Happy Holidays to all my Fellow Social Workers!

Sorry I've been a little late posting.  I meant to update my blog at Christmas but alas with all my time off relaxing, it's slipped away from me.  However, there is still New Years so I am wishing all my readers all the best for 2013 - which includes health, career and relationships!

Since we are only a couple of days until 2013, now is a perfect time to reflect on the last year.
 
Mine was mixed - the start was not good, nor the middle, but I feel like I made up for it at the end.  I had a major health and career crisis which caught me completely off guard.  And it battered my self worth and self esteem pretty badly.  I had to get real with myself about my abilities and what I could handle.  I learnt the pain of having people doubt me.  I had a lot of guilt about my health issues.  All the time, energy and sacrifice I had put into my Social Work career looked and felt like it had been for nothing.  I had to live with being labelled and as hard as it was I knew that many people were hoping I would just give in and walk away from my career.

It made me understand what our clients go through on a daily basis, journeying through a system that is rigged to have many of them fail - and worst of all, revictimize them.  I know I felt like I was being victimized.

But then after all that waiting, jumping through a million hoops that seemed to only hurt me and impede my recovery, new opportunities began to open up and I got a new job.  And surprisingly, I found that I loved it.  But I sure as hell knew that I paid my dues for it.

I made a decision once I started my new position that I didn't want to be just another employee - I wanted to stand out in my enthusiasm.  I wanted to be seen as an obvious asset to my agency.  I wanted to make an impression so that if I ever left the agency I would be remembered, and more importantly MISSED.  And although it has been less than six months since I started this job a lot of people know my name and are talking about my approach to work.  I am no longer afraid to hold in my ideas if I think they will  be of benefit to my clients or the agency.  I care a lot less about criticism and rejection because I have nothing to lose.  I enjoy my job, my clients can see that and it is also reflected in the positive atmosphere that I help to create with my coworkers.  I am not perfect - I often joke that I am the geek in my office but I am real and it has taken a long time for me to accept myself both personally and professionally.

So, where did I intend to go with this long story?  I wanted to show you how much can change in a year, from negative to positive.  Overall, my wish for you dear readers is for you to persevere and recognize your own strength in the coming year.  Oftentimes we are so focused on our clients journey's that we tend to neglect our own.  We too have amazing stories of survival and triumph in the face of great obstacles or tragedies.  Some of us may have had several hard years in challenging Social Work jobs, while others are just graduating and don't know in which direction to begin their Social Work career.  Then there are those of us struggling to juggle family lives with our jobs, facing ever increasing responsibilities at work, and a lack of understanding for the very complicated work we do.  But I don't want you to give up hope for 2013.  I want you to take all that you have dealt with, learnt and overcome in 2012 to become a stronger, more resilient version of yourself.  Aim to be a role model to your clients and your coworkers in 2013.  And more importantly, aim to be a model of courage to yourself.


As Always,

Patti

Bribe and Prejudice

As Social Workers we are trained not to receive gifts from our clients.  In many agencies this is considered unethical practice, especially when we have involuntary clients.  This is to protect clients from being taken advantage of by their workers.

Some agencies have differing opinions about what is considered a gift.  Homemade gifts such as baked goods or a card which cost very little money are accepted as to avoid offending the client.  Sometimes clients just want to genuinely thank their Social Workers and they want to give more than a verbal "thanks."

The reverse happened to me today.  I wanted to give my clients Christmas cards as a sign of good will, however a co-worker told me immediately that it is not allowed at our agency.  Now, my role is definitely not front line child intervention anymore and my clients have great boundaries so I believe they would generally be surprised and delighted with a Christmas card (and not read too much into it).  I don't consider a Christmas card a gift, but I suppose there must be a rule about giving anything to clients in the big agency I work for.  And to be honest I was going to make sure that none of the cards had the word Christmas in them anyways, since I am not particularly religious.

Sigh. I am always looking for inventive ways to develop my professional relationship with my clients, but I suppose this time I have just become a victim to the opposite motion of bribery in the workplace!

Being Positive in an Ever-Negative World

I remember how I was as a Social Worker in my previous positions - just trying to get by and keep my head above water.  I tried to be supportive to my clients and co-workers but there wasn't a lot to be positive about.  Many decisions I had to make and follow through on as a front line Child Welfare worker was not positive.  I had a lot of responsibility and I would constantly worry, hoping that the children on my caseload would remain safe.  I felt older than I was - actually, a lot older.

In many ways a large part of who I was was taken over by my job.  There was little room for creativity, imagination or independence.  There were also a lot of people that I had to answer to: supervisors, management, parents, children, foster parents, extended family, teacher's, principals, support workers, lawyers, judges and so on.  Everyone had their own vested interest and it was hard to always have someone disappointed or angry at me.

Now that I am in a different place professionally I see that I was just not meant to be the constant "bearer of bad news."  I don't always want to be expecting the worst and I don't always want to be the bad guy.  And I wanted to be honest to my co-workers, clients, supervisors and management about who I was.  I was tired of being a generic, personality-less worker.  I realized that 1/3 of my life would be spent at work and I wanted that time to be an extension of who I was during the other 2/3 of the time.

So I began to talk with a more authentic speech, using less jargon and using more realistic language with my clients.  I also gave myself permission to laugh and laugh with my clients.  I brightened up my office and my hair.

I am unappologetically happy and I take every opportunity I can to have fun and make sure my co-workers are having just as good of a time as myself.  There are still busy days, tiring days, and it does take some effort, but being positive sustains others and it helps to give them hope.  You just don't know who you could impact with this attitude, and that is what Social Work is about, positively impacting others.

Update to my Readers

It's been over four months since I have last written a blog post.  I thought I was done with the Social Work Diaries, but I guess it was not done with me!  I was just informed this week that my blog has almost two thousand views - the last time I checked it was more like a couple hundred!

And so this person who informed me thought I owed my readers an update on where I am in my Social Work career.  I could not help but agree.

I had to move for this new position which meant selling and also packing a lot of my belongings.  To be honest, about half of my stuff was in boxes anyway since there were several times that I thought I would just move back home because my career situation was so uncertain.  Anyway, within a couple of weeks I had bought a modest home and delved into reinventing my Social Work career yet again.

My expectations for this new job was not very high.  I just wanted a better Social Work job than the last ones I had.  Each day when there was not a new crisis to overcome, I was amazed.  I felt like I was in cloud nine!  I genuinely felt like I was helping my clients and that overall I was in a positive work environment.

I am sure there were a few snickers from the people who have known me since the start of my Social Work career.  Here goes Patti with yet another change!  But I kept my head held high and I had a positive attitude. I did't have a choice but to move forward.

For the first days and weeks I was still surprised that I liked my new job.  I didn't get that sinking feeling in my stomach or my head warning me I was in the wrong area of Social Work.  And whenever conflict arose with clients I had already dealt with much worse in the past so it was easily for me to handle these situations. Also, I admitted my strengths and my challenges to my co-workers and my boss.  Finally, I felt like I was being treated like a normal person, and not a Social Work superhero!

As I said before in my last post, my current position does not relate to Social Work 100%.  However, I use many of the skills I gained while obtaining my Social Work degree and working as a front-line Social Worker.  I have great people skills and I am unafraid when the going get's tough - as long as it's not too tough!

As there are many types of people, there are also many types of Social Work personalities - and positions available to them.  I don't know if some of my former co-workers were waiting for me to say that the other Social Work jobs I had in the past were too much for me.  It's true, they were stressful and challenging jobs but they are too much for many people and it was not worth the price of being exhausted all the time, being multi-tasked to death or having my safety put at risk.  To be honest, now when I talk to those guys I think they are a little envious when they see how stress-free I am.  And sure, I do have a wonderful job now but I had to go through many negative experiences to get it.  I figure in a way, I earned this position and I'm exactly where I'm meant to be.

And as for the future of this blog...I do have topics that come to mind occasionally so now that I am more settled in my life I have the time to write posts - just not everyday as I used to!

Lastly, for all the Social Workers hanging on by a thread out there.  A job is never worth losing your sanity, health or relationships over.  You can only be the best Social Worker you can be when you are in a job you feel comfortable in.  It may take many, many attempts before you find the right fit.  And it doesn't matter if you don't take the traditional Social Work career path as every one else: intervention, front-line, casework, or dealing with high risk clients.  The world always needs kind and determined workers no matter what area of Social Work they are in.