Bureaucracy At Its Finest

I decided I needed to make a second blog for today, as there was another interesting event that happened within the craziness of today.

During a group session today, the kids were lamenting over the lack of a convenience store within walking distance (which the old office had), and talking about how hungry they were. So, for whatever reason, I decided I could take them all down the road to Taco Bell during one of our breaks. This was going to take 15-minutes, tops.

While we were pulling in, the office called me on the van cell phone (yes, we have a cell phone, for the company van), asking me to pick up another kid in Lee's Summit while I was out. It turned out that this kid lives on the far south side of Lee's Summit - there is a great distance from the north side (where we're located) to the south side...I guess that makes Lee's Summit skinny(?).

So about 20 minutes later, we're driving around this remote subdivision in the middle of nowhere, because our driver misread the mapquest directions he printed off. Finally, we find the house by a fluke.

Immediately after that, I get a phone call on the van cell phone from my supervisor. Basically, she said everyone was pissed at me because I took all the kids for that long (and apparently didn't tell her, which I didn't know I was supposed to do), and nobody could meet with kids to get their billing hours. Our program director and regional director were both in the office during this incident too, so that only escalated things. Later she called me in to her office to "reprimand" me. She gave me this form to sign which she filled out, stating that it was not a write-up, but that they had to document that we had this conversation and that the issue was resolved.*

*I worked at Wal-Mart for a month before I got this job. A very similar situation happened because my 1st week I worked too many hours, although one of my supervisors scheduled me those hours. They too said it was not a write-up, but weeks later when I told my co-workers about this, they all stated otherwise.

I think I'm done here, folks.

You Wanna Be A Case Manager Too!

I just read on weather.com that the majority of people in the U.S. (who responded to their poll) work between 40-60 hours per week. Somehow that still doesn't make me feel better.

Today has been absolutely crazy-go-nuts. Since breakfast, I haven't had anything to eat except for a few potato chips. Our regional supervisor (boss's boss's boss's boss's....) asked us to be here early for staffing/intense file review. We had probably 20 files to do, and 3 hours later, we had 3 of them done. Immediately after that, since schools here were cancelled, we had to make phone calls to get the kids to come earlier than normal (so we could get out of here before 7 p.m.). As soon as I was done with mine, I was asked/made to pick up a kid in Blue Springs since our afternoon driver was not in yet. As soon as I get back, I was asked/made to pick up another kid all the way in Independence (the bad part, if that means anything to you)! So basically I'm driving for almost 2 hours straight. As soon as I finally get back from that, we have kids here, so I had to run group sessions for 3 hours. After that, I had to give UAs (pee tests) to some of the guys, then chase staff down to make sure the group logs were accurate, then update the group logs, then scan them and sent them to the corporate office.

And here we are: it has officially been an 11-hour day.

Now that we are moved into our new office space (a blog in itself), our higher-ups are really pushing us to hit the 30-hour billing quota (another blog in itself) that nobody here has been hitting since before I started working here. That's 6 hours a day, and thanks to the day's time-wasting activities, I'm still here trying to come up with the remaining 30 minutes of billing to meet my quota.

So, there you have it. Remember, tomorrow night is Friday, and while you're out bangin' your hoes, or bringin' all your boys to the yard with your milkshake, or whatever it is you do...this is where I'll be, and this is what I'll be doing.

The new week has just now begun and I can already tell it's going to be a doozy.

On Thursday our office will be moving into a new building, and somehow we are still expected to continue our normal operations as if we haven't gone anywhere. The new building is basically exactly like this one - same square footage, and located in a shopping center - but unlike this building, it's actually been renovated since the 1980's. On Friday night I had the intention of staying late to get caught up on entering my notes, since I have such a happenin' weekend life and all. However, my boss's boss's boss's boss decided to take half of the clients' files home with her over the weekend (which I'm not sure is legal?), so she could audit them before they got audited for real. As a general rule, we need the files in order to pull information to complete the note and remain compliant with our accreditation service.

Now I have a client who is evading rehab. I waited for him at his school, called his house, called his mom's cell phone, and even went to his house, where his car and two other cars were sitting. But nothing. Yippee skippee. He has a court date this week, and I bet his mom is miraculously going to come out of the woodwork and ask me for a good progress report, in spite of the fact that he hasn't had a negative UA (pee test) yet. Good luck to you, ma'am.

I must go now. Our boss's boss's....boss left us 20+ pages of things to correct in the files. I know this is exciting stuff, but...it's ok to breathe now. :-)

Soooo....

I guess you could say this is a new endeavor. New job, new location, new life, new blog...fitting for the new year, I suppose.

18 years of academia and tens of thousands of dollars later, I find myself in the real world.

My current occupation is a mix of social work and bureaucracy...or at least it's the best description I can come up with. With this line of work, I find the need to take frequent short breaks, which I typically spend looking for something on the Internet to stare at, like most people do. However, my favorite social networking sites are blocked at my place of employment; and, I've discovered recently that this here gem of a beauty is not blocked, so I thought I'd give it a go. Google, you've done it again. :-)

Maybe I can use this as a work-related blog...you know, for the interesting things that happen with the "druggies" I work with, which I'd otherwise forget to tell anyone about. Or, I'll post songs I write, or pointless, random, self-centered crap, just like everyone else. I guess we'll just have to see what happens from here.