eklord's Journal

"I have recieved numerous compliants over the milk for the past 2 weeks from the clients.  I put my foot down today, and a particular room was very disrespectful/rude towards me at breakfast.  I explained to him that there is not much I can do about it, and reassured him that the milk is good for 2 weeks on average.  Up front, he said, "Is there only one thing of milk or is there more?  I heard you say the milk was bad."  I immediately corrected him and said, "No, I did not say that, and yes there is more, but these are your options for today in regards to what I set out.  I have no control over the milk we recieve, and I put out what we have.  What you see is what you get.  If you have a problem, you can talk to Ann or Regina about it."  He up front said in a fearful tone, "I cannot talk to them about it."  I basically, had to repeat myself until he understood.  He was telling the other clients how bad the milk is, and that it is not good for their children, and so forth.  After he thanked me for explaining it to him, I immediately told Ann and Regina about it, just like I am with you.  They said to set out one thing of milk for now on and in a pitcher, and if they don't like it, then they do have to drink it, or have what is being served for breakfast that morning because they have that choice.  I agree with them and they do with me on how things were handled this morning.  I thought you might want to know what happened, and how I handled it.  Oh, that very same room was trying to manipulate the rules this morning and I told them the exact time they could smoke, and that I could not give out information about another client, but thankfully was respected at that time, which was about 3 a.m."

I discussed how to handle others complaints in counseling, and found out that I handled it right.  I was told to encourage and reassure, but to keep in mind the stages of change.  My response you have read is that I was calm; however, the client got out of hand.  I was thankful for the barrier in between us for my own protection.  That very same room, I found out was gossping about another client, and I caught them and informed those on 1st shift to make them aware, and I also caught that same client trying to go to breakfast early while I prepared myself for it and was unusually quiet.  As you can tell there was much drama at work.

I vented the following next day to my supervisor and he classified it as supervision, when I told him up front that the 15th would be that day and not before due to me not being prepared as I could have been.  He said that in many ways that I am co-dependent on him.  I got to thinking that in the course of that meeting that he enabled me to be that way because of the phone calls and e-mails he has sent at work, which made me do the same.  He did admit to he fault, but I will confront him on what I have noticed.  Another area I will address is that I will not pick up a male client from work because it puts me as a female in danger, whether he trusts him or not because you never know, and if he asks why, then I will have no choice but to tell him that I was raped twice, which is why I do not trust men very well, except God and my fiance, but that is it.  I am going to encourage him to either let me call a cab or have someone else pick them up for my own safety and for him to limit the amout of phone calls and e-mails, so that he does not spur on that kind of behavior in me.

Thank you for listening.  Have a great week.