Slow down | When slowing down is impossible

To slow down ? Take time for yourself? For many Quebecers, these ideas are unfortunately inaccessible. With inflation hitting, every hour worked is sometimes essential. We spoke to people caught in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. And tried to understand how, collectively, we could give them the opportunity to run less.

Sylvain*’s phone emits an alert. The man takes it out of his pocket, consults the application Uber Eats and thinks at full speed.

“The restaurant is right next door, but the customer lives in Mont-Royal. I would have to go back to Montreal to come back to Laval… For 11 piastres, it’s nonsense. »

He doesn’t take the order.

We are in front of a community center in Laval. Sylvain, a separated father, is waiting for his son Arthur*, 9 years old, who is participating in a rehearsal of the Petits Chanteurs de Laval.

There is no question of relaxing during the extracurricular activity while listening to the songs of the choir reaching our ears. If Arthur arrived here with his schoolbag of scores under his arm, his father brought his large red bag with the Uber Eats image. The idea: maximize every minute in order to make deliveries for restaurants and earn a few dollars.

This evening, however, luck is not on Sylvain’s side. The app offers him a 5.8 km trip that would earn him $8.07. He lets it pass, hoping to catch something better. But the next one involves driving 2.7 miles… for a measly $3.01.

“Dairy Queen again, complains Sylvain. These orders are too small to be worth it. »

An offer of $9.09 will eventually come in, but Sylvain calculates that he does not have time to place the order and return in time for the end of the rehearsal, at 8 p.m. He will end the evening empty-handed, which rarely happens.

“The weather is so good this evening, the rush will arrive after sunset,” he predicts.

On the one hand, the break will have allowed him to breathe. But on the other hand, the evening won’t bring him a cent.

Picking up Arthur from the daycare of a school in Montreal around 5:45 p.m. Quick meal at a snack bar in Laval. Choir for Arthur and delivery for Sylvain, then return to Montreal for bed: the father-son duo’s Thursday routine is settled like clockwork.

Sylvain has three jobs. He does substitute work in high schools, accepts TV extra contracts when they are on and fills the (many) gaps by making deliveries.

“I prioritize substitute work when they call me because it pays the most. The disadvantage is that you wait two weeks to get paid. That’s why I thought about delivery, because with that, I can collect the income within the next minute,” he explains.

A succession of events forced Sylvain into personal bankruptcy, so much so that he no longer had access to credit. Liquidity management is therefore a headache.

We leave Sylvain as he returns to Montreal. He would like to take advantage of the trip to kill two birds with one stone and make a delivery. But following a complaint from Arthur’s mother, the court banned him from working for Uber Eats while he has custody of the boy.

“I’ve had some bad luck in life,” Sylvain summarizes. But I consider that I won the jackpot by being the father of this child. »

Sleep for a whole week

Julie* is another Quebecer for whom the idea of ​​slowing down is unfortunately unthinkable. Many will recognize themselves in the routine of this 39-year-old woman, mother of two boys aged 6 and 9.

Get up at 6:15 a.m. Breakfast, packing lunches prepared the day before, brushing your teeth, getting dressed. At 7:30 a.m., everyone has to be in the car to leave the apartment in Longueuil. Head to the boys’ school in Boucherville, where the children’s father lives.

“School starts at 8:15 a.m. and I’ll tell you they arrive pretty well, when they’re not late. Like this morning, we were late. We have already had warnings from the school,” says Julie.

The latter then goes to work – she has an administrative job in Boucherville. At 5 p.m., work ends. Julie immediately opens the application Hophop from her phone to notify the daycare educators that she is coming to pick up the children. These (in theory!) will therefore be ready when she arrives.

You must then make the journey back to Longueuil via route 132.

“When everything is going well, we arrive around 5:40 p.m. The children are starving. Just cooking pasta and reheating sauce takes too long for them. At the start of the week, I often have dinners that I prepared over the weekend. But the more the week goes on, the more complicated it gets,” says Julie.

Once dinner is finished and the table cleared, it is almost 7 p.m. It is then necessary to supervise the homework of children who are exhausted and not always cooperative.

Julie takes advantage of the boys’ shower to prepare lunches for the next day.

Julie, who suffers from anxiety issues, was recently told by her doctor that she was getting dangerously close to exhaustion.

“But I don’t have insurance that covers 80% of my salary if I’m sick! she exclaims. Even at 80%, I would rush my life. Without that, it’s not even an option. »

Julie nevertheless makes a salary of $67,000. But with the rent on her five-and-a-half now reaching $1,500 and car payments rising to $400 a month, she doesn’t feel like she can slow down.

“I live quite a bit from paycheck to paycheck,” she says. Moving to a smaller space? She thought about it. Before realizing that the three and a half in his corner are often rented for more than his own apartment.

To avoid hitting a wall, the mother decided to use one of her few weeks of vacation last winter.

A way to catch her breath before diving back into the daily routine that she simply cannot abandon. Hoping to hold on for the future.

A social cry from the heart

Catherine Boucher is another reader who answered our call to find people who couldn’t afford to slow down.

She insists that she is not pitiful. As an occupational therapist who works in management with rehabilitation teams in the health network, she earns nearly $100,000 per year.

Yet, faced with the skyrocketing cost of living, she worries both for herself and for others.

“I feel concerned when we hear about the issues of housing and inflation, but above all I want to have a broader reflection on where we are going with this,” she said. What convinces me to talk to you about my financial situation is that I find that, socially, it doesn’t make sense. »

M^me Boucher has three sons, including one who, at 23, is financially independent. She supports another who studies at the University of Sherbrooke, in addition to the youngest who lives with her.

The rent for the five and a half apartment she occupies in Longueuil increases every year – it will reach $1,425 per month in July.

“The larger the amount, the more significant the percentage increase,” she notes. I calculate that at 5% per year, before long, I will no longer be able to bear that. »

She, who had never experienced financial stress before, now finds herself with all kinds of scenarios in mind.

“When I see the rent going up, I say to myself: what are the solutions? Do I get a roommate? Do I find a part-time job in addition to mine? Keep my job and move away for housing to save money? That would really take me too far. Or, go to the region and change jobs? But it’s still quite a life change! »

She also worries about her boys, wondering how they will manage to arrive.

Cut ? It’s certainly possible, but his budget is already tight.

“I don’t spend anything like that: I want to spoil myself. I no longer buy new clothes, I no longer go to restaurants,” she says.

“It’s awkward talking to you,” she blurted out. Finances are still taboo. But it is a cry from the heart that I am making. If I am in this situation with the salary I earn, I tell myself that there are people in a bad situation in our society! »

We bet that his heartfelt cry will resonate with many of you.

* Sylvain, Arthur and Julie are borrowed first names. Sylvain, who is looking for a more stable job, did not want to be named so as not to harm his chances of finding one. Julie, for her part, wanted to avoid being recognized by her employer and sending him the message that she is poorly paid.