only 3 times in their lifetime, birth, marriage and death, and it was considered as ‘common’ to have one’s life detailed in the public eye. There are some people today who are such publicity hounds that they will do practically anything to appear in print, and a film clip on the local news, well, priceless.

Walking down the street has become a new sport dodging the rude people furiously texting and talking on their telephones.

And WHY when you just left your apartment, do you need to get into the elevator texting or making a phone call? Should the rest of the people in the elevator be somehow impressed that you actually know someone you can call? Do you really think your conversation is so important that we all need to hear it?

We have to deal with small town politicians with delusions of grandeur deciding who is important and who is not, as if somehow, they consider themselves the arbiter’s of good taste. The mere act of characterizing people they actually don’t know, denotes that they are in fact practicing extremely bad taste and extremely low class.

If one doesn’t actually take the time to get to know people, who to say how important they are or are not.

But cruelness in order to aggrandize oneself seems to becoming the social norm, ruthless social climbing while demeaning others only works for so long.

Don’t they realize that the people they criticize actually speak to one another?

At some point this offensive behaviour becomes common knowledge and once the proverbial cat is out of the bag, it becomes like an unstoppable avalanche.

At the end of the day, why on earth would anyone want to be friends or even acquaintances with someone who has such a large ego that there is no room for anyone except for those who are on bended knee to them? There is no excuse for cruelty.

When reality finally sets in they will find themselves well and truly alone…….as they richly deserve.



 

Impressions, Quality, Relationships, Socialites

Social Animals

Leave a comment

A few months ago, I wrote about social climbers, and received some interesting feedback from some of the readers. In speaking with people, just when you think you have heard everything, someone comes up and knocks you off your feet with the latest faux-pas.

It is interesting how some people decide who is in and who is out based on their decision of whether or not they like the person or think there is something to be gained from being their friend. They ostracize people ruthlessly, spread malicious gossip, and spend an inordinate amount of time being negative towards someone, who in many cases, is not what they expected. Some of the put-downs are really quite something….telling someone that ‘you are the only one …..’ , ‘how did you get into this private club’ …, ‘who invited you?..’ as if by some feat of magic, they are the only ones in the room of any importance. The best of course, are parties where the guests are told who is being excluded, and the reasons why. One business man held a party for his single friends, and told everyone not to breathe a word about it as his rich married clients would be offended that he held a cocktail party and didn’t invite them, another businessman, who is the worst name dropper ever, actually had the audacity to hold 2 Christmas parties, one day after the other, and labelled one ‘losers night’.
The question MUST be asked, if his guests were losers, why on earth did he invite them? Word spread around the city like a brushfire, and he succeeded in offending a lot of very important people, The worst thing is, apparently he served the leftovers from one party to the guests at the second party…..and they heard about it. Did he really think people wouldn’t talk?

In one gesture, he rendered everyone speechless, and ensured that he was removed from a great number of lists himself, although he still doesn’t really understand what it is that he did wrong. He actually thinks that it was socially acceptable to humiliate his guests.

What must go through the mind of these people that somehow they actually believe that they are special? A bigger house, a better car, more money in the bank?
There is always someone better looking, more popular, richer, more connected and more. The only thing they are succeeding in doing, is making themselves lose credibility. In the eyes of their little circle of friends they may be entertaining in telling their stories, but for anyone on the outside their behaviour is acutely embarrassing. They always have a terse word about others, but they never find the time or the energy to actually find out who people are before they speak ill of them.

Life plays funny games on people, and cruelty eventually catches up . There is nothing to be gained by humiliating someone, it is not sweet, cute or even remotely entertaining.
Think about it, and think how many people are richer, better looking or more successful than you are……and think about the fact that the ugly duckling often turns into the swan. You never know where you will end up in life. The person you insulted could be the one who could ultimately save your life.

Business, Integrity, Quality, Socialites

SERVICE Industry

1 Comment

Let me once again re-iterate the word SERVICE. That means the service of your customers or potential customers, You know, those people who pay your salary.

One of the most common complaints today, is with the voice dripping with condescension on the other end of the line when one calls to make a reservation in a pricey restaurant. First, you are put on hold, then told they are incredibly busy and will be back in a moment, then the breathless ‘hello’ as if your time is of no interest or value to them. The negotiation as to the time and day the restaurant will deem to allow you into it’s hallowed halls to pay for overpriced, over spiced food. One must wonder what exactly goes through the head of these individuals. One trendy fusion Asian-French Restaurant kept us on the phone waiting for well over 10 minutes to make a simple reservation. No, 8pm wasn’t acceptable, but 8:45 was, but a lecture to tell us that we must absolutely arrive on time. We arrived early on the appointed night, to discover an amazingly pretentious greeter, a half-empty restaurant, good tables which were empty, terrible tables full, an attitude when we suggested that we didn’t want the assigned table, and mind-numbingly slow bad service. By 10pm the restaurant was 3/4 empty. The staff spent the entire evening fussing and preening themselves in front of the mirrors, and actually complaining about the clients. The food was totally unimaginative, the setting a very poor rip-off of a well known London Restaurant, prices over the moon, a grotesquely over-priced and not exciting wine list, and washrooms which weren’t the cleanest or most interesting off in Siberia. Furthermore, I can’t possibly imagine how someone older and not totally mobile was expected to be able to reach them- up stairs, around a corner, down a corridor. Forget wheelchair access.

Somehow, it is assumed that if you can afford to frequent these trendy restaurants, that you aren’t stupid. Obviously one must be intelligent enough to have worked for the cash in your pocket. What on EARTH are these people thinking? That clients are stupid and blind and we can’t see that with all your advertising everywhere, that your restaurant is half empty and all the staff seem to care about is their own image?

The same things apply with ‘Customer Service’ desks in shops, banks and government departments. How many times have you reached the counter only to have a rude employee look over you as if you are invisible, put a sign on the wicket and walk away, even though you are the only one in the queue. You are then expected to wait for 30-70 minutes while they either go on ‘break’ or for lunch. Forgetting that your time is also of value, and presumably you took time off work to be there. Spending the 5 minutes serving you would not have been such a hardship for them. And the polite response that you are the last one before they go for their ‘break’ or lunch.

The endless being put on hold on telephone ‘Customer Service’ lines, to wait over 20 minutes sometimes, only to have someone from half way around the world with a bad accent, who doesn’t understand two thirds of what you say, is rude, and finally hangs up on you because they don’t want it to appear that they couldn’t answer your question.

If you are being paid to provide a service, smile, provide the service, THANK your customer, they are the ones paying your salary, and then move on to the next. If you are having a bad day, don’t blame it on the people paying your wages.

Somehow there seems to be a common thread – treat your clients like ignorant children and think they will flock to continue to do business with you. With the internet today, word tends to get around at the speed of light. One has to pity the investors in some of these ventures, as they are usually not aware of how poorly the clients are treated. With all the social networking services available both on mobile phones and the internet, it is seconds today from being in business to being ruined. Companies should remind their ‘Customer Service’ Representatives about this fact.

Business, Integrity, Privacy, Quality

On-Line Business

Leave a comment

Sometimes one feels like they are in a world gone mad.

With the explosion of ebusiness, a lot of companies seem to be under the absolutely ludicrous impression that everyone is always on-line, and wishes to conduct all their business that way. Some twenty-something teckie who is in love with the idea of technology has convinced management that the only way to do business is on-line, and it will solve all their problems. There are a terrifying number of airlines, shops, banks and other service companies who appear to have forgotten why they were in business in the first place. In a word, giving SERVICE to their CLIENTS.

Do they really expect the silver-haired octogenarian to conduct her business on-line? The infirmed? To book airline tickets, do their banking, and deal with problems by accessing a computer? As some of the modern telephones are intimidating enough, never mind being told by a recorded voice that if you have a problem, ‘you can contact us on line at ‘ www.noservice.com’ or ‘we’re too important to speak to you on the telephone.com’ or ‘we don’t care about you.com’ and being incapable of actually finding a human being to speak to.

Computers are a truly wonderful creation, I’ve spent most of my career working in the computer industry, and am enthralled by the level of imagination in the field. From voice recognition, 3D animation, robotics , aircraft simulators for pilot training, complete with cockpits which actually move, microscopic surgery, and artificial limbs, the uses of technology are advancing daily, and most of it at the click of a mouse. However, companies must understand that not everyone wishes to live through the use of technology, nor does everyone think with the logic of a computer. Some people are visual, some auditory, others tactile, some mathematical, and others just plain lonely. Never underestimate the value of a live human voice. No automated system can ever replace the sound of the words,
‘can I help you with something? Is everything ok?”

Although I work in the industry, and am extremely savvy to the uses of technology, as it happens I am also someone who does NOT wish to conduct my personal business on-line. And it is interesting to note, that there a great number of people like myself, who have decided that if a company does not wish to speak with me in person in order to obtain my custom, then I will probably not be doing business with them.

So, next time you decide to automate a customer service function, try asking the clients what they think about the idea first.

Clients pay your salary and your rent. They should have a voice. The old expression ‘money talks and money walks’ should be remembered. Do something original.
ASK.!

Business, Integrity, Quality

Too Good to be True

Leave a comment

Every day we read about another Ponzi scheme which was sold to unsuspecting individuals for amazing amounts of money by self proclaimed “Investment Advisors”. Some of the sums of money, such as in the case of Bernard Madoff, are truly staggering. To have absconded with $65 billion is, to me, inconceivable. Mark Dreier who is only in the hundreds of millions looks like small change in comparison.

In Montreal there is the story of ‘Uncle Earl’ who spent somewhere in the $75 million range of other people’s money living the lavish life, never once thinking that this money actually was not his, but he, of them all in recent times is the one who is the most despicable. To be chasing after widows and old women for their total assets, including visiting them in the hospital to convince them to give him their money, sometimes on their deathbeds, goes beyond words.

The big question is, what is it about human nature that makes one so gullible as to invest such substantial sums of money with only one money manager. We are always instructed to spread the money around, as history has shown us, things are not always what they appear, and they best way to protect oneself is to invest comfortable sums of money in numerous places.

Over the years we have heard of some stunning stories, which leave readers with their mouths agape, of the deceit and cunning used to separate normally intelligent people from their money, the only difference being this time around, that the sums are greater than we have ever heard of before, and the utter gall of the perpetrators to live such openly lavish lives knowing there is no way the money could ever be repaid. How could they possibly expect that they would not be caught?

This note to the blog is short and sweet, and a simple message for all of you, spread your investments around. Do not let anyone convince you that they know better than everyone else. If the market is at 6% and someone offers you 18%, you should question the investment, and question whether or not they are a licensed investment counsellor. Check and see if there any complaints about the person or the firm. Don’t, above all ,allow anyone to bully you about how you should invest your money, and if they do, run.

If someone brags too much about their success, probably it is only in their imagination. Like anything else, usually it is the ones who are bragging who are in fact NOT successful. The ones who truly are, don’t need to brag, they already know.

Consideration, Quality

Courtesy

Leave a comment

An act of respect or politeness, something which is sorely lacking in today’s society. Within the younger generation, there is an extremely strong sense which prevails, namely an acute sense of entitlement, and with this, an idea that they are above manners and good behaviour. Brought up in a time where everything is about money, fame, and image, there is a belief that if one drives the right car, wears the right ‘it’ purse, and sunglasses, with an attitude, then one must deserve the ‘good life’ . Interestingly enough, contrary to what one reads in the trendy magazines, the loud, arrogant behaviour that one encounters daily, regardless of where it is, restaurant, club, shop, good manners are in fact alive and thriving, and as in times past, a regular item among the quiet rich.

For those of you who haven’t quite understood exactly what it is that is in the above paragraph, let me put it into the simplest of terms for you. Good manners are always in fashion, bad manners are not. About a year ago, I coined the phrase’ the bigger the strut, the bigger the loser’ , with that, the bigger the bragger, the bigger the loser. If one has to be always self-promoting, instead of allowing others to do it for you, then something is wrong.

People who are seriously successful and rich have nothing to prove to themselves or any one else, tend to be quiet, polite, discreet, self-effacing individuals.

When one travels and meets interesting people all over the world, and meets some extraordinary people, I can certainly attest to the fact that those who are generally the quietest and most self-effacing, possible with older clothes which are not fashionable, can probably buy out everyone there before they eat breakfast. It is usually the loud lout shrieking for service and carrying on like a bully with the wait staff who has nothing.

A few years ago in London, I was at the divine Nobu in the Metropolitan Hotel eating with the Managing Director and a couple of friends. One well known bachelor about town who is known for his bad behaviour was there, and act up he did. At one point, in a restaurant full of patrons, he started shrieking at the waiter about the appalling service he was receiving, frankly the service there is excellent, the restaurant was full. He threw a temper tantrum and with one sweep of his arm, swept all the dishes from the table onto the floor. Everyone in the restaurant was horrified. Somehow, he actually that behaving badly would elicit better service. He has been banned from the restaurant and from what I understand, several hotels in London for the same behaviour. There is nothing worse than a bully.

If you are out and hear a well dressed woman or man apologise for what is categorised as normal behaviour, you can probably make the assumption that they are excruciatingly rich and well brought up. It is only the poor and arrogant who behave badly.

Take heed, the successful quiet ones are watching you carefully, they may accept the cheque from the nouveau riche social climbing boor for their charity event, they may even put them at a relatively prominent table, but that individual will never set foot in the homes of those they aspire to socialise with, and that, dear readers, is what separates the truly successful from the ‘parvenus’.

So, next time you think you are impressing someone with an expansive show of bad manners, remember, you never know who is watching.

Consideration, Impressions, Quality, Relationships, Socialites

Social Climbers

Leave a comment

Everyone has met a few of them…..you go to a cocktail party, and are introduced to someone who has an inflated view of their self worth, and is constantly looking over the shoulder of the person they are speaking with in case someone more important comes through the door. Some of them are more elegant and discreet than others, and some think they are above it all, and their disgraceful behaviour  towards others is totally normal. Whether or not you are 16, 26 or 60, we have unfortunately all been at the mercy of those who think they are somehow special, and deserve to hob nob only with the rich and famous.

One of the things about growing older (not me, of course!) is that hindsight is truly 20/20. As someone who has met some of the wealthiest and most prominent people in the world, it is fairly hard to impress me, and simply money is certainly not the way to do it. Having grown up in London, my perceptions are somewhat moulded by my childhood abroad.

At recent garden party, one incredibly rude guest RSVP’d, then turned up and took all the fruit from one of the host’s fruit bushes to make jam. She came into the kitchen to survey the crowd, and when she ascertained that there was no-one there sufficiently important for her, off she went, with no thank you, no excuses, other than the fact that she had ‘things to do’. One must ask the following questions…..1. Why did she RSVP to say she was coming.

2. If she had time to drive all the way over, certainly she had time to stay for a cocktail. 3. What could possibly be so important that she should snub everyone in the room by making it evident that she didn’t consider them important enough.4. And most importantly, the hosts had planned their menu based upon the number of guests who had mentioned they would be coming. It is rude and disrespectful to have your hosts provision food and drink for you and then not have the good manners to at least stay a while and participate.

Yes, we all had a truly lovely time, and interestingly the group had no social climbers, so everyone mingled and exchanged ideas and knowledge. Many chairs were exchanged so that people could move about and speak with each other. The sign of a successful party and very generous hosts.

There is some tasty irony in this story, inasmuch as this same ‘turbo-prop setter’ as opposed to a ‘jet-setter’ went bankrupt several years ago and lived at the generosity of several people over the years, yet continued to carry on as if the homes in which she resided were actually hers, instead of the truth, which was that she was actually living at the generosity of her hosts.

It appears to me, that if anyone should make an attempt to be generous, it is her, yet it appears etiquette is something sorely missing in her vocabulary. She has forgotten that she would have been living in the street if it wasn’t for the generosity of others.

Another well known social climber and snob is actually the mistress to a fairly wealthy married man. Seeing her walk down the street with her dark glasses is something to behold, yet many know exactly how her rent is paid, and it certainly isn’t with cash. She has decided that although the man will never divorce his current wife and marry her, that somehow she is special, and deserves special treatment, and only the best. The Hermes bags which are flashed are actually fakes, albeit good ones, the Chanel shoes are also copies, yet the arrogance and attitude of this woman and sense of entitlement are astounding, not to mention  the condescending  way she speaks and actually pronounces when she makes a statement, as if we should actually all be in awe of her.

Another social climber came into a dining room where 20 –25 people were seated, interrupted the speaker and the entire room to introduce her guest, and brag about what function she was coming from. She kept on for at least 10 minutes until the hostess was obliged to ask if they were staying or leaving. Funnily enough, they were actually leaving. Once she checked out the room and decided that there were bigger fish to be had elsewhere, she announced that she had other stops to make and would be running off.  Translation, she was going to the next event to see if the people were more important with her ‘posse’ in tow.

Several months ago, I ran into a woman I have known for over 30 years while  in a shop , after not seeing one another for several years. NOT someone I particularly care to socialise with. I was absolutely interrogated as to what I had been up to and with whom. It wasn’t successful on her part, as I always refuse to participate in the ‘my friends are better than yours’ game. This was actually one of the few times that I was publicly rude to someone. Her loud squeaky voice is jarring, and can be heard across any store. The questioning game was so astounding that at one point I advised her I was late as I was meeting someone at my house to write music, something I have been doing for a very long time, She squealed loudly that she was unaware I had ever done anything artistic or musical in my life, and this was news to her. Enough being enough, I finally turned around and suggested that if she had spent even 10% of the time actually getting to know me as opposed to gossiping about me behind my back, perhaps she would have actually known that I had been writing for years, and that in fact, she might actually have more interesting friends if she actually asked about people genuinely as opposed to always gossiping about everyone behind their back.

She is one of these women who have had the same group of friends forever, and they sit around and absolutely  rip everyone to shreds if they don’t know them, with a self-righteous tone, which is so sad, the joy of life is actually getting to know people from different races and walks of life so that one can learn and appreciate.

I never understood this game.

Young and old, we all face these individuals. Some of us realize who they are and what the game is,and learn to smile brightly while one is being questioned. Others are offended. The big question to ask, is, 30 years on, what on earth has been accomplished by being a rude social climber when decidedly you are in the same place you started 30 years before.

Is there a lesson in this? Yes, open your mind and more importantly use your ears instead of your mouth. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Business, Integrity, Quality

Ethics ……or lack thereof……..

Leave a comment

I recently had a long conversation with a merchant banker who  requested information about a certain company. He was told that their  business practices are unethical, bordering on fraudulent. An example was given, and he suggested that next time he had the opportunity, he  would speak with the Chairman in confidence about it. He was  immediately informed that not only did the Chairman know about these  practices, but that he blessed them.

We are discussing a publicly traded company, on the verge of a major  stock play. Certain members of the executive team stand to walk away  with tens of millions …..

The will to bank millions was too great and he lined his pockets,  knowing full-well that there were many small shareholders who would be  losing out. Sarbanes Oxley and Bill 198 were passed to stop these  practices…but unfortunately there are too few to risk blowing the  whistle and not capitalizing personally.

It will be a very frightening day when the pendulum starts to swing in  the other direction, and the minor shareholders decide that they are  ‘not going to take it anymore’

Consideration, Government, Quality

The Taxman Taketh, and taketh, and……

Leave a comment

One hopes, that in death, the taxman would be forgiving, but it appears that is far from the case. Not only are they not forgiving, but they harass  and intimidate to such a point that it is abominable. Imagine, your life partner for nearly 50 years has died after a long illness, first  your joint bank accounts are frozen, and you find yourself with virtually no way of accessing your money. No end of forms to fill in at the bank, notary, and finally accountants. All the proper documentation produced endlessly, still no way of accessing your cash…months pass, the forms from the banks and government are endless, and it appears the only way to deal with the never ending saga is to hire a notary and have the accountants deal with the government. Income taxes must be filed, forms stating the value of one’s assets, and declarations, will’s to be produced….and ten  months later, when one would hope it was finally coming to an end, the government in their infinite wisdom re-assess the tax forms going back several years, and decide to charge even more tax.

This is the way the government deals with those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.

Do you think this is one isolated case?

Think again.

Over the last year, we have heard of no end of government bailouts for large industry with the excuse that jobs must be saved. No one has actually stepped forward to explain where all the billions of dollars which are being used are coming from. Senior executives in some of these corporations are giving themselves huge ‘retention’ bonus’ to stay, in the very companies they have pillaged and destroyed by their greed. We hear of isolated cases of lawsuits against the senior executives, but for the most part, the populace is remarkably silent. Why you ask?

For the simple reason that they are being bombarded with tax bills by the government and are scrambling around stressing out trying to figure out where that extra $2000 or $5000 is coming from when they are already stretched to the limit.

In the last year, I must have spoken to 50 people who are being re-assessed for taxes, which, in many cases were prepared by accountants and not the individuals themselves. Every myriad of additional taxation, estate tax, income tax, re-evaluation of past taxes, revision of deductions, RRSP’s, and more. In every case, the person I have spoken to is quietly freaking out as they paid a professional to prepare their taxes, and they are being re-assessed, and are under the impression that they are the only one.

The man who owns a sun tanning studio who has had a ‘life style’ audit.

The decorator who was obliged to give up his fabulous office of 30 years due to a huge back tax audit.

The small business owner who discovered his accounts were seized, and had no way to pay his employees.

The telecommuter in the IT industry who has to provide proof that the portion of his home is a certain percentage of overall square footage, and is not used for any other purpose.

The consultant who is being audited for having a smaller than usual income tax return.

The widow.

The homeowners renting out a couple of rooms in their huge empty house as a way to help pay the escalating property taxes.

The retired couple living on an increasingly small budget as their investments are losing money instead of providing an income stream.

These people are typical individuals from every walk of life, eking out a living the best they can in a world recession

It is time to speak out. We see and hear about every sort of protest except taxation. Taxation which was originally a temporary thing, and which now puts people in jail or on the street when the government seizes their bank accounts, property and wages. No consideration whatsoever as to the damage they are doing to  the credit records of the hundreds of thousands of individuals they are assessing, many times it is inaccurate, but the damage they cause is irreparable.

You are NOT the only one.

The only way this problem will go away is if everyone speaks about it openly and agrees that this strong arm approach has to stop.

Suggesting that law abiding citizens who have paid for an accountant and are being re-assessed are ‘dead-beat’s’ is neither attractive nor the truth.