Don't Waste Your Life

Life's a journey - don't forget to unpack.

Where it all meets

Perhaps then, it is at the cross of Christ that we find what we crave for most deeply in this world. Love and sacrifice, justice and mercy, faithfulness and grace. It is at the cross of Christ that all these meet, and if we dig deep enough into the core of our being, we will find that these are the things we will live and die for. - Me

To you, my reader. :)

There, look on me, so that you may not praise me beyond what I am; there, believe me, not others, about myself; there, attend to me and see what I have been in myself, through myself. - St Augustine

SOCIAL WORK

Social Work. Ah yes.

How could this blog not have a page about my profession?

I love this job. Really. Although there are really many sucky times, there are also many million dollar moments. :) It's a job that really forces me to think about life, about myself, about this world, about God, about finances, about meaning, about suffering, about goodness, about everything.

For those of you guys who don't know yet, social work is NOT:

1) Psychology
2) Sociology
3) Volunteer work
4) NKF

even though we are very related I must say. Not to NKF.

We are professionals, and we go through training. I've heard some people say after they hear that we had to do a degree course to be a social worker: 'Oh. really must get training wan arh.'

Yeap. If you want some proof, ask any social worker to tell you something you didn't already know about human beings. You'd probably be surprised at the stuff they'd be able to share with you. :)

And so yes, we do draw a salary, we do have office hours, we do have boundaries for ourselves. No, we are not volunteers, we may not necessarily be patient people, we are not angels, and we are not on call 24/7.

________________________

YOU know you are a social worker if . . .

1. You think earning $3,000 a month is 'really making it'.

2. You don't know what it's like to work with men.

3. You know all the latest lingo for inhalant abuse, tattoos and gangs.

4. You’ve often start a sentence with 'So what I hear you saying is...'

5. You’ve had 2 or more jobs at one time just to pay the bills.

6. You tell people what you do and they say 'that's so noble', 'you must be very patient..'

7. You have had to explain to people that social workers are not volunteers.

8. You use the words 'validate,' 'assess' and 'intervention' daily.

9. You spend more than half your day documenting and doing paperwork. (To quote from E, you spend 1 hr doing work and 3 hrs proving to the authorities you did it)

10. You think nothing of discussing child abuse or sexual violence over dinner.

11. People have said to you 'I don't know how you do what you do'.

12. You’ve never been on a business trip or had an expense account.

13. You know a lot of other social workers who have left the profession for another, mostly in less than 2 years of being in the profession.

14. You’re very familiar with the concept of "conflict resolution", "intake assessment" and "financial assistance".

15. Staying at a job for 2 years is 'a long time'.

16. Your phone number is unlisted for a good reason.

17. Your professional newsletters always have articles about raising salaries...but you still haven't seen it.

18. You’re very VERY familiar with the term 'save cost', 'cut cost'.

19. You can't imagine working at a bank or crunching numbers all day.

20. You’ve had clients who liked you just a little too much.

21. Having dinner in office is common on many days.

22. You’ve been cursed at or threatened...and it doesn't bother you.

23. Your job orientation has included self defense.

24. You have the best stories at any class reunion gathering.

25. Your parents don't know half of the stuff that you've dealt with at your job.

1 comments:

  1. yingyan said...
     

    that is so funny..when i read point 2:

    2. You don't know what it's like to work with men

    i was thinking is it related to clients..then it struck me--the overwhelming no. of females in the gender ha!

    good points u have here =)

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