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Maybe THAT part of your day can be cut back.
WHY so many conference calls, WHY so many meetings.
Many if not most places have too many damned meetings what they he!! are all the meetings about? Rehashing the same old $#!t?
You and your coworkers all need to propose fewer MEETINGS!! That's time that could be freed up for -- oh I don't know -- actually CLIENTS you're supposed to be helping!
You only work 35 hours a week? Spoiled on that issue much?
Again, 40 hours in the o.ffice is standard in my (underpaid) field
OR…just ride it out….
At my job managers come up with "new ideas" -- and in 3 weeks -- move on to another issue.
We're supposed to be reviewed periodically -- and have yearly formal evaluations.
And you'll have a manager who is always on top of it. But my manager has other things going on. I don't think ANY one has been had an eval in YEARS.
Or someone will make a mistake. So an email will be sent. And supes may pay more attention to that for a few weeks. And after that it's back to the same old, same old.
Many times managers move on, and it's the workers who just do their thing. If a person is smart they know what they have to do to keep the heat off. But other than that -- where I work anyway -- we get an email and say "yeah, right."
.
This is the busiest and most difficult job I've ever had.
I work with seriously mentally ill people/patients: some of them yell much of the session, some of them curse me out, some of them have trouble talking at all, some are delusional and can't carry on a reality-based conversation. Others are suicidal or homicidal and I need to get the police/emergency services involved - need to call 911.
One of my patients was so angry he punched a hole in the office wall.
Others are actively using drugs.
Very difficult population, the most difficult work I've ever done.
NONE of us workers are slacking, believe me.
We all work hard, see clients back to back for much of the day, and are drained at the end of the day.
To add insult to injury, we all have Master's degrees and earn a lower middle class/working class salary in our very expensive city.
None of us want to coast or have a cushy job. If we did we wouldn't have gone into this field.
We just don't think our management should keep upping the ante, making our work more and more difficult, and exploit us.
Thank you for finally clarifying my question from a few pages back, which was, either you are not doing your job up to capacity now, or you are, and your entire job performance will suffer from an increased work load.
How will what you are paid affect the outcome? As I said before, if you are working up to capacity before the workload is increased, how will getting paid more affect your ability to do more work? It won't.
What the union should address, is having enough employees to cover the workload.
Thank you for finally clarifying my question from a few pages back, which was, either you are not doing your job up to capacity now, or you are, and your entire job performance will suffer from an increased work load.
How will what you are paid affect the outcome? As I said before, if you are working up to capacity before the workload is increased, how will getting paid more affect your ability to do more work? It won't.
What the union should address, is having enough employees to cover the workload.
You're right of course.
Even if I was paid more I still couldn't handle seeing a client every hour. (34 clients in a 35 hour week)
However, if I was paid more (for example, a living wage in my city), there would be more motivation to work after hours or stay late to get all the over-work done. (yes I know, the union doesn't officially allow us to work over 35 hours, but I do it at times anyway to get stuff done, and I would do it more if I was being paid a fair salary).
Also, what does working "up to capacity" mean?
If we see 34 clients in 35 hours it is theoretically possible but what would get lost?:
(stuff we don't "get paid" for, can't bill for):
1. Collateral contacts (calling the parents of our children/teen clients for an update, calling teachers and guidance counselors, primary care doctors when necessary)
2. Collaborating with staff at our own clinic (therapists/social workers working collaboratively with psychiatrists treating the same patients, asking questions of them, mentioning new symptoms of side effects we are noticing in our patients, things they can't or don't always mention to the psychiatrist themselves.)
3. Seeking extra supervision on tough/complicated cases - asking for an extra 10 minutes of our supervisors' time here and there when we have a tough case or want a second opinion (should I call 911?, is this kind of behavior dangerous?, is the client getting too unstable and should he/she be hospitalized?, etc.)
4. Returning clients' phonecalls between sessions. Yes, they call us a lot between sessions. No, we don't get paid for it/can;'t bill for it
5. Returning collateral phonecalls between sessions (calls from housing providers for homeless clients seeking/applying for housing, calls from case managers, care coordinators, etc.)
6. Thoroughly reading and interpreting paperwork that comes in for each client (hospital discharge summaries, medical exam reports, school reports, etc.)
OP, do you still not know what your contract says?
Looked through this thread since my last post and I still don't see anything from you about what is actually IN your contract, nor do I see anything about how your employer responded when you asked (you MUST have asked, right?), "How can we do 34 client meetings in 35 hours a week?"
Can you PLEASE answer those questions, which have been asked several times with no response other than something along the lines of "no one knows how to contact the union, it's a complete mystery"?
Sorry if I sound frustrated -- I am just astonished that this thread continues without the most basic of basic things being done by the OP.
OP, find out who the union is, if necessary they probably have a website. Then contact them! Tell them who you are where you work and you would like to have a copy of the contract. This you are legally entitled to. I've worked union jobs and people said, "All they do it take your money."
A union is made up of the people in it, and is as strong as the people in it, is there a shop steward? There should be, and usually they have a certain amount of time to conduct union business, maybe they are not.
If you recently got a new contract there should have been a vote to accept it. Contracts have to be ratified by a quorum. They don't just sit down with the employer and decide what's going to happen. Obviously someone from the union is aware if you work late, it they don't want you working any overtime.
Contact the union, if necessary in writing, keep copies, at the very least this will give you backup if you go to a lawyer or the National Labor Relations Board and complain about "non representation". I've worked a places that had 5 union employees but we saw the union rep on occasion.
I will call HR and ask them for a union contact phone number. I'm assuming they have to give me this by law, right?
I'm with karen_in_nh_2012….
I really want to help you but this is about to get too frustrating.
You've got a MASTERS in Social Work, and you can't figure out how to contact your union?
I suppose you can't GOOGLE? Or don't you even know WHICH union you're in or the name of it?
So, you're highly educated and don't' know what entity you've been paying dues to for more than a decade?
As Karen in nh asked, have you asked your supervisor how they expect you to see so many clients? I mean a sit down professional, in the person's office chat. You get one by asking, "Can i talk to you about something? When are you free? do you have any time today or tomorrow. It won't take long."
None of us here know your boss, Only you do. If you think actually telling her exactly what you what would make him/her put off the meeting. then don't say exactly. Keep it vague if you can. If s/he insists on wanting to know…say I have some ideas about workflow I think would help and I'd like to discuss them.
Then when you get in there you have one idea…(like pitching fewer meetings) but mostly you want to know from him/her as the boss what S/HE says you can let go or put on the back burner to squeeze in more client visits. Find out from HIM/HER in the conversation where the push for productivity is coming from….and again, what THEY say can suffer in order to have more visits. See if they'll put in in an email to staff. ( in wWiting is better than verbal, which can be denied)
I'm amazed at some of you're responses…..
Please don't be upset or take what I've said as not wanting to be helpful. But I'm gobsmacked by how you seem to be so lost as to what to do and how to proceed.
Plenty of people here can be helpful but at this point we need more to go on.
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