Keeping my chin up...

This week has been difficult for me. I can't help worrying about what the future will hold and it seems my work future, though I will have a job, may include choosing to do something other than what I really want to do. While I appreciate that I will still have gainful employment, I feel rather like my fate is at the hands of someone else and I will just have to make the best of it, whatever that means.

It's also been difficult coming to work everyday and trying to keep my chin up and head down at this job knowing that the work I have done is unappreciated and the work I am doing is all for naught. I really need a break. I have some vacation time accrued but I was hoping to save it for when Alexander finally gets here. Right now though, I am rethinking that. I think I need to take a week off to get my head together and get some distance from this place for a while. I know that when Alexander does get here I can negotiate some time off then so I think I may have to take it now. More to think about...

All in all, I am having a bad attitude about this whole situation. I'm trying to stay positive and upbeat and seeing the bright side of things but it gets harder every day. Yeah, some time off is necessary.

Learning to let go...

Yesterday was interesting. I had to meet with my teams to review the standards and practices of documentation in a client's file. I had prepared a very upbeat presentation keeping in mind to remind them all that while they were overall getting the essence of what was needed there were areas we needed to tweak. This wasn't new information or new material or new procedures so I was totally unprepared for the response I got. Two of my workers had complete melt downs with tears. I'm ever aware of the pressure we are all under with this new system we're working in now but I had felt that in the last few months we were all getting the hang of it and dealing with the stress pretty well. I was wrong. It was very apparent that these two people were feeling stressed and scared.

The irony of this is that in reality there are maybe one or two in my team that are struggling with the documentation issues and neither of the two who cried were it! The other truth is that both of these people who were overwhelmed by "never feeling they have enough time to finish anything" have some pretty serious time management issues going on. It's their own inability to effectively manage their time that is causing them the most pressure. The others who are having the documentation problem are really struggling because they are just not good writers. They can't seem to formulate clear, concise and cohesive case notes because they just don't know how to write something in that manner.

SO... I spent the rest of the day creating a plan of action to help support them in their work. Here's what I came up with..

1. I gave everyone a clear year long one page planner and asked them to write the require contact information on it - when a face to face visit is required, when a collateral contact is required, when case reviews need to be done, etc.

2. I'm sending two people to "Basic Principle of Care Management" training in November. Sometimes going back to the basics is the best thing.

3. I'm getting hand held recorders for the teams so they can dictate their case notes and then they can be entered by our data entry person. This way those who lack writing skills won't have to stress about it.

4. I've convinced the agency to invest in some lap tops with Internet capability to be loaded with our forms and systems access so that workers can enter assessment, review and service plan information in real time...as they are actually interviewing the clients. I was uber-surprised when the boss said yes!!

Hopefully, all of this will increase our quality in this one area. I think it will. And I think it will go a long way to de-stress some of these people.

Now the time management issue... yeah, that's my next hurdle.

Where's my friggan' Easy Button!!

I'm in a stinky place... one that I can't seem to think my way out. The problem is everything that has to be accomplished is SO BIG and SO MUCH that I feel paralyzed. I know that the only way to tackle this whole plan of immigration is to take it on one step at a time but each step leads to the other and they overlap and they intermingle and I can't stop myself getting two steps ahead of myself and then it all seems impossible.

The hardest part for me is that the only one I can talk to about any of this is miles away and he's going through the same issues and then some. I have been scouring the Internet for assistance and I keep coming up with the same answers and they aren't all that helpful. I want an Easy Button like the one on those office supply commercials!

Yesterday and today, this has really rendered me useless. I called in to work just so I wouldn't have to deal with anyone else's crap right now. I need to sort through this somehow or at least get myself in a mental state where I can go on with my daily stuff and not completely wig out.

I know, deep down, that this will work out. I just have to get my mind to slow down and keep my emotions out of it.