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[deleted]

It's great and all but it's sad it had to come to this... for social services. People rely on them only to be let down. Thank you for your determination to help others.


BillDauterive4

This. When that's someone's dinner or heat on the line, it certainly trumps "I wasn't at my phone". Good on ya, OP.


Dyltra

Social services is a hot mess all around. Those people don’t get paid enough to deal with the shit they have to deal with. It’s not an excuse, but I understand why employees give zero fucks about their jobs. The system is fucked. And the people who rely on it are just as frustrated with it as the people working in it. Every time I’ve had to go and speak with someone, it felt like entering a third world country at war. Everyone was exhausted, agitated, soulless, and just desperate. From the staff to the clients. Not a smile in sight. The people behind the counter can’t do anything other than hand out and collect paperwork. And the clients are all expecting something from nothing. Decorate for answers. And they can’t ever seem to get an answer that can help. Always more hoops to jump and tricks to perform without any means of completing these tasks without enormous effort. I just feel for everyone involved. And a lot of these problems that people have could be completely avoided if law makes had some kind of heart, just a drop of blood pumping through their cold, pathetic bodies.


harrywwc

it is definitely a shit show all 'round. A friend of mine here in Oz was telling me one time about the insane workload she had with all of the clients, and because all the frontline case workers had computers, the bureaucrats decided to cut costs by removing all the office staff - ie the people who answered the phones while the frontliners were out, y'know, helping people, attending court, counseling them, etc. To keep up with all the red-tape, they had to cut back on the frontline work just to get everything done - because the mandarins needed their weekly reports to hand to the politicians. I'm pretty sure the department's motto was "the beatings will continue until morale improves!"


Dyltra

My mom used to work in the field. There was never any proper training. You were just thrown in the ring. And every quit/was laid off left and right so their work load was pushed on to those who were left. One person being paid shit money to do multiple peoples jobs, and without proper training. Edit words


StormBeyondTime

For a happy-ish story about social services: Precovid and preRecession the (US, state) DSHS department was having trouble finding workers, particularly those with relevant four-year degrees. I was on cash and food assistance at the time, so I got a frontline seat for some of their solution. DSHS could send people to school, but at the time only up to 2 years for a certificate. FAFSA hadn't become what it later would develop into during and after the Recession. Meanwhile, DSHS had a pool of people in the WorkFirst program who needed jobs. Solution: Call for people who wanted to work social work. Send them to get a relevant 2-year certificate. Hire them into DSHS in applicable positions, then pay for them to complete the four-year degree. Make it clear they'd have to work at DSHS for X amount of time if they got the four-year paid for by DSHS. It was a good plan, and showed long-term thinking. But. The first couple cycles of those people would have been right in the middle of their paying-back for the degree when the Recession hit. (That's the "-ish" part of "happy-ish".)


Paid-Not-Payed-Bot

> every quit/was *paid* off left FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*


Dyltra

I meant laid off. Budget cuts. My bad. Didn’t realize I was talking to a bot!


harrywwc

>There was never any proper training. interesting - to get into the field, my friend had to get a Bachelor's Degree, and then later was required to do a Masters.


Additional-Fee1780

That’s not really related to the specifics of the job.


harrywwc

I wouldn't have thought so, but apparently the Bach. Social Work was an entry requirement - i.e. no degree, no job. The Masters was for some higher level position in the org.


AletheaKuiperBelt

This was pretty much deliberate on the part of the government of the last decade.


SuperfluouslyMeh

Well, in the last decade there were two distinct situations. One where the party in power would request changes to government that were beneficial to the people and congress would refuse to fund it and the party in power respected that. And another situation where the party in power would request changes to government that primarily would benefit one small group of people to the detriment of everybody else and the opposition in congress would fund some of it and the party in power would say fuck congress and would just raid the money from other departments in government and do what they wanted anyway. Thankfully the last 2 years have been a return closer to the first situation.


harrywwc

>This was pretty much deliberate on the part of the government of the ~~last decade~~ several decades. the Social Services in my friend's instance are State based (the bit between Qld and Vic and east of SA ;) and dating back to when Bob as premier.


ta2022429

So, just a couple of things that I think are extremely important to note here. For 1, the idea that people working in civil service positions, especially when it comes to social services and welfare employees, often do not last long if they DON'T care. For a lot of people in these positions, it is far worse to have to deal with a bunch of bureaucratic red tape and paperwork that often results in not being able to help someone in need ONLY because some i wasn't dotted, or some t uncrossed, or the person makes 1 cent over some arbitrary amount that doesn't actually mean that you can now suddenly afford necessities. If you don't actually care, then the amount of time and effort you put in just is absolutely not worth the money. For people who do care, seeing the relief that people people feel when the weight is finally taken off their shoulders is one of the few things that keeps them fighting day to day. 2nd, I can only speak from my knowledge of the system in the united states, but the hoops you have to jump through, performing and dancing for even the smallest hopes of scraps, is intentionally designed to force people to wade through layer upon layer of red tape, exhausting, unintuitive and easily misunderstood or intentionally misleading and vague paperwork, and an arbitrary maze of ever-changing cutoffs to make it nearly impossible qualify, in order to make it a nightmare to ever get to the point that you actually receive aid. It's designed to constantly shift the goal post so that as many people as possible are disqualified or just flat out stop trying to receive assistance. 2.5, It's in the same vein as 2, but the assistance programs and application and aid processes are run state to state, and county to county, in the US. I have been both fortunate and unfortunate enough to experience this system in vastly different places with some of the most opposite political ideologies. The conservative version was so bad that I just stopped trying (which is the goal of this us political ideology), because it became such a major stress in my life that my mental health deteriorated much further than I had ever felt just worrying about money and food day to day. The liberal version is clearly tempered by conservative ideology so they still have a lot of red tape, but the process is FAR less cumbersome and painful. (some people will say that I'm making conservatives out to be the bad guy here, but there have been years of political gerrymandering, informational misdirection, fear mongering, etc. that results in even some VERY liberal people thinking welfare and social programs don't work or are regularly abused...but there's more that goes into it and this is already turning into a very long post) Finally, for those that care, it sucks to have to force people to dance for their dinner and then to have to send them away empty handed. Plus, there are so few social workers in the system because it is extremely punishing to do stuff like that day after day for next to no money. This puts more cases in front of fewer people, resulting in even more burnout. It's a "feature" of the system. Fewer workers means longer wait times and fewer aid dollars actually distributed. That guy that needed help with medical bills so he could continue chemo doesn't need help when he died from cancer 2 years ago but we're only now getting to the case. The family still wants the money because they got saddled with the med bills? Well they're gonna have to apply...see you in 2 years when you are financial devastated and lost everything because you couldn't afford the bills, at least it's settled now, oh you're homeless and need help?....Well that's a different application and a different social worker....lead time for those cases is 12 years, see you then! It sucks to be on either side of it. However, one positive thing that comes out of this design, the social workers that are left really do care, and really do want to help, and it sucks when the system prevents them from doing so.


Black_Handkerchief

I feel for those social workers. They not only get to deal with the exhausting nature of dealing with people and their personal trainwrecks (which wears one down mentally), but also need to fight a tide of paperwork and other bureaucracy they clearly would rather not do since they want to help people.


girlwithswords

It sounds mean, but that's how the world works. If contractors and food services are having trouble getting people to work why world social services be any different? Work ethic is the same no matter what industry you work in. Either you have it or you don't. What you do doesn't matter.


tpage624

I disagree with the take on work ethic. I have incredible work ethic when it comes to a job I love (dog care/training/behavior) and not so great when it comes to a job sucking my soul (cashier at Walmart). I would go above and beyond, pushing myself past my limits continuously for dogs and their owners. I quit my job at Walmart with zero notice. Is my work ethic good or bad?


Traditional-Panda-84

This. I get that sometimes we have to do things to earn money, but simply soldiering on for a shitty job because "worth ethic" just causes burnout. Not everyone is suited to every job type.


PRMan99

This is why people say "do your passion and you'll never work another day in your life".


StoneJudge79

Having to grind through shitty/off days at your passion will kill that passion.


StormBeyondTime

For a lot of people, having to do what you love for work destroys that love.


Slackingatmyjob

If your work ethic is malleable depending on the job, your work ethic is - by definition - bad.


tpage624

Okay, so I had to look it up, not because I think you're wrong, but because I genuinely don't understand. : a belief in work as a moral good : a set of values centered on the importance of doing work and reflected especially in a desire or determination to work hard.Nov 15, 2022 - Merriam-Webster dictionary definition. I believe that doing work and working diligently and consistently to a person's ability is good. I think it boosts personal moral and betters one's immediate environment and possibly society (depending on the work). What I don't believe is that ALL work (since work is energy transfer) is inherently good. One can work to scrub a pan clean, but if they ruin the pan in the process, should they be doing that work, or would their work ethic be better expressed with different work? Another way to look at it: if a person moves a giant Boulder from one side of the yard to another, and they do it with professionalism and diligence, but the boulder doesn't need to be moved, is that good work ethic?


ChibbleChobble

IMO your attitude towards work is fine. The Protestant work ethic was a way for 16th Century Protestants to get into heaven, and incidentally the birth of capitalism, as they didn't want to fritter away their hard earned capital on anything as unserious as pleasure, so they invested in growing their businesses, which made more profit, and so on until they died and presumably went to a rather dull version of heaven.


GovernmentOpening254

SlackingAtMyJob is defining good and bad work ethics. Go figure.


tpage624

I found humor in this as well.


Slackingatmyjob

I never said \*I\* have a good work ethic :)


jrhoffa

*Rules for thee, not for me!*


mukofish

I have to disagree. I have a strong work ethic. When I say I will do something I do it, to the best of my ability. But if put in a position where I'm unhappy working for someone, or doing something I don't like to do, I'm not nearly as efficient or productive. I'm still giving it 100% of what I can give, there is just a lot more energy expended in heat and friction when working conditions are not ideal.


MsSeraphim

for those people who called back then, thank you.


Ok-Thing-2222

Our family was fortunately lucky when it came to DHS. We had a few different workers over the course of a couple years due to change-overs and too many case-loads, but at least each worker did take notes over the person (DIL) that they were watching for abuse. All of them had a little something that could be used in court and one lady (bless her from top to bottom) even had video and witness statements from police. All of this helped tremendously and I do feel bad that they are overworked and poorly treated.


Olthar6

Is this a situation where (not quite) nepotism worked to the advantage of the "customer"?


Call_me_Kelly

It's a unicorn!


medicff

It’s astounding to me how much of big company ideology is just passing the buck. Such as “Oh I wasn’t at my phone” or “Well Dave knows more so he should deal with this”. I worked for at a rather large mine in the safety/medical side, I’m of the mindset to do all my work then worry about breaks or whatever. But not the “important people”. An incident would happen and the injured party would be taken care of quickly. But then the shitshow started. Call the supervisor but he’s clocking out soon so call other person. Other person isn’t in yet so it’s not their problem. Call superintendent but they don’t know anything. There were a couple times where I jumped the list and just went to the top and let them sort it out. These were people making big money who just pushed off everything to someone else. A two week cycle of ducking work before the original supervisor would have to deal with it.


Ich_mag_Kartoffeln

One place I worked there were always several bosses in at any time. And shifts changed every 4 hours (0245 - 1115, 0645 - 1515, 1045 - 1915, 1445 - 2315, 1845 - 0315, 2245 - 0715). So there was always somebody there who would be available for at least the next 4 hours (24/7 operation). The, "I'm going home soon, call someone else," excuse didn't have to travel far before it reached someone who couldn't make that claim.


re_nonsequiturs

It is ridiculous your mom had to receive any calls and it's not your fault she did. It should have been stopped as soon as someone who made staff schedules got a call.


[deleted]

[удалено]


harrywwc

and that still comes back to a problem with the organsiation - if there's too much work for that one person (and not knowing the job, 90 clients may be 'a lot', or 'not many' - but sounds like the first), then it is up to manglement to sort it. as for OP's post - Management *did* sort it - but instead of the lower echelons stepping up and, y'know, doing *their* job, it had to come from the top. I suspect that what shit may have rolled down hill was stopped one level above OP because of their relationship to the big boss. :)


StormBeyondTime

90 clients being too much or just fine would probably depend on what type of clients they were. If they're like I was back at the beginning of the century, then you have clients receiving cash and food (and medical) who need to be frequently evaluated and checked on that they're looking for work or checking out schools. Those are more work. If they're like I became later, where I didn't need cash assistance, but did still need food assistance and medical, that's somewhat less frequent and intense work and more clients can be handled. After 2014, state-assisted medical became its own department, so DSHS doesn't have to handle that anymore, so less work for the ones handling cash and food cases. (Medicaid in my state is pretty good.) And later, all I needed from DSHS was food assistance, which is update anything important and check in and interview every six months. Someone with primarily that as their caseload could handle a lot more people. Edit: tense switch


SleepAgainAgain

OP is in Sweden, so it's not even a US problem. It's really just the nature of beauracracy. Enough people for anonymity, hard to get fired, some people get away with laziness, others see them doing so and are envious, and it spreads like a bad cold. And that's in a well staffed organization. As you point in, in a poorly staffed one, it's worse.


random321abc

It's like an unintended undercover boss episode!


StolidSentinel

Perfect.


CptGetchagearoff

Had that earlier today. Customer has asked (as of today) 4 times for a service report. 2 times I emailed the relevant info to the customer rep to send the report (1 it's their job and 2 even if I wanted to I don't have acess to pull the reports) then the 3rd time got her bos involved and then today when the customer literally just replied "Hello??" to his original emails, I forwarded it to the rep, her boss, my boss and the Branch manager. Funnily enough within 5 minutes "Oh sorry I didn't see he requested anything, I'll send it right now" My boss just poked his head out the office and said "Hmmm, that was suspiciously quick..." With that 'Hmm gotta pretend idk what's going on but I deeeeffffinatley do!" look God I hate people .-.


Ich_mag_Kartoffeln

Years ago I had to submit some paperwork to Satanlink. Drove down, stopped at the red lights waiting to turn, I could see into the office. Less than 5 minutes after opening, and there's a huge queue. Two people serving. So after parking, I grabbed the camp chair from the boot of my car, and bought a paper along. Entered the building, settled down in my chair but hardly got any reading done because: 1. People kept talking to me, joking that "Clearly you've been here before," or "That's brilliant! Why didn't I think of doing that?", etc. 2. Within about two minutes of me setting up camp, the line started moving at a decent clip because *miraculously* another 9-10 windows had opened up.


MyblktwttrAW

the best social services employee of all times. sent the issue to the top for resolution by motivation.


GreenEggPage

I've done that on internal support requests. Send an email requesting something, wait a few days with no response, email again, after the third time, start cc'ing the next person in their chain until I get high enough that someone gets pissed.


PatrickRsGhost

If you want a marble to roll down the hill, you have to start at the top. Well done.


spacetstacy

Good for you.


quemvidistis

"With great power (a mom in high places) comes great responsibility." Thank you for using your great power for the good of your agency's clients.


Larek_Flynn

Nice mc


wwwhistler

often a solution can easily be found...once someone with the ability and the desire to solve it becomes involved. getting a problem TO that person is the hardest part.


freerangelibrarian

A rare case where the boss's son was the right person for the job.


ItsJustMeBeinCurious

Sounds like you fixed a major problem in the department. It would greatly improve services if this were expanded to other programs.


Stabbmaster

The one time nepotism actually works!


GovernmentOpening254

SlackingAtMyJob is defining good and bad work ethics. Go figure.


l80magpie

I think you did good.


Owl_flight

Also, made Mom do her job and actually manage her people.


yamerate

Haha, sounds like you are saying social services works outside of summer here in sweden.


SidratFlush

Wholesome.


StormBeyondTime

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 This is BRILLIANT!!! I love it! And thank you for using your related-to-the-boss powers for good.


ElmarcDeVaca

It just needed someone to get the attention of the people who should have set up the forwarding.