WRITTEN BY KEVIN DOLAN
Simulated Buzz
A TRIBUTE TO A
Recent Changes for the
Agricultural Industry Labor Law Anyone who has grown up around the ag industry knows how important employees are to farm owners and their businesses. The ability to create a flexible work schedule for laborers plays a major role in a farmer’s success, which is why understanding the specific agricultural labor law updates, and how to maneuver them, is the key to a successful operation in today’s society. 2020 brought a lot of changes in regards to agricultural worker employment laws, one of which changes the definition of overtime altogether. Time and a half is now considered 9 hours in a single workday, and 50 hours in a single work week. California determined that agricultural laborers engage in back breaking work, and need the ability to earn a proper wage in overtime hours. AB1066 intends to lower the requirement for overtime hours more and more over the next four years, and is reinforcing this bill through hefty fines in order to ensure compliance. HRIQ–HUMAN RESOURCES + PAYROLL 236 Broadway Suite #B,Chico, CA 95928 Shelby@upyourhriq.com | Upyourhriq.com 530.680.4747
40
U P G R A D E D L I V I N G M AG A Z I N E J U LY 2 0 2 0
Interestingly, in a world where we’re not able to be close to people has made us closer to people. Be it Zoom, FaceTime, Meet, Room, or Houseparty—friends and family are one invite, phone call, or tap away. That Sunday afternoon phone call, filled with stock questions and answers, has been replaced with face to face encounters at five with filled glasses and real conversation. The “Virtual Happy Hour” emerged as a bona fide countermeasure, not only to drinking alone—since there unfortunately is a name for that—but also a necessary means of fighting loneliness and separation. Whether it's your neighbor six houses away, or your college roommate six states away, the screen and speaker erases distance allowing for nuance and facial expressions to abound with joy. These sessions often start out with belly laughs, shrugging of shoulders, head shaking, and pointless pointing at the screen. When your best friend is sitting in his favorite chair unaware of not only not being able to hear, or how to resolve the dilemma, he becomes nothing short of hysteria. Then your favorite couple’s scratched and stained table top appears on screen while they ask where everyone is, without knowing how to reverse the camera, is a whole other level of uncontrollable joy. The strength, or lack thereof, of each household’s broadband is also on full display as frozen faces make
for awkward exchanges. When all these foibles and blunders conclude, the magic of togetherness takes center stage. Glasses are raised in non-spoken toasts while ‘hello’s’ and ‘how ya been’ abound. Then, like a scene from a Friday morning kindergarten class, an adult version of “show & tell” takes place. Like that kindergarten class, the other boxes on the screen are fidgeting and jockeying to be the next to present. It’s all part of the magic, the nuance, the familiarity we missed so terribly sheltered in place, seemingly stuck in isolation. Seeing each smile, hearing each update, allowing the conversation to bounce around like a pinball machine, sounds like ordinary chatter when together. There remains one additional lighthearted byproduct of these virtual visits. Randomly across the screen, whether it’s a FaceTime with another couple or multiple parties stacked together in box-like fashion, a person will disappear only to return with a full glass of whatever they emptied. Once a single happy hour participant leaves, the dominoes are in place, and one by one the screens empty and fill with refreshed drinks, refreshing the banter. The pandemic will leave change in its wake, including eliminating those dry Sunday afternoon phone calls, replacing them permanently with lively virtual happy hours, dinners, or whatever the occasion calls for. Cheers!
