Thoughts on work

My job is going fairly well so far. I'm enjoying getting to know my coworkers better, and in any job where you work with people, every day presents slightly different scenarios to work with. I'm hoping that I'll receive more training soon to keep my work at the front desk from becoming boring.

Working with homeless folks is interesting. As one of my coworkers told me, everyone comes in feeling like they are in crisis, but you can't take on their crises as your crisis. You have to stay calm, take your lunch breaks on time, do your best to help them but not get worked up in the process. I have a lot to learn from my coworkers about how they've found sustainability in the kind of work that they do, and how they've managed to remain unjaded and still believing that what they do makes a difference.

One hard part of the job is that I witness a lot of bad parenting, because parents and kids are either exhausted and at the end of their patience or the parents never really had good parenting skills in the first place (especially if the parents have mental health issues). This is particularly marked by lots of threats, not as much yelling because they are conscious of the staff's presence but definitely raised voices. It stresses me out.

It has been really cool to see how much our clients try to help each other out. People will give each other tips as to where to find food, what businesses are hiring, where the library is and what time it has its preschool program, etc.

My favorite work moment so far was on Thursday when a couple staff members were discussing the state of homelessness in Glendale and one of my coworkers said that it would be "more worse" without our agency. "More worse?" I asked him. "Uh, worser?" he said. Our other coworker and I broke down in laughter and proceeded to tease him mercilessly.

Remember, if you are having a bad day, things could always be more worser. :)