Yes it is. Once again I am awake at 4 am, with thoughts of the myriad undone tasks buzzing about like bees. Which one will end up stinging me? Is any client at risk through what I am doing, or not doing? I quickly gave up on my work organization system, it's too cumbersome, and too time consuming. I have just concentrated on getting things done, but with a mushrooming caseload it's a nightmare.
How to keep track of old cases I have mentally finished with but they are still open to me for one or more bureaucratic tasks... When I have new cases to go and visit and new checks to get done. It is a nightmare. I feel as if I am doing two jobs, one is vaguely like social work, the other is the relentless paperwork which could be done by almost anyone who can print out a letter or fathom how to send a fax via the telephone, when the system saves documents in a format which it won't deal with as a fax. This makes getting information from GPs, for instance, quite a palaver.
Yesterday I went for a coffee with a colleague who is under serious pressure from her manager, she described a lot of nit picking which seems designed to cause her to lose confidence and possible move on from the job. Picking her up on things...
How rare that conversation was! One hour of real discussion. We joined at the same time, have been quite close, and this is the first time we really spoke. I cried, what has become of this profession? So many managers really seem to enjoy the power they have and it is not combined with compassion.
When I think of the time wasted on our induction, when surely we should have been set up with the tools and information we need to do the job, but weren't! But there is a corporate requirement for that 2 week induction so something had to be done. It included days of reading time and going to find places like the Job Centre. Not how to use ICS, or adjust to working in a paperless environment....for example.
So we are still scrabbling around trying to find out stuff like how to send an email to the police.Learning all these systems, when I am busy and stressed. So emotionally unintelligent. It was another worker who send me a step by step guide to sending this email, which is a fundamental part of the child protection process, not business support or managers.
I am looking for another job, and I want out of statutory social work. It is not a good place to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment