(no subject)
This month I've been dealing with a lot of mixed emotions and an extremely busy schedule. As a result I haven't been able to post an update or be as active as I normally am on LJ but I'm still reading everything!
Work has been my main area of stress these days. We're short staffed and my schedule keeps changing but the most irritating thing is that on some shifts, like right now I'm single staffed and working alone. This is really problematic because of the population I work with - juvenile offenders. It's me versus eight crazy boys on a unit. To make matters worse, a lot of the non-profit organizations that serve this population in Chicago have been closing down so we're getting transferred more and more of their clients which results in my unit being under staffed and over crowded with clients. Also for some reason these past couple of weeks the clients have just been angry (more angry than usual) and are always turned up on some crazy tantrums. My rapport with all my clients are good, but some I prefer to keep my distance from and others have my back. Well yesterday my co-worker asked a client about medication and he apparently got offended and started going off on some crazy rant, meanwhile I was in the same room trying to finish some filing for the end of this month. Out of no where he told me to stay out of it and shhh. So automatically I was like "I didn't say anything and boy who are you telling to shhh?". Well they continued going at it and I'm still filing away so I decide to take a break and run to the store and get a drink. When I came back they stopped arguing so I asked my co-worker what all happened and how did it ended. My co-worker didn't say much about the situation and we resumed what we were doing. The client stormed back into our office then accused us of talking shit about him. He went on this long rant screaming and shouting for an hour straight. Then he tells me how he lost all respect for me and how I'm a fake bitch and how he always had my back but then started threatening me. So we just let him continue ranting and finished our paperwork. When he finally quieted down for a few moments I walked over to him and asked if he wanted to go on a walk since we do that together a lot. He told me to get out of his fucking face and that I was dead to him. Over dramatic right? Well now I'm here in the office working alone and the last thing I want is for things to get out of hand and then I'll have to call the police for back up and do a ton of paper work as a result. All the clients are still sleeping at this point and there's still two hours left until someone comes to join me for the last hour of my shift. I've also requested back up from another unit but they have yet to respond. My supervisor is on PTO and refuses to respond to any forms of correspondence although she was quite aware of the situation yesterday. This is just one example of how work has been stressing me out, but in general I'm just tired of my supervisor expecting me to do things without communicating it, the lack of structure in place at this unit and how the program has been slowly unraveling and being over crowded with clients. I had only agreed to take this position because the company had said that I would be transferred or promoted to a higher position on the clinical side after my six months of working in the residential program. Well I'm a month away from that and the positions I want are no longer available due to the state wide budget cuts (which also is why we're being over crowded from other NPOs shutting down). Disappointed does not even encompass how I feel about the whole matter but I'm trying to be productive and proactive so I've been applying for other jobs. I got an interview last week at a substance abuse clinic for a case worker position. The pay they were offering was a lot lower than my salary right now. It's also a long commute for me : 1 hour and 20 minutes via the train. The funny part was the lady who interviewed me was a former employee of the agency I'm working with now so she completely understands where I'm coming from. She said she would pass around my resume with her company and see what else they could come up with for me because I'm qualified for other positions with them. She also put me infront of another HR person about a DCFS liaison position. Again, that lady also turned out to be another employee of the agency I'm with so we had a pretty informal rant session about all the broken areas of this agency. After that, they both gave me their contact number and told me to follow up with them next week. I called this morning and both of them did not answer so I left voice mail messages for them and hopefully I hear back from them by the end of this week, wish me luck!
But I've been doing a lot of thinking and I really want to get out of the non-profit sector. At this point I think I'll be happy working an administrative or clerical position for law firms or private practices. The pay will be better and I don't have to deal with bureaucracy and difficult populations. I've been applying for jobs here and there but due to my busy schedule I don't have nearly the time I want to dedicate to writing and sending applications. So I'm trying to squeeze in time at work to do them or maybe stay up late during my days off to get them done.
My parents came to visit me the other weekend. They had fun in Chicago and loved the hotel I had booked for them. Since it was a short visit we just went out to eat a lot, then I took them shopping and they hung out playing with the puppies I'm currently boarding - Pumpkin and Pixie. Mango came along too and he had a blast with Charlie and the other two dogs. I miss Toronto and hopefully I get a chance to visit for a few days at the end of August. One of my best friends is having a difficult time right now because his father is really sick and is about to pass away so if I paid him a visit I think that may help. In the meantime we've been texting and calling to check up on each other.
Today I was suppose to go to to an event called Beauty Talk in the park for my friend Vanessa. It starts at 6pm but I get off at 5pm and it'll take me over forty minutes to get there. I'm exhausted from the work week and today is my Friday plus it's really humid outside today so I'm really not in the mood to talk about beauty products. I did want to come out and support Vanessa because I go to all her events every month but now it's been getting harder for me to juggle them.Vanessa's wedding is also next Saturday and I still have to get her gift wrapped, find someone to do my hair, decide on which dress to wear and rent a car to drive up to Wisconsin for it. I'm looking forward to the wedding and cannot wait to see her in that $10k dress. As a wedding gift I got the couple personalized silk pillow cases that say Mr & Mrs followed by their last name. I think it's cute and thoughtful, besides they're filthy rich so it's really the thought that counts since they're able to afford whatever they want on their own.
Mine and Lawrence's two year wedding anniversary is also coming up in mid August. We're thinking of going away for a short weekend getaway at a romantic bed and breakfast somewhere. I'm so excited and can't wait. He's been incredibly supportive through all this stress I'm dealing with and has been keeping me grounded, I'm so thankful he's my life partner.
At Pawsitive Petcare I'm still boarding the two Maltese mix breed puppies Pumpkin and Pixie. Things were going well for the first week but then Pumpkin started her cycle. We had to put a diaper on her so that she wouldn't bleed all over the place and Pixie who's not neutered won't hump her and get her pregnant. Since Pumpkin is in heat, Pixie of course had his sexual awakening and has been constantly trying to hump her and peeing all over the place to mark his territory. It's been driving Lawrence crazy and I feel bad that I'm not at home more to clean up after him because I'm at work. None the less Lawrence has been a big help and really loves the puppies, more so Pumpkin because she's feisty but better behaved than Pixie lol. I found that walking Pixie every couple of hours tires him out then he doesn't have the urge to hump Pumpkin or enough urine to mark his territory at home lol. I still have less than a week with them since they return home Monday. They're so cute despite being a handful and I'm going to miss them!
In other news I got an Iphone 6! I'm really enjoying it but feel a little guilty for spending so much money on it. Then again, I deserve to treat myself and get a new phone and literally have been able to do everything on it lol. That's me trying to end this entry on a high note, now it's time for me to get back to this paper work and monitoring the clients at work. I only have about 3 more hours until I get to clock out and enjoy my two days off! Have a good day everyone and thanks for reading :)
Work has been my main area of stress these days. We're short staffed and my schedule keeps changing but the most irritating thing is that on some shifts, like right now I'm single staffed and working alone. This is really problematic because of the population I work with - juvenile offenders. It's me versus eight crazy boys on a unit. To make matters worse, a lot of the non-profit organizations that serve this population in Chicago have been closing down so we're getting transferred more and more of their clients which results in my unit being under staffed and over crowded with clients. Also for some reason these past couple of weeks the clients have just been angry (more angry than usual) and are always turned up on some crazy tantrums. My rapport with all my clients are good, but some I prefer to keep my distance from and others have my back. Well yesterday my co-worker asked a client about medication and he apparently got offended and started going off on some crazy rant, meanwhile I was in the same room trying to finish some filing for the end of this month. Out of no where he told me to stay out of it and shhh. So automatically I was like "I didn't say anything and boy who are you telling to shhh?". Well they continued going at it and I'm still filing away so I decide to take a break and run to the store and get a drink. When I came back they stopped arguing so I asked my co-worker what all happened and how did it ended. My co-worker didn't say much about the situation and we resumed what we were doing. The client stormed back into our office then accused us of talking shit about him. He went on this long rant screaming and shouting for an hour straight. Then he tells me how he lost all respect for me and how I'm a fake bitch and how he always had my back but then started threatening me. So we just let him continue ranting and finished our paperwork. When he finally quieted down for a few moments I walked over to him and asked if he wanted to go on a walk since we do that together a lot. He told me to get out of his fucking face and that I was dead to him. Over dramatic right? Well now I'm here in the office working alone and the last thing I want is for things to get out of hand and then I'll have to call the police for back up and do a ton of paper work as a result. All the clients are still sleeping at this point and there's still two hours left until someone comes to join me for the last hour of my shift. I've also requested back up from another unit but they have yet to respond. My supervisor is on PTO and refuses to respond to any forms of correspondence although she was quite aware of the situation yesterday. This is just one example of how work has been stressing me out, but in general I'm just tired of my supervisor expecting me to do things without communicating it, the lack of structure in place at this unit and how the program has been slowly unraveling and being over crowded with clients. I had only agreed to take this position because the company had said that I would be transferred or promoted to a higher position on the clinical side after my six months of working in the residential program. Well I'm a month away from that and the positions I want are no longer available due to the state wide budget cuts (which also is why we're being over crowded from other NPOs shutting down). Disappointed does not even encompass how I feel about the whole matter but I'm trying to be productive and proactive so I've been applying for other jobs. I got an interview last week at a substance abuse clinic for a case worker position. The pay they were offering was a lot lower than my salary right now. It's also a long commute for me : 1 hour and 20 minutes via the train. The funny part was the lady who interviewed me was a former employee of the agency I'm working with now so she completely understands where I'm coming from. She said she would pass around my resume with her company and see what else they could come up with for me because I'm qualified for other positions with them. She also put me infront of another HR person about a DCFS liaison position. Again, that lady also turned out to be another employee of the agency I'm with so we had a pretty informal rant session about all the broken areas of this agency. After that, they both gave me their contact number and told me to follow up with them next week. I called this morning and both of them did not answer so I left voice mail messages for them and hopefully I hear back from them by the end of this week, wish me luck!
But I've been doing a lot of thinking and I really want to get out of the non-profit sector. At this point I think I'll be happy working an administrative or clerical position for law firms or private practices. The pay will be better and I don't have to deal with bureaucracy and difficult populations. I've been applying for jobs here and there but due to my busy schedule I don't have nearly the time I want to dedicate to writing and sending applications. So I'm trying to squeeze in time at work to do them or maybe stay up late during my days off to get them done.
My parents came to visit me the other weekend. They had fun in Chicago and loved the hotel I had booked for them. Since it was a short visit we just went out to eat a lot, then I took them shopping and they hung out playing with the puppies I'm currently boarding - Pumpkin and Pixie. Mango came along too and he had a blast with Charlie and the other two dogs. I miss Toronto and hopefully I get a chance to visit for a few days at the end of August. One of my best friends is having a difficult time right now because his father is really sick and is about to pass away so if I paid him a visit I think that may help. In the meantime we've been texting and calling to check up on each other.
Today I was suppose to go to to an event called Beauty Talk in the park for my friend Vanessa. It starts at 6pm but I get off at 5pm and it'll take me over forty minutes to get there. I'm exhausted from the work week and today is my Friday plus it's really humid outside today so I'm really not in the mood to talk about beauty products. I did want to come out and support Vanessa because I go to all her events every month but now it's been getting harder for me to juggle them.Vanessa's wedding is also next Saturday and I still have to get her gift wrapped, find someone to do my hair, decide on which dress to wear and rent a car to drive up to Wisconsin for it. I'm looking forward to the wedding and cannot wait to see her in that $10k dress. As a wedding gift I got the couple personalized silk pillow cases that say Mr & Mrs followed by their last name. I think it's cute and thoughtful, besides they're filthy rich so it's really the thought that counts since they're able to afford whatever they want on their own.
Mine and Lawrence's two year wedding anniversary is also coming up in mid August. We're thinking of going away for a short weekend getaway at a romantic bed and breakfast somewhere. I'm so excited and can't wait. He's been incredibly supportive through all this stress I'm dealing with and has been keeping me grounded, I'm so thankful he's my life partner.
At Pawsitive Petcare I'm still boarding the two Maltese mix breed puppies Pumpkin and Pixie. Things were going well for the first week but then Pumpkin started her cycle. We had to put a diaper on her so that she wouldn't bleed all over the place and Pixie who's not neutered won't hump her and get her pregnant. Since Pumpkin is in heat, Pixie of course had his sexual awakening and has been constantly trying to hump her and peeing all over the place to mark his territory. It's been driving Lawrence crazy and I feel bad that I'm not at home more to clean up after him because I'm at work. None the less Lawrence has been a big help and really loves the puppies, more so Pumpkin because she's feisty but better behaved than Pixie lol. I found that walking Pixie every couple of hours tires him out then he doesn't have the urge to hump Pumpkin or enough urine to mark his territory at home lol. I still have less than a week with them since they return home Monday. They're so cute despite being a handful and I'm going to miss them!
In other news I got an Iphone 6! I'm really enjoying it but feel a little guilty for spending so much money on it. Then again, I deserve to treat myself and get a new phone and literally have been able to do everything on it lol. That's me trying to end this entry on a high note, now it's time for me to get back to this paper work and monitoring the clients at work. I only have about 3 more hours until I get to clock out and enjoy my two days off! Have a good day everyone and thanks for reading :)