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busy start to the year
Feb. 16th, 2024 10:19 pmI am glad it's Friday. It was a somewhat rough week, because the internet was out at the safe house where I work. We're on a large, heavily-wooden property, and our internet is prone to going out after a storm. It drives me bonkers, as no one can even call our office phone, because it's internet-based. We're a safe house... that people call for help... and they can't get through. Awesome!
Anyway, as rough as having no internet made this past week, nothing can be as bad as the hectic nature of late December through late January at work. It all started when my former supervisor got Covid and came to work anyway. I think she mainly came to work, because she wanted to let us know she had turned in her two weeks notice. Within a couple days, I had Covid and texted my co-workers to let them know. I had been having a super dry throat and fatigue for a couple days, and immediately started wearing a mask around my co-workers and the women at the safe house. After two days of feeling kinda cruddy, I was gonna take a day off, and my hubby told me to take a Covid test. Sure enough! Luckily none of my other co-workers got it, but several of the residents of our safe house did.
So Christmas week was a blur, and I never really got to say goodbye to my supervisor (at least not in person). I felt kinda bad, but also relieved about that. She had made it quite awkward once she put in her 2 weeks. I had stayed home for a week, just Joe and I (he had Covid also), and went back to work right before New Years. And then crap started hitting the fan with the residents. Understandably, the women were feeling a certain kind of way about my supervisor leaving. They were close to her, she likely said not-so-kind things about us and our executive director, etc. So, we were trying to calm the women, assure the staff we were still stable, and continue as usual.
Then we had one resident (who had been with us over a year) start to decline mentally and physically, to the point where she needed a level of care we could not provide. We fought for her to get services she needed, and ultimately discharged her and sent her on her way. We also have been trying to corral a different woman who is on her way out of our program, because she completed it (after 2 years). She had changed jobs and was looking for an apartment, so she could move out of our housing, but she has been so hard to get responses from when I reached out. She's always been that way, but when you're trying to plan a Celebration for her, man is it frustrating to have someone blowing you off.
And in the midst of all of this, I am also having to keep doing the everyday stuff. Answer the phones to speak with women interested in our program, give them resources if we can't help, interview the ones we think we can provide a spot to, AND continue care and support for the women already with us. I just sent an acceptance letter to one woman yesterday, and we're excited to bring her in in a couple weeks. And we've got another woman in the wings, who I hope we can bring in shortly after that. And did I mention that behind the scenes, we're also trying to revamp our program policies and structure? Yeah. We've had a lot of turnover of management in the last 4-5 years. The water has gotten muddied and I think there's a lot of room to grow and improve, so we're starting to do that too.
I am glad we're on an upward trend.
Anyway, as rough as having no internet made this past week, nothing can be as bad as the hectic nature of late December through late January at work. It all started when my former supervisor got Covid and came to work anyway. I think she mainly came to work, because she wanted to let us know she had turned in her two weeks notice. Within a couple days, I had Covid and texted my co-workers to let them know. I had been having a super dry throat and fatigue for a couple days, and immediately started wearing a mask around my co-workers and the women at the safe house. After two days of feeling kinda cruddy, I was gonna take a day off, and my hubby told me to take a Covid test. Sure enough! Luckily none of my other co-workers got it, but several of the residents of our safe house did.
So Christmas week was a blur, and I never really got to say goodbye to my supervisor (at least not in person). I felt kinda bad, but also relieved about that. She had made it quite awkward once she put in her 2 weeks. I had stayed home for a week, just Joe and I (he had Covid also), and went back to work right before New Years. And then crap started hitting the fan with the residents. Understandably, the women were feeling a certain kind of way about my supervisor leaving. They were close to her, she likely said not-so-kind things about us and our executive director, etc. So, we were trying to calm the women, assure the staff we were still stable, and continue as usual.
Then we had one resident (who had been with us over a year) start to decline mentally and physically, to the point where she needed a level of care we could not provide. We fought for her to get services she needed, and ultimately discharged her and sent her on her way. We also have been trying to corral a different woman who is on her way out of our program, because she completed it (after 2 years). She had changed jobs and was looking for an apartment, so she could move out of our housing, but she has been so hard to get responses from when I reached out. She's always been that way, but when you're trying to plan a Celebration for her, man is it frustrating to have someone blowing you off.
And in the midst of all of this, I am also having to keep doing the everyday stuff. Answer the phones to speak with women interested in our program, give them resources if we can't help, interview the ones we think we can provide a spot to, AND continue care and support for the women already with us. I just sent an acceptance letter to one woman yesterday, and we're excited to bring her in in a couple weeks. And we've got another woman in the wings, who I hope we can bring in shortly after that. And did I mention that behind the scenes, we're also trying to revamp our program policies and structure? Yeah. We've had a lot of turnover of management in the last 4-5 years. The water has gotten muddied and I think there's a lot of room to grow and improve, so we're starting to do that too.
I am glad we're on an upward trend.
