This one should probably have been a number of posts. Since my last update, I've done a teambuilding workshop, EAFY Day happened, it was my birthday, my boss had his 25th work anniversary, and I attended my first Core Competencies meeting in five years. Once I gained regular employment, I was concerned that I wouldn't have much to talk about, or at least, anything interesting would be confidential. So far, that hasn't turned out to be an issue.
I'll start with the teambuilding session. My boss did something really sweet, in that he scheduled an entire day of team building to help me and the other new employee find our place within the team, which required our entire organization to shut down for a day. The session was based on our Personality Dimensions, which I've talked about at length as I have done that test at least seven times. It's the one that separates personalities into four different colours.
The person who usually hosts the exercise for Summer Program, and who has evaluated my results at least four times, was the one who covered this session. We actually spent it over at her house. We did the usual review of the four different colours and discussed the ways we connected with them, and then our main activity was castle building, which I've done once before at a Summer Program. You take a bag of material that includes popsicle sticks, streamers, balloons etc. and, within a team, you are tasked to use all the materials to build and present a model castle. The teams are divided in a way that puts people with different personality types together. Last time I did this, my team won. This time, we lost.
In addition to the Personality Dimensions, we looked over Introversion vs. Extraversion. Team of seven, we had three Extraverts and three Introverts. I was, of course, on the Introvert side of things. Of us three, two of us were prominent Introverts, while the other one was pretty blended, and then I was the only one who came out as having absolutely no Extraversion in me.
After this we did an exercise where we state what we feel about the other group, how we think they see us, and what we would change about them if we could. During the section where Introverts say how they feel about Extraverts, I went into detail about how jealous I am of them. Even though I find attention draining, I'm so jealous of how much attention they get, I'm jealous that they wish we would be more like them, and we wish we would be more like them.
My boss gave me a really insightful look and said "If you're that Introverted and have that strong of a Green personality, your need for recognition is never being met".
Never thought of it as a "need for recognition". I've always thought of it more as a character flaw. A petty aspect of my personality that I didn't like to advertise.
Blew my mind. Apparently it's just a quality that Green personalities have. In addition to everyone agreeing to point out my accomplishments, the person who ran the session told me I should point it out when I've done something praiseworthy. I was like "I couldn't, I would feel so selfish!"
In the end, when we talked about what we need from our teammates, I said "A word of acknowledgement, just so I know my efforts have been perceived". My boss said "I'm the same as Gryphon, it's just how Greens are".
Recently, there was a murder in Kitchener, really near the place I subletted for five months. Place I'd walked by on a daily basis. Happened in the morning, with lots of people in the area. Someone got out of a car, put three bullets in a teenaged kid's head, then drove away. I know a guy who knows a guy, who knows the guy that was sitting next to the kid when he was shot. Apparently it was a gang-affiliated thing. These acts of violence are getting closer to home all the time, yeesh.
A neighbour of mine got an article published. It's about how her toilet doesn't work, and our landlord refuses to cover it, and the landlord even went so far as to tell our plumbing suppliers not to service her. Here's the link:
https://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news-story/8932158-uninhabitable-conditions-in-kitchener-townhouse-complex-not-being-addressed-says-tenant/
This guy is the one who refuses to give a copy of the lease or rent receipts to tenants, who tried to charge me for an extra half-month of rent when I moved in, who sent the Super to my place to say that my cheque had bounced in the hopes that I would issue him a second one for the first four months I lived there, who always stops paying his Super Attendants after the second month of work, and who has physically assaulted tenants on multiple occasions.
So, hopefully he gets stung.
After three paycheques at my new job, I thought I'd be wealthier than I am. I wanted to get a dartboard, a YMCA membership, a cat, and a driver's license. So far, I got the dartboard and my credit cards payed off! So that's at least something!
I'm cutting off here. I will be back soon to detail EAFY Day, my birthday, my boss's 25th, and my Core Comp meeting. See you soon!
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Monday, September 10, 2018
More WALES Stuff, Catching Up With Friends, Home Stuff
We have a new worker at WALES. She's relatively fresh to Extend-a-Family, so is getting acquainted to our systems and participants, but she's a week in and seems to be transitioning well.
I got to write my first Unusual Incident Report and my first First Aide report this week. Always feels like a milestone when working at a new agency. Nothing too serious, thankfully.
I didn't mention it, but on my first day, someone graffiti'd the WALES building. Just sprayed the tag "N4" repeatedly across our building, sign, and picnic tables, as well as the abandoned Catholic school next to us. They were a little bit more elaborate with their school graffiti, expanding the tag to the "North 4" and in places using the phrase "We the North".
That phrase sounded super familiar. Looked it up and it's the old Toronto Raptors (basketball team) slogan, which has since been replaced by "North Over Everything". Doesn't make a ton of sense to use it as a graffiti tag.
Some of the participants were suggesting it's a hate crime targeting the population we serve. I said it likely wasn't because they didn't predominantly hit us. But apparently the same tag showed up all over KW Hab, which is also a day program for people with differences, which is suspect.
One of my friends got shot. With a gun. By a person that was trying to shoot him with a gun. This happened a little while ago but I only heard about it recently. This past weekend we got together and he was pretty comfortable talking about it, and I got the full story. First time I've known someone who had something like that happen.
I don't know if I mentioned it, but the old group home I used to work at got shut down. I know I mentioned that my old boss and a handful of seasoned employees were fired, and there was a change in management, but more recently the entire house got shut down and all the residents were relocated. That's an old house, so this was a big deal. I linked up with someone on the inside and got the scoop on that too, although I won't be going into detail here.
I haven't talked too much about my garden this year. I'll give you some before and after pics.
It can be kind of hard to judge the height based on the picture, but some of those plants are taller than me! I actually ran into the issue that the tops are vulnerable to snapping during windstorms because they're so much taller than the bamboo stalks I fixed them to. This isn't the most recent image, I think they're actually taller now, but we're getting small frosts rolling through the city and it's making them look a little sickly, plus they took some damage after a couple of wind storms, so they're looking healthier in this image than if I were to snap a pic right now.
There's a lot of construction happening in the complex where I live. They've dug up sections at both entrances, as well as a bunch of the parking lot. I don't have a car, but if I did, I would be pretty mad at them for dumping a mountain of dirt on my parking spot. Right now, my regular path to my bus stop is blocked off and I have to go a round about way to get to it. I also have to walk around a mound of dirt to get into my unit. They've danger taped the area around our backyards, so there's no communal walking area. When they first sectioned off an area, they put up a small fence that said the area was a nature preserve. But then they dug it all up, which is a weird thing to do to a place you just declared as a nature preserve.
I've been using my student card as a bus pass. In the past, they would put an expiry date on the cards and usually give, like, five years before having to renew it. So even if you stopped going to school, you could still use the card as a bus pass until it expired. Recently however, they converted to a system where you have to scan your card when you board the bus. And I guess you have to reload it annually because somebody deactivated my card. I had to buy a regular bus pass for the first time in a year.
I got to write my first Unusual Incident Report and my first First Aide report this week. Always feels like a milestone when working at a new agency. Nothing too serious, thankfully.
I didn't mention it, but on my first day, someone graffiti'd the WALES building. Just sprayed the tag "N4" repeatedly across our building, sign, and picnic tables, as well as the abandoned Catholic school next to us. They were a little bit more elaborate with their school graffiti, expanding the tag to the "North 4" and in places using the phrase "We the North".
That phrase sounded super familiar. Looked it up and it's the old Toronto Raptors (basketball team) slogan, which has since been replaced by "North Over Everything". Doesn't make a ton of sense to use it as a graffiti tag.
Some of the participants were suggesting it's a hate crime targeting the population we serve. I said it likely wasn't because they didn't predominantly hit us. But apparently the same tag showed up all over KW Hab, which is also a day program for people with differences, which is suspect.
One of my friends got shot. With a gun. By a person that was trying to shoot him with a gun. This happened a little while ago but I only heard about it recently. This past weekend we got together and he was pretty comfortable talking about it, and I got the full story. First time I've known someone who had something like that happen.
I don't know if I mentioned it, but the old group home I used to work at got shut down. I know I mentioned that my old boss and a handful of seasoned employees were fired, and there was a change in management, but more recently the entire house got shut down and all the residents were relocated. That's an old house, so this was a big deal. I linked up with someone on the inside and got the scoop on that too, although I won't be going into detail here.
I haven't talked too much about my garden this year. I'll give you some before and after pics.
It can be kind of hard to judge the height based on the picture, but some of those plants are taller than me! I actually ran into the issue that the tops are vulnerable to snapping during windstorms because they're so much taller than the bamboo stalks I fixed them to. This isn't the most recent image, I think they're actually taller now, but we're getting small frosts rolling through the city and it's making them look a little sickly, plus they took some damage after a couple of wind storms, so they're looking healthier in this image than if I were to snap a pic right now.
There's a lot of construction happening in the complex where I live. They've dug up sections at both entrances, as well as a bunch of the parking lot. I don't have a car, but if I did, I would be pretty mad at them for dumping a mountain of dirt on my parking spot. Right now, my regular path to my bus stop is blocked off and I have to go a round about way to get to it. I also have to walk around a mound of dirt to get into my unit. They've danger taped the area around our backyards, so there's no communal walking area. When they first sectioned off an area, they put up a small fence that said the area was a nature preserve. But then they dug it all up, which is a weird thing to do to a place you just declared as a nature preserve.
I've been using my student card as a bus pass. In the past, they would put an expiry date on the cards and usually give, like, five years before having to renew it. So even if you stopped going to school, you could still use the card as a bus pass until it expired. Recently however, they converted to a system where you have to scan your card when you board the bus. And I guess you have to reload it annually because somebody deactivated my card. I had to buy a regular bus pass for the first time in a year.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
First Week at WALES
I have finished my first week at WALES. I have my own desk, phone extension, business email, key to the building, and they gave me an iPad. Feeling pretty official!
We've been understaffed this week. Somebody is on maternity leave, another person got promoted and is no longer in our building, and someone else is on vacation. That leaves four of us in the building. Next week, a team member is returning from vacation and we have a new staff member joining us, so we will be fully staffed.
Training hasn't been too difficult. I know most of the participants already, and many of my responsibilities are the same as when I was a student. Mostly, I help people with their goals and record progress.
Summer Program is officially over. I dropped by on Tuesday after work and helped them out with some feedback forms and I bugged my old supervisor to give me my final evaluation, but I missed out on the team discussion of the year, sorting through photos, and phoning families for reviews. I feel bad about missing the team discussion and the agency-funded lunch, but otherwise, the bits I missed aren't the most exciting parts of Summer Program.
It's weird, throughout my professional life so far, I've only had to deal with coworkers on a peripheral or temporary level. As a Direct Support Worker, I worked one-on-one, as an Independent Facilitator, I obviously worked independently, as a Safe Management Instructor, I was the only instructor ever to not be stationed on Extend-a-Family grounds (which has now changed with my new position), and as a night shift worker at Hatts Off, I belonged to the only shift that didn't have a coworker. Even if you consider the people I've served as consistent influences on my life, I would regularly only see each of them once per week. I really felt like solitude was a major theme in my life. Now, I'm involved with a team of people that I will see day-after-day for the foreseeable future. It's an odd feeling.
The first time I approached WALES after news of my promotion had occurred, I was still with the Summer Program, and we were preparing for Overnight. Traditionally, WALES volunteers its space to store food items for the weekends between Prep Week and Overnight. This time, a number of staff and participants rushed out. Everyone is cheering, somebody points towards WALES and says "This is your building!" Everyone points toward it and starts saying "This is your building!"
I'm overwhelmed with emotion. As I think of a response, the bag I'm carrying, filled with canned goods, tears open and pours across the parking lot. I bend over to pick them up and my shorts tear from waistband to leg seam.
The only solution I can think of is to grab a garbage bag and tuck it into my waistband to cover the part that had torn. For the rest of the day, everyone was congratulating me on my success, and I had to go into the Extend-a-Family main building to sign some forms. No one mentioned the garbage bag, and I was too awkward to bring it up "I don't plan on always wearing a garbage bag, and it isn't a metaphor for me being garbage!"
We've been understaffed this week. Somebody is on maternity leave, another person got promoted and is no longer in our building, and someone else is on vacation. That leaves four of us in the building. Next week, a team member is returning from vacation and we have a new staff member joining us, so we will be fully staffed.
Training hasn't been too difficult. I know most of the participants already, and many of my responsibilities are the same as when I was a student. Mostly, I help people with their goals and record progress.
Summer Program is officially over. I dropped by on Tuesday after work and helped them out with some feedback forms and I bugged my old supervisor to give me my final evaluation, but I missed out on the team discussion of the year, sorting through photos, and phoning families for reviews. I feel bad about missing the team discussion and the agency-funded lunch, but otherwise, the bits I missed aren't the most exciting parts of Summer Program.
It's weird, throughout my professional life so far, I've only had to deal with coworkers on a peripheral or temporary level. As a Direct Support Worker, I worked one-on-one, as an Independent Facilitator, I obviously worked independently, as a Safe Management Instructor, I was the only instructor ever to not be stationed on Extend-a-Family grounds (which has now changed with my new position), and as a night shift worker at Hatts Off, I belonged to the only shift that didn't have a coworker. Even if you consider the people I've served as consistent influences on my life, I would regularly only see each of them once per week. I really felt like solitude was a major theme in my life. Now, I'm involved with a team of people that I will see day-after-day for the foreseeable future. It's an odd feeling.
The first time I approached WALES after news of my promotion had occurred, I was still with the Summer Program, and we were preparing for Overnight. Traditionally, WALES volunteers its space to store food items for the weekends between Prep Week and Overnight. This time, a number of staff and participants rushed out. Everyone is cheering, somebody points towards WALES and says "This is your building!" Everyone points toward it and starts saying "This is your building!"
I'm overwhelmed with emotion. As I think of a response, the bag I'm carrying, filled with canned goods, tears open and pours across the parking lot. I bend over to pick them up and my shorts tear from waistband to leg seam.
The only solution I can think of is to grab a garbage bag and tuck it into my waistband to cover the part that had torn. For the rest of the day, everyone was congratulating me on my success, and I had to go into the Extend-a-Family main building to sign some forms. No one mentioned the garbage bag, and I was too awkward to bring it up "I don't plan on always wearing a garbage bag, and it isn't a metaphor for me being garbage!"
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