Just a few short notes ... mostly work.
Good Morning. It’s just mi. It’s Wednesday now and about 5 am. Just went for the cup of coffee. Ahh. That hits the spot. Not sure we’re up for much yet. Feeling kind of yawny. Little headache in the front of my head. Might have been from having too many sweets yesterday.Our friend explained about it being FatTuesday or something like that … he said before Lent and something to do with Mardi Gras you get to eat good stuff. Technically, we just had a half sandwich, some chicken wings, and some kind of cream puff thing, but someone also had a piece of cake. So, if there is a headache involved … ohhh and someone had one margarita. I’m sure that helped with the sugar. Yeeks!
Let’s get over all that now though ok? It makes me dizzy to think of it. Maybe we need to make a few comments about yesterday. We did for the record go to work. I think that was a very good thing to do … At one point of the day if not several … Sr. reminded us that we were necessary. Sometimes I have a hard time following that … Mostly, I think because Sister is so capable, but on the other half we think we’re not capable. We did explain the part about we stayed home to avoid what used to be hospitalizations. And we’d reminded her it been 3 ½ years since that direction. I think she understood the argument.
A lot of what happened is that we just had to get orientated to work and as much as Sr. tried to hold back the floodgate that was hard to do. She told me that we would have to talk, but she gave me time to go through all that was in my mail. That had filled up my box and we worked hard at not being intimidated by it. After we’d gotten back to the office we started the process of going through it. A couple things had to be verified and there were a couple of calls we made right away. One of our clients was out on a limb and a second not far in back of him. We found out soon enough that we’d come back to a meeting for behavior management/human rights so we knew we were going to need catching up on some client issues and that we would be taking notes for that meeting. And, because it was at 10 am it structured my morning.
Sooner than later, Sr. found her way back to our office. She had a lot to say, but the majority of it concerned a DSP that had gone off some deep end. I felt very bad that Sr. had to have gone through all that. Yesterday, after having considered things over the weekend, it was decided to let the DSP go with two week’s severance pay. That is never a good thing, but she had been on probation and wasn’t making it. Sr. wanted me to sit in on the meeting, which we would do for her naturally enough, but then there was that uncomfortable part afterward. She had refused to sign a document with Sr. and she had a counter document for sister to see, but she was let go before the document was handed over. That wouldn’t of helped, but regardless it was a situation that had had to happen. I watched from up front things that were going on and after a couple of the other DSPs were talked to about schedule changes, I had seen one go into the room. I talked to Sr. and it was decided that I could go in as well. I was in a gentle mode, but I knew I had broke the conversation link between the two. I reminded them that they could talk to each other on the phone. Then I asked the DSP basically how could I help her get from this point to the next where she would be leaving, but I don’t think those were my exact words. I know I kept it lite. I made a few suggestions such as opened drawers and doors to make sure everything was in order and she had everything she needed. Things like that. She had said that she was missing a notebook and waiting for the other DSP to come back. I wasn’t sure of the other’s DSP schedule, but I asked if she was in the building. That point was dropped. I guess I had figured that she wanted to talk to the other, but I figured if it was asking for a notebook those arrangements could be made, but otherwise they could as well talk at home. The point of a business bottom line has to be that people at work focus on the jobs at hand.
We had written an ongoing log of our thoughts and what was happening, so we could recall if needed later. Everything about this situation seemed to be that the DSP felt she was being abused. This wasn’t the case, but I knew that her interpretation of things were all centered on that theme. In the client notes I had read before the behavior meeting she had stated that each of the clients had “continuously” done things and she interpreted them as having done things toward her. She didn’t have control of herself, so it was hard for her to have control over the room. She was let go mostly because the stress levels had shown to be too much for her.
On the side, over and above the way the clients had been handled, was a separate issue that had to be discussed after she had left. And, that was my ongoing concern. She had caused a lot of problems in establishing a poor repoir (sp?) between the staff members. She had a way of questioning everything that happened as if not only she, but her peers were being abused. She has many of the staff thinking that they aren’t treated fairly because of ethnicity. A lot of her argument came from Sr.’s statement and mine saying that when there was someone in the room who spoke English only that the Spanish-speaking consider that in their talking. The conversation had come up again, but I knew it hadn’t been resolved because when one of the DSPs made it a point to say it was an issue – “That she couldn’t speak Spanish” and that she didn’t feel it was the same company she’d worked for for 10 years and she was considering leaving.
I think the most upsetting thing about this is that the employee who should have been a leader for various reasons fell under this girl’s “panic theorizing” conditions. Everyone was against her. There had never been a wedge between the Spanish and English before and all the Spanish speaking people speak English, so the discussion was just that if there were three people at a table and one didn’t speak Spanish, it would be rude to not include her. The staff apparently took concern over the word rude though this kind of stuff isn’t told forthright, it is what is used later amongst peers as proof the originator hates you. I more than anyone should understand victim mentality, but this one was so over the top. She took no responsibility for being an employee. She didn’t think there was any purpose to her original training meeting at a another center, or the one I held, and she thought that all the work was unreasonable, and that the time she had to prepare was unreasonable and that it had forced her to take things home, and of course that was unreasonable. I think the worst part though was that she had thought Sr. had abused her every day she was there. How can anyone make a statement like that? Anyway that was all after the fact.
It’s nonetheless disheartening. I think the sad part is that so many of the conversations that the staff seems to be having is not only about their personal issues, it is about tearing the agency down. If there is a complaint … you need to be figuring out how to make that work, and if you need help you need to go to someone who can help answer questions. But, in the last several months the staff has been doing a lot of complaining in a counter-productive manner. I think myself … I complain here, but we’re also trying to figure out how to improve the situation. For example, the thought of being a Program Director. We haven’t talked out loud much because it no longer is the severe problem. It still lies as a problem, because I want the title and change of responsibilities, but it isn’t a life or death issue. I know that it will come up as necessary.
Yesterday another conversation came up that I knew would and it was something that had to be discussed. And, that was the matter of who would take over the other Q’s responsibilities.
Sister is letting it be known that she wants me to take over the goals for one of the DSPs. This means giving up an entire Thursday morning and then some. But, I also know that there is no one else to do it. She went as far as to say simplify, but of course that hits our immediate brick wall. We’ll have to see how that goes, but I won’t know until Thursday. Between though the work training clients for an hour each four days out of five, doing the group on Friday, the goals on Thursday and the staff training, there is no reason to consider any of these tasks more Q than Program director. I can by space within myself as to learning better teaching methods, but I don’t want to be considered just a Q. I don’t want the sinking feelings that I’m going backward. I told sister yesterday as she was gearing up to some of her work, that above all else, she let the staff know that she is indeed looking for another DSP. I think any of us can tolerate hardship to some degree, but we need to know it’s going to end. It will be my thought that after a new DSP is taught that one of the regulars will learn to take on some of the individual’s goal work. But, of course we shall see … and its time for us to be moving ahead.
posted by Ann Marie @ 2/21/2007 06:50:00 AM
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