Ayn's Multiple World

Hmm, Pretty much Good to go ...

Good morning … It’s just me. It’s about quarter to 5 … so we think we aren’t going to write too much before getting back to school. Chief just layed down across our arms after doing a Missy impression. But we thought no … he took less than 20 minutes to settle down … it must be Chief. Our girl was doing fine this morning.

We opened the door to get some fresh chilled air and had cereal together … Damn just los cat … The spritzer went off, he flew from the table, and knocked over 3 empty water bottles … I’d say that was a strike! I’d be more excited if it had been my coffee, but we usually don’t leave that so close to the edge. Poor Chief … he should be used to it by now. We’ll have to figure that out, but not right now

We still need to finish about 11 pages in the book. Hmm??

Ok, ok … anything about work?

Well. We went. And, did stuff. Then we left and came home. And did stuff with our friend. :)

Umm, could you be a little more specific?

Oh … Well, our friend was laying … nooooo not specific there! Specific at work!

Oh. K.

At work … what did we do?

We did a bunch mail. Checked real quick the cards. Sister came in … We put all the labels in the CARF books. We talked to a couple staff. I know we put some stuff back into the files and we did some figurin out stuff on the Qnotes. But, I can’t remember what we did in between all those times.

Ok, let’s say then that we were busy all day, but of the things we can remember … this is it.

Anything to say about this?

Well did you know that we were working with worker people outside our window all day?

Yes, I remember … Over the big almost floor to ceiling big windows in two spots on the wall perpendicular to ours there were ugly blue panels (60’s) put over the windows but not up to the bricked in wall where they meet the roof.

Ok, we didn’t do such a good job explaining it, but the point is there is like these 10 colored panels about 4’ each and we always thought they looked ugly. BUT, Sr. decided at some point, because here were the worker men … and they were replacing the panels with other panels that were matched to the light colored brick. WOW! That was certainly a good idea! I was very happy with that change. Because the blue was an ugly color like maybe the color of swimming pools. YEEKS It was the bodies trim, but we like much better that that area is camouflaged.

Hmm, anything on CARF books.

Nope … just figured that we would have to do something with them to get those plastic sleeves off the desk and to satisfy Sr. who came by and reminded us that those extra folders would be what the CARF people looked at … we said umhmmm. Oh that’s right fill them. We did for the record know that, but last week was consumed with trying to get things in order after the Q left. We have almost everything done, but not quite. We did ask Sr. and Sr. asked the secretary to send out letters to those few people who are not cooperating with the medical and dentals. Thought that was a good idea. That had been the leaving Q’s jobs. Another big one was the Thursday group goals. But, we’ll get to that tomorrow. Another job was the Qnotes. Ohh, we’re done with CARF?

Hey who decided we were going to multi-host this morning’s writing anyway?

I don’t know…

I was told to show up here about 5 …

you were not!

Oh, ok … sorry.

I’m just here.

*Sigh*

Anyway the files was not a big deal CARF that is.

We can move on.

Thanks

Ok, why don’t we do the part on the Qnotes and leave it at that?

We’ll try … Well the only thing with the Qnotes was is that the other girl was doing them for like a year and a half and that had been a nice thing. She had worked hard and gotten them finally up to speed by the time Christmas had rolled around. We were in no mood to let that get behind again, and especially since the State was coming any day, we figured we better get that done too.

First thing was to alphabetize (easier filing) the first group completed, sign-em, datem, and getem into the files. So we did that. And, in so doing, we confirmed that there were indeed 5 more to do. So we got the paperwork for that separated out and about then it hit us that we really didn’t remember at all what Qnotes were about as to what was happening to each person. There are 66 goals between our 22 people and NONE of us could remember the goals. We set out on it early enough in the afternoon, because we realized that it was going to take a little time. We didn’t even know in the computer where the leaving Q had put the records. That could be a problem.

We picked up the first one took a breath and started the figuring. First one must have taken 30-60 minutes by itself. BUT, after a while of doing it it fell into a pattern. We needed the client files with both the formal goals and the completed Qnotes and in a couple cases the old rough drafts with the current DSP Goal Data sheet, plus the white goal book that records all the goals before getting typed in the Qnote. Shoot, that was a lot of stuff to fill our desk with.

Nobody likes that. You gotta hold stuff in your mind all at the same time. I think that’s something that we gave the Q leaving credit for … the part that she had to think of more than one thing at a time. But, we realized also in doing the notes that it might not have been as easy for her as it had looked. We can tell this by how messed up the sheets were. Not all the way, but she hadn’t gotten to the point, or maybe she chose to repeat a poor form were the natural rhythm of the calculations were sometimes out of order. That wasn’t my biggest stumbling block.

I think that was in trying to figure out the difference between what the DSPs were giving her in counts compared to what she was recording compared to what was supposed to be recorded. Basically the formula is supposed to be very simple (though we had to think hard to get to that space we were remembering it).

BUT, for the record … you always are supposed to first divide the number of steps completed by the total amount to do and then put down the percent so for example, it looks like 26/45 = 58%. Then you multiply .58 x 4 trials (or how ever many times the DSP performed the goal during the month) = 2.32 working score. The working score total might be 4.

And then you check what the score was from the month before. Maybe 2.18 and that would mean by a trick of dividing the two that would mean the client improved or increased his score by 6%. That’s a good thing. SOOOO all in total my marks in the white goal book should look like 26/45 (.58) 4T 2.32ws [up arrow] 6%. Pretty simple, right? Ahhh well, nothing is quite always that easy, but once you have this general pattern the rest shouldn’t be so tough.

So, we got through the calculations on this set (the remaining 5 Qnotes that hadn’t been done) and then we moved onto the process of getting them typed up formally. Oh yeah … and as a double backup, we wrote the above formula’s on the paper themselves to make it easier for an auditor to understand where the numbers were. That was something that the leaving Q had not picked up. Nor, it was discovered did she always get the right thing to count. She did, however, make an excellent attempt at getting something down with a minimum amount of questions. I think she felt she had had to do everything on her own, but sometimes that would slow her down. I do know that if she was questioning something … most likely something had gone wrong, and sometimes that was because I had done something wrong. It’s ok … I thought at the time … cool. Great backup! I was teaching her to be my equal not subordinate.

I questioned a lot going into the process why it had taken her so long to do and why couldn’t she finish the work. I think in a great part … she’d taken those last few days and spent time with the other staff in her good-bys. We did hear from Sister during the last meeting that apparently the staff hadn’t told her there was going to be a good-bye party. I think Sister was insulted that no one should bother to tell her and that she would have liked to known. I, of course, was gone those several days and had no knowledge of the send-off myself. By that time I was thinking of the leaving Q as more on a DSP level than I had thought the entire time she’d been working. It was for that reason … the best reason why she should be leaving. In this environment, she couldn’t pull herself up to a leadership position … very much like her mother. She just wanted to be one of the girls. This would be fine, but prevent her from doing the job well. She can’t be buddy-buddy with them as a leader, because she was needed to make decisions that would affect the others that might not always be so popular.

I don’t know why, but I have to figure out for ourselves why this became so frustrating … if not the most frustrating part. Why wasn’t it ok that this particular family didn’t show themselves as leaders. Why was I frustrated that they were followers. I can see the relationships as … the two middle aged white women were pushed away from the group. They became the out group, although between the staff, they were the most efficient. They turn in good constructive papers on what is happening in their group, and they are the most apt to do the work that is being requested. There was another 30’s age woman who pulled herself away from the group. It was noted that she started working/lunching during the lunch periods for most of the time, where before she’d been more involved in a leadership type position. The one who was fired curried her favor, and sometimes it would be given. I knew that it had become an important thing to shut the door between me and them while they were there. They did the shutting not me. There was an office between us so it shouldn’t have needed to be done, but we need to also look at it as they didn’t want to invade our privacy. I think though more their privacy, because when they came into the inner room to use the phone … they didn’t always shut the next door between us.

The problematic group was the secretary, a 10 year staff, a 6 year staff, the one who got fired, a five year staff, a two year part-time staff, and the leaving Q.

Hmm, is that it?

I guess this is it then … so, these six and sometimes 7. There was one white woman, but the others were all Spanish-speaking. There had been a competition for leadership between the White woman and the one who got fired. We’ve got a pretty smart group of women that work at the center … and again I had felt that the long-standing staff (10 years) due to seniority, intelligence, and maturity should have been in the leadership position, but she had fallen under the guidance of the one that had been fired. She then took her daughter in the same position, even though the daughter should have been the smartest of the group, or at least more able in determination or follow through. The secretary has held a private relationship with the six year woman who were both in the group, but could also step outside the group. Anyone leading would need their approval, and the six-year woman conceded to the two vying for leadership. It was noted that these two also had a bond in that they both delivered children at the same time. The part time person wasn’t around much, so she was just a supporter. Between the two vying for power I had been talking to one and not to the other. I never trusted the one who got fired, because she was excitable and complained about doing her work. From the first assignment that was given … a goal data sheet, she was saying the work was too much … before she even had learned it! Of course, the work needed to be learned first, BUT then even after she had claimed to know it, she was still saying it was too much. It was learned about the same time she left that she’d let a month go by without doing her paperwork for the goals. I don’t know how much covering up the Q leaving did … we’ll find more out with these Qnotes we’re doing.

Anyway as to leadership, I played an affect although I hadn’t really thought it out too much, or at least don’t remember now if we had – although it could be checked by reading old Blog notes as to how much we supported what was going on. I think now looking at it … that we had supported the White woman, not because she was white, but because she’d attached herself to us, especially due proximity and her own nervousness. She always had something for me to be figuring out and we were ok with talking with her, because we had thought we’d been helping her. When she concluded that day that we were snake like and she wasn’t going to talk with us, she’d burned her own bridge. Our friend commented on that at Christmas that she was closed out of the Spanish Group and didn’t share my support at that time. I don’t think she lost out because of me, although I’d supported her and others knew that, when I didn’t have anything to say to her, then she was put out there more on her own. The one who had gotten fired overran the show. But, she was a nervous wreck, wasn’t doing her work, felt everyone was against her, and she was afraid of the clients.

She was an organizer in that she pushed the whole group into thinking that they were different than management instead of being an important part of the center.

The week that the girl was let go of for being too stressed, the White woman had been on vacation. I have no doubt that they all have each others phone numbers and would call between themselves. So, we’re pretty sure she knew what had happened.

On the outside that she didn’t and by watching her after she’d come back – to a low degree of watching – she seems to be more alone and out of place. Some of her happiness seems to be gone. I’m not sure why though. She sits at her chair and is somewhat less involved in her clients. The messes on her work tables remains unchanged. She started yesterday where she would come into her room talking out loud to us beyond our office and the next as if we were expected to be listening.

Instead of warming up to those kind of dialogues, which I don’t like, we stay centered on our work saying uh huh, uh huh, ok. I guess I had never thought of it as to what she would do without the Q who had left. When I stopped being with her, she had gone to the other. She has an aptitude for talking and thinking and so is going to have a hard time making due with the silence.

My part … where I’m different, and only by a small degree is that I write more than I talk. I’ve done a lot of talking don’t get me wrong, but in addition to that I write, so there is a means of getting through my thoughts and the thoughts that aren’t fixed here or with my friend go through with my doctor. That’s a whole lot of support. So. I suppose that’s enough of that for the time being … let me think here and regroup. I have about 20 minutes left and we’re just out of the shower.

School work didn’t get done, but I think it important to be thinking and we have been doing that.

Hmm, just checked out the bank. They gave us an expected $66 charge for overdrawing checks twice before we stopped money going out of the account .. I now owe in arrear 1150 out of my 1217. Not much money to go on this next two weeks. Nothing can get paid, until the check comes in from the government … if that doesn’t happen we’ll have to ask our friend for enough money to cover the first car payment. We’re really hoping the government money comes in before next week. Ok, that’s enough of that … Oh one more notation on that score … I think the money is the reason that I don’t have the music this morning. We couldn’t get it in. Just have to do without then … we can do it. Just don’t want them to take our car back after we’d gone through this much to make the $2000 good. Ok, that’s about it then … we want to get this posted and on our way … Anything special to remember? Hmm, I think with Qnotes done and out of the way … our files pretty much in order (called or wrote to people this week), I need to just get down on CARF! We’ll have to figure that out when we get in to the office. In the meantime … we sure do like driving the new vehicle in

:) Good morning!

posted by Ann Marie @ 2/28/2007 06:46:00 AM Comments: 0