posted
First let me explain a bit about the background here. Important things to know:
1. I work in a facility for hard-to-serve clients with mental disabilities (and physical often accompanies). 2. We are served by a cafeteria. The menu is a three-week rotation, and the guys eat what they're given. Have you tried eating cafeteria food for a year or two? What if you didn't get a choice in what to pick? Yeah. Sometimes life sucks. 3. Weekend staffing is sparse and difficult. One person is 8-8 (takes her break at the end, leaves at 6:30). One is 9-9, and has to take her break in the middle, and this is the longest, most difficult shift in the schedule. One is 11-11 and can leave at 9:30, usually. Quite often regular staff take vacation hours when they're scheduled for 9-9, and relief comes in and does the last four hours.
Okay, the main event. This could get long, bear with me.
I was working 8-8 on Saturday. I was working with a full-time staff (call her Emily), who was 9-9, and another relief (say, Shannon), 11-11. Emily took those vacation hours, and another relief staff, Susan, was in for the 5-9.
I talked this over with the other staff, particularly the full-time staff who's been there forever, and is really picky about making sure guys get the right diets. For the record, I'm pretty picky myself. She felt what I was planning would be good, we even worked something out for the guys who can't have tomatoes. I went shopping, got all the stuff, and started cooking when I got back home. This was about 2:30.
At four, Emily leaves. Things are fine till 5. I am feeling great because finally I feel like I'm doing something pretty cool for the guys, something different. Then Susan comes in.
She's upset because Emily gave one guy his meds early so he could eat early and it would be easier to get everyone to bed (there being only two staff, this is an important weekend evening concern).
She's upset because dinner isn't ready. She berates me, telling me that they usually start around three when cooking and dinner should be ready by now. (Sorry, lady, that almost three solid hours in a kitchen with crummy equipment hasn't produced the meal exactly on time.)
She's upset because I'm not following the diet guidelines. Doesn't even ask if I'd cleared it with knowledgeble staff, or a manager, or if I am, in fact, aware of proper meal guidelines.
She messes up the carefully prepared bowls, making it more difficult to make sure people get what they should. She accuses me of trying to serve a client food that would make him choke - tiny cubes of boiled squash. Squash! And he gets them all the time. He's not a choking hazard, he just has no teeth. It's a perfectly acceptable thing to give him, it was probably on the meal outline.
I am pretty flustered by this time, and forget that one client needs the alfredo rather than tomato sauce. She yells at me for that. But Shannon had already pointed it out (politely), and I'd fixed it.
Somehow I make it through dinner without yelling, hitting, or crying. I couldn't have been more hurt and angry if she'd spit in the food. The cake I made them for dessert goes uneaten, because the meal sheet says we need to give them all applesauce, again. AGAIN! I can't understand why they still eat the bloody applesauce they get so much of it.
Anyhow, by this time it's very nearly 6:30, thank god. I have made myself some fresh pasta and go out to the patio to eat. We get mealtime as part of our work hours, so I feel no guilt about taking a bit of quiet time. At 6:35, as I'm still outside cooling off and finishing my meal (remember, I'm technically OFF now), she comes outside to tell me I need to take the garbage out. Now, we take the garbage out in the evening so the smelly diapers don't stink up the house. Except, at 6:30, no smelly diapers are in the garbage for the simple reason that no one is in bed yet. I point out that I'm off, and she yells at me that this is my duty, the person always takes the garbage out who leaves at 6:30, it's a house standard, blah blah blah... Now, like I said, there's no point. And no one, NO ONE, takes the garbage out that early. I have never ever seen anyone but her collect the garbage before there's a reason to. Other staff have even tried to correct her on it. Nor have I ever seen another 8-8 staff take the garbage out. She's talking complete bull, and she obviously has no clue about "house standard". I took the garbage out, mostly to be kind to Shannon, who would never have heard the end of it otherwise. Usually, I wouldn't mind taking an extra few minutes at the end of shift, but I really wasn't in the mood to be helpful.
Sunday, I come in for Emily to find a nasty, angry letter to my head staff asking HIM to tell ME to read the client profiles because I obviously have no idea what to feed people. She complains that I was being uncooperative and refusing to take the garbage out, when they were short staffed because Emily had left early. Apparently she didn't realise she WAS the replacement, as per the norm on weekends. THEN, she complains about being left with just an inexperienced relief staff. Shannon, who is new, is a WONDERFUL staff, very competent and conscientous. Emily, who was in Sunday as well, tried to explain that her complaints were wrong and groundless. She tried to explain the staffing schedule, to no avail.
But now there's this written complaint, in an totally inappropriate forum, about me. Everyone can read it. Fortunately, everyone reading it thinks she's nuts and is wrong. Some crazy stuff has happened in the past because of unjustified complaints staff have made against each other. My manager is away right now, but she gets back Wednesday, and I'm going to be going in to explain what was happening. I'm just so mad about this all. ARGH.
AND THEN, as if this all wasn't enough...
In addition to being relief house staff, I'm also the centre's lifeguard. They have a tiny, ancient pool that the folks can swim around in. There's just one guard, me. And they were desperate to get me.
The pool stinks. It's ancient. The spinal boards are scary and shabby, and have no headrests. There's missing tiles, sharp debris on the bottom. There's a perpetual leak which leaves a puddle on the deck. And what scared me the most, there's a couple missing covers. One is a cover over a jet. The whole thing is missing, and there's a gaping hole in the pool wall, and an exposed pipe. There's also another uncovered pipe, though it doesn't seem to be an intake or outtake jet. Another of the jet covers is in disrepair, with tiles around it missing. I'm very afraid someone is going to get his or her hand stuck in one of the pipes.
In my professional judgment, I deemed the pool unfit to be opened for the past two weeks. I've billed 'em for both shifts, because our collective agreement specifies that if I come in and am not needed through no fault of my own, they have to pay me at least part of the hours. After the first weekend, you'd think someone would call me to say it wasn't fixed, but no. I also have written several memos about things needing to be fixed, demanded they write policies and procedures and compile a list of all the seizure-risk clients and all the levels of support needed. Basically, I've made a pain of myself. But they need it.
They wouldn't do this stuff on their own, but it needs to be addressed, ASAP. These are serious hazards and issues in a facility that can handle NO MORE screw-ups.
I taled with the manager on Wednesday again about the pipes, and I asked her if someone could even rig up something temporary so I wouldn't worry about someone getting hurt. By the time I'd driven home, someone had called to say my pool shift for the weekend was cancelled. Okay, fair enough, if they can't get it fixed.
But when I come in to work on Saturday, I hear a rumor they've hired some poor 16-year-old kid, someone's niece, as a guard. Since I have to leave in September anyway, this didn't upset me too much. But when I confirmed with the on-call manager that my pool shift was cancelled for Sunday,. she said yes.
I come in Sunday evening, and someone tells me that the pool was open during the afternoon. Apparently they cancelled my shift, hired a new guard, and scheduled HER in. All without telling me what was going on. Some poor kid they can push around and who'll think she can't make waves and push for things. and I don't even know if I'm fired or not. They certainly have no call to fire me for this. I've been a good guard.
I'm angry and the refusal to fix things, the nepotism, the dishonesty, the attempt to pull one over on me. I'm generally displeased. And I pay union dues, so tomorrow the union head gets a call.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Wanna bet they don't fix the exposed pipes?
*sigh* Anyway, kudos to anyone who read all this far.
(Sorry if anyone comes across this in my lj, too. It was crossposted.)
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Susan sounds like either a complete and total nutjob or an overcontrolling female canine. With any luck, the manager will know this and that part will blow over.
The pool situation, though, is a major problem, especially if it's your name and your job on the line if someone gets hurt (which is what I seem to recall from the prior thread about the pool). Bringing in a kid with standard YMCA lifeguard training is NOT sufficient in a situation with special needs clients, and add in all the safety hazards of the pool itself and of the support equipment, and the place is just asking for a massive lawsuit for client neglect or worse.
Absolutely contact your union rep first thing. I think we gave this advice on the other thread as well, but I'd very seriously be contacting Department of Health, Medicaid (since I'm wiling to bet that at least some of these clients are on public aid), JCAHO and any other oversight entity you can think of. I'm sure you kept copies of all your memos pointing out all the safety issues. Make lots of sets and hand them out liberally.
I really really hope that this works out for you. You don't need all this stress.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
If nothing else, how they dealt with the pool is certainly negligence. Get every possible record that you are firmly against opening the pool in this state and work to close it--avoid smudges on your records and do right.
(((Eaquae))) Sorry for the tough weekend.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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