Work war stories

Ever since I have joined technology, every day is a battle - work is war

Stupid receptionist.

You saved her--she left you swinging...!

I can't believe you kept your cool as long as you did. ...likes to cut women... Very close to my exit cue.

But how to exit..

Grr, just went to work ready for another marathon (an application needs to be ready on Monday) and found out that the key they made for me doesn't work.

This is more of a "I want to go to war, but can't find the sword" type of a story.

The cue is...OK, must devise exit strategy NOW.

Only desperation would cause me to lie to a client. If I thought I was about to be cut, I'd lie. "Well, I understand your greivance. Here, I'll go and speak to Dr. No, and see to this." Bad to do--but better than die.

I do believe I'd punch the receptionist on the way out of the ward, too.

Hmm - lol - looking back, I prolly coulda done it -I did another similar time - with a whole gang of 'em in prison - but drunk...hmmmm - always gives you pause...

Mind you, in prison, there was always the still in the Virgin Mary in one (discovered after a bunch of the "heavies" got religion) and the multi-generational one, dug out of the ground in a storage cellar - clearly been going for fifty years or more - in the country minimum security one. Gotta admire the guys' ingenuity! Lol!

Ack - that WOULD make me want to kill!

Mind you - half my front door keys don't work...odd...

Yep - lying don't help - but we DO make up urgent phone calls.

I went home - I had chest pain.

Security was discussed later.

Actually, for a place working with lots of violent folk - community corrections is pretty incident free - one of us got held hostage for a bit once. Talked her way out.

Actually, our clients tended to misbehave other places - one of my old corrections clients - a lamb in my office - had escaped from guards in the hospital I worked for in my next job - and had held the two receptionists in the social work department hostage with a knife. He got kinda bored, cos nobody noticed - there were no security folk in place then - and no cameras. A patient once wandered the corridors of the hospital with a shot gun for a few hours, before going up and shooting up the psychiatric ward. And outpatients often called us when patients went nutso - because hospitals don't call police on patients!!! (There are security folk now - because hospital are where so much patient to staff violence now occurs - especially in Emergency.)

I had to go to the CEO about a pair of patients who had:

Assaulted the transport clerk with a cane
Tried to strangle two nurses
Thrown full, glass, bottles of soft drink at other patients and staff
Gone nuts in outpatients, and run around hitting anyone and everyone with their "blind" canes (they had had a guide dog taken off them, too, for cruelty) Heehee - all the doctors ran for their offices - leaving the patients and clerical folk to cower behind desks. The orderlies, who were supposed to be the security staff, came to get me, cos I had sort of taken on a co-ordinating role with these two - they wanted me to go and control them. When I said to call the cops, they got all sniffy.

The assaulted nurses were ordered NOT to inform police by the head nurse.

I went to the CEO - and they were told that police would be called in future, and they would be banned from the hospital - like lambies, they were, after that.

Bloody hell D, you sure are one hell of a brave woman !

Nope - I am a wuss.

These jobs are just like that. Goes with the territory.

Sounds like Lash has worked with the really scary folk.

Are you in one of those horrid "The Art of War" inspired places????

A number of computer firm folk I know have worked in places that do that.

Sounds yeccchhhh to me.

Argh, I dunno if I want to get back into social services. All of these bring very vivid memories. I actually liked the adrenalin, and the creativity involved, and best of all actually making something happen... but do I want to knowingly go back INto that?

One of the most vivid things I'm remembering is the rock and the hard place of helping people who after all have problems -- that's why they're clients -- and so if you call the cops on them your own work is set waaaay back, both in terms of the client's quality of life and their trust in you. In retrospect, I took a lot of dumb risks. But there also tended to be a reward for naivete slash high expectations -- I'd just expect things would end up fine, and they would, and other professionals would goggle at me and say "that worked??" I'm sure I would have burned out before too long if I'd kept it up, though.

(Sucks about keys!)

Well, it is 0215 on a Sunday morning, and I am at work

I'll have to come up with some funny ones.

(I didn't realize how black my humor has become--all my funny ones are cast in horrible circumstances.)

I've seen way too many naked people, and one monstrous penis! I swear it was down to his knees.

Oh, Gautam!

Yes, the key thing does suck. Hmm, Saturday night, who else has a key? Prolly not reachable?

Sorry if I missed it, what was (is?) your actual job, Lash?

Mine was nominally just helping deaf adults get jobs, but since the population was young, mostly hispanic, and in L.A. it meant a lot of gang stuff and a lot of general drama.

Who you talkin' to Soz?

Edited!

Have more of a handle on yours, I think.

I was a Nurse's Assistant in the Forensics Unit of the State Hospital Mental facility--

then, I went into MR/MI inpatient training and observation,

then, I was a paraprofessional counsellor at a county Mental Health clinic. Counselled in the office and in the community, and helped with court cases, and just about all aspects of a client's life. I wrote individualized treatment plans, and sat in on Interdisciplinary Team meetings. Represented the clinic sometimes at community events and county meetings.

I did love it--but ultimately, it came home with me and mademe sick. I'll never go near it again. It took me two and a half years to get better. I'm going to school now. LOVING IT! Don'tknow what I'm gonna be when I grow up. Maybe teaching in a community college.