Nominations close for UVSS Board of Directors
The candidates list for the UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) Board of Directors (BoD) election can now be viewed on the UVSS Elections website (uvsselections.com). Nominations to the BoD were open from Feb. 1 at 9 a.m. until Feb. 8 at 4 p.m. The campaign begins Feb. 25, and voting begins at 9 a.m. on March 6 and ends at 9 a.m. on March 7. All undergraduate students were eligible to run for a position on the 21-member UVSS BoD. The BoD represents and works on behalf of UVic’s 17 000 undergraduate students. The five full-time, paid executive positions include chairperson, executive director of events, executive director of external relations, executive director of finance and operations and executive director of student affairs. Each executive is paid approximately $26 299 per year before taxes. There are also 11 unpaid director-at-large positions. Directors-at-large assist executive directors, attend meetings, put forth motions and vote. Candidates’ platforms will be detailed in the Feb. 28 issue of the Martlet.
Victoria signs up to get email, text reminders for garbage collection day
Victoria residents can now sign up to receive email, voice mail, text or Twitter reminders for garbage collection day. The City of Victoria website (victoria.ca) also offers an online collection calendar that can be integrated into Outlook or Google calendars along with the reminders sign-up. The reminders will also be available through an app for iPhone and smartphone users later in February.
The launch of the reminders coincides with the new Kitchen Scraps and Garbage Program, in which compostable waste will be collected from residents who currently receive municipal garbage collection in an effort to reduce garbage going into the Hartland landfill by 30 per cent.
Survey emphasizes ability to take criticism as indicator of good job performance
A recent online study shows that job performance and satisfaction depends, in part, on one’s ability to take and learn from constructive criticism. The study found that employees who are defensive about criticism have low performance ratings, low self-esteem and low job satisfaction.
Based out of Montreal, PsychTests.com conducts personality, career and IQ surveys. Researchers evaluated the thoughts, emotions and behaviours of the 3 664 online participants towards the critic and towards themselves. Negative reactions included feeling that the critic’s comments were personal or malicious, feeling angry, bitter, embarrassed or guilty, or ignoring the critic’s suggestions and purposefully slacking off.
Female respondents were more likely to blame themselves for failure, while male participants were more likely to direct their defensiveness at the critic by questioning the legitimacy of the individual or the critique.
The study suggests that employees should accept their mistakes, let go of their pride and try to improve their work by asking for feedback and implementing suggestions from their peers and employers.
