Work is for the birds

Whenever I think that I have it bad, I always tell myself that it could be worse, which is evident every time I step foot into the building where I work. I work in social services dealing with people who need public assistance, so you can imagine I have heard a lot of stories and seen a lot of different kinds of people. Most of the people truly do need assistance, and those are the people that I would be willing to go out of my way to help in any way I can. I know it must be hard for some people to have to walk into our building and ask for help. It is probably a big pride buster for some. Some clients start crying during their interviews and some start yelling. I think I have been called every cuss word imaginable (and maybe some new ones...who knows - lol). I occasionally get some "Jerry Springer" cases (as I call them) where the woman is like 20 years old and has like 4 kids, all by different fathers, who is currently pregnant again (has anyone ever heard of birth control????) by yet another man.

Yeah, most people that come into our office do need help. But there are the others who find it necessary to lie to us to try to become eligible for benefits....don't they know that fraud is illegal?? It would be much easier to tell the truth than to have an investigator come out to your house and find out that you are lying. Nothing pisses me off more than seeing a client drive into our parking lot in a car that probably cost more than my life is worth. I saw some guy drive into our parking lot one day in a car that had these fancy-ass rims on it...rims that probably, put together, cost more than my entire car is worth. I watched him as he walked into the building and got an application. I sure hope he reported that car to his worker! lol.

All in all, I do find my job satisfying. I guess I am a "people-person" and can deal with people pretty well, and with patience. That is not to say that I am not cussing when I go back to my desk - lol. It gets stressful at times, due to the deadlines the county has imposed on processing applications, and the constant client calls and walk-ins. Right now, I am serving in a mentor capacity, which means I am helping train new hires to be efficient workers. We get 2 new ones this Thursday, and I am all ready to bestow some of my wisdom (lol) on them. We'll see how it goes!