Staff Meeting Led by Chris Jay Discussing Agency Operations and Feedback

Summary:
- Introduced participants and fostered discussion about their experiences at the agency.
- Shared personal career history and motivations for seeking feedback from staff.
- Outlined the agency's mission focused on enabling clients to live their best life possible.
- Discussed the importance of small actions positively impacting workplace morale and client care.
- Encouraged open dialogue on specific areas for improvement within the agency’s operations.
- Addressed issues related to training, staff communication, and recruitment challenges.
- Emphasized the need for competitive pay to attract and retain staff, and the importance of recognition for employees.

Content:
I'm going to talk for a second and while you talk, I'll get this started. Sure. Okay. Good morning, everybody. I don't know if I know everybody, so I'm Chris Jay and the executive director here. I don't know if I've met everybody. I used to do a better job of meeting people. I need to do better. But do you guys mind going around and let me know who you are? Wait, could you tell me who you are, what house you're at, how long you've been here? I'm Alisha. I work at Melrose. I've been here for a year and like three months, I think.

I'm Sharonda. I work at Bird and I've been here for I think 13 months now. I'm Delvin. I'm at Eastern 5th right now. I've been here for about a year and a half. I'm Kirsten. I'm from Hope. I've been here a year and three months, I think. Okay, good. It helps me to understand where everyone is at. So sort of why I wanted you guys to come. So number one, I started my career a long time ago as a DS for a different provider. And you know, like there's things that were good about the provider and not.

It was large. You guys familiar with large, smaller provider. It's like SLS. So I worked there, lived in one of the group homes for about a year, you know, and, you know, there were things that were good about the place and not, but I just remember nobody really ever asked me what should be changed, you know what I mean? Not saying we can make, I can make everybody happy because I can't, but, you know, you guys do the work every day. You see what happens every day from whether it's your supervision or things, rules or policies we make up that make sense to us, but maybe don't make sense day to day.

Sometimes that happens. So our goal is just to get some feedback from you because to me, it matters, you know what I mean? So I'd always wish somebody would ask me, you know what I mean? So Rod will kind of get into this, but Rod worked here for quite a while. He's our operations director, retired, what, two years ago now, three? We can't remember. Two or three. What's the difference? They're all the same now. So my previous job before executive director, I was the program administrator, so I oversaw the programs until boss, the old executive director, left.

So I ended up taking that job over. Rod pretty much retired around the same time. But you know, Rod's somebody I always trusted. He's a pretty analytical guy, has his degree in organizational leadership, his master's. So, you know, Rod's somebody I think is just good at kind of having a conversation. That's all I really want to do is have a conversation. What do you see that maybe could change, just not for your job, but in general? You know what I mean? Whether it's, you know, when you walk in the front door, you know, how maybe people answer questions you have, knowing who to call, just some stuff like that.

You know what I mean? You can stay as general or as specific as you want. You know, if you say something, you know, that's like, well, I just think Chris, Chris stinks. Well, that's not helpful, but just be specific. It comes up all the time. You know, you need to say like, hey, Chris, it'd be nice to see you at the group homes more. That helps. I used to do that more too. I've just sort of been kind of, kind of a little busy lately and that's not good either. So some of that stuff can help.

So, you know, that's really my introduction and say thank you. I'm hoping not to take up too much of your time. Eat that food. There's coffee out there. There's water over there. Just, you know, thanks for your time. I know you guys got stuff going on too. Hopefully Rod will keep it kind of entertaining for the most part. I'm going to turn this on so it'll take notes for you, Rod. Okay. You can go. Go ahead. Okay. And then I'll take care of this. Just so you know, we record these things with an AI thing, but, and then it helps me to generate what was, what is it we talked about.

But it's all cleaned up. It doesn't keep track of who said what. So it's confidential. I personally take work confidential very seriously. I always have my entire life. So if you say something, I'm not sure I should say this. I don't care. I'm not telling, I'm not ratting on anybody. So, I mean, be honest. We're here to learn from, from each other. Just to fill you in quickly, what strategic planning is, you may not be aware of, but companies periodically, they form a strategic plan and they get together. Sometimes they have very expensive consultants come in and they do all kinds of analysis of what's the market like and what's the future going to be like and what are our challenges.

And we're thinking of changing this and changing that. And I use the example of my neighbor who works at Erie Magnetics. I don't know if you've ever heard of that company. It's been here for like a hundred years. I think the, I've heard that they've never laid anybody off. Very successful. But it's an international company and they own like five other companies in different countries and they've recently become one company. They need a strategic plan. They're multinational. There's tariffs. There's wars. There's distribution issues. They've got to have a plan on how to be successful moving forward.

Now we're here at SLS and we've had a few strategic plan groups over the years. One of them when I first started here with the director. We had another one later, which was a kind of a short term one. We also had Erie homes would made an offer to merger with this agency several years ago. It was regarded as a hostile takeover and this agency said, Thanks, but no thanks. We also had consultants come in, I think it was in January. And one of the issues was these big ticket items like this company that has five companies overseas.

They SLS does group homes for like 50 years with some additional community services and now some new product lines and getting into the autism spectrum sort of thing. But we're not going to have a bake sale or a clothing outlet. That's what we do. So this year when we're talking strategic plan, we're talking about three layers, which we're going to get into. The first layer is the big stuff. I met with the board of directors and they got to do things to keep the agencies financially sound. Are you going to build, when this building was the result of one of our strategic plans was to build this building and we accomplished that.

So are they going to take on three new group homes and get rid of group homes? And are they going to, how fast should they expand autism? Those are the board of directors sorts of issues. So we won't be really discussing much of that. But the other two lines of questioning and answering and discussing that we're going to have have to do with this agency's mission is everyone should live the best life possible. Were you aware of that? I hope so. I think it's the best mission statement in the world because I wrote it several years ago.

So I was very invested back then and the best life possible. And I've always said the interesting discussions and arguments and whatever in your workplace, you mean the best life possible. And I heard some discussion about clients a little while ago, but wide variety of types of people as clients. Wheelchair, non-verbal, full care, 22-year-old active in the community, and to say what's the best life possible isn't one thing, it's many things depending. And there has to be discussions. What's best for this person? You got an old guy who just retired and he's 67 and he wants to stay home and watch TV.

Is that the best life possible? I'm not sure. Should we make him go out in the community? No. Should we let him sit all day and watch TV? Yeah, maybe we got to find some way. We had a guy who lived here years ago who was 450 pounds. He was huge. He was heading for heart attacks city. Encouraged to eat healthy. Doctor told him blah, blah, blah. He had a manager who constantly prompted him, you ought to go exercise. You ought to eat something. And for some reason, I don't know why, the guy just said... Seriously, he started walking and exercising and eating fruits and vegetables, and he lost like 160 pounds.

Incredible. On his own. He decided with support from SLS. Pretty cool. Now, the part that's missing from our mission is it's the best life possible for you, too. All the employees. What does the best life possible for you mean? For you, it means working full-time and not on the weekends, on second shift. Was it you or who? Who was it you? You were saying, yeah. So, yeah, we'd like to give you a full-time job, but I can't work on the weekends, second shift. That's not the best life for me. So I elect to work full-time hours, don't get the benefits, but I don't have to work on the weekends.

Those are choices that you can make, fortunately. You can make that. But there are all kinds of things we can do to consider what's the best life for you and how can we get there. That's one line that we're going to discuss. It's small things done well. Chris and I talked about early, and small things done well seems like a simple statement. It's very powerful. Here's two classic studies that I'm familiar with. When you call a business, how long does it take you to figure out what their attitude is on the other side? So would they answer the phone?

Yeah, yeah. Pretty much. It doesn't take a sentence before you know. Now, they've done studies that say, like, for instance, you've got the receptionist job. If you answer the phone and you smile while you're answering the phone, the person on the other side can tell. They immediately know you're in a better mood. They treat you in a better mood. You hang up saying that was a good phone call. Just because you smile when you answer the phone. Now, I know from my experience here, when I call a group home all the time, you don't always get somebody smiling at me.

It depends. A little thing done well can have a huge impact. Many years ago in New York City, there was a terrible crime. New York was just in the 80s. I forget the mayor's name. But murders, rapes, burglaries, robberies, it was terrible. Nobody wanted to go to New York. You're going to get mugged. So the mayor took action. You know what he did? He told the police force, find jaywalkers and guys who put graffiti on buildings and make them pick up litter when they're littering in the streets. And other little things. Don't let the guys jump over the turnstiles on the subway.

These goofy little acts, they got rid of the graffiti. They stopped throwing garbage on the streets. Crime went down in New York. Unbelievable. Murders, rapes, burglaries went down because the population saw the world, the community they lived in was being cared for. Huge difference from the small things. So those are the two things we'll be talking about is everyone's having a better life and small things done well. Okay, are we clear? Now I got a zillion one-on-one questions here, but I'm just going to touch on here and there and we can go wherever you want to go.

There's just the four of us, so Chris had talked about if you have bigger types of topics for the agency, obviously your point of view is going to be centered on your workplace. You all have a similar amount of experience here, so that helps me. You walk in here and say, I've been here for 30 years, you're going to have a way different perspective. So I got all of that. Are we ready? What drew you to this job in the first place? Why did you come here? Yeah. No, I don't care if you have something to say, say it.

If you don't, I don't know, then don't. That's all right. Oh, okay. So what did you do before? Why did you come here? Okay. Looking for a better work environment. Anybody else? Okay. Okay. So you, what did you do before? Okay, got it. Okay. Why did you come here? Okay. That's good. That's a good place to get your feet wet here. Absolutely. Now, I forgot to tell you, my personal history is I started off, I worked in a foundry for a couple of years. I worked at Sari Children's Center for like 23 years, part-time staff, full-time staff, house manager, program director, quality management guy.

Oh, yeah. I loved it. I loved it. Yeah. And I was the guy who liked variety. A lot of people, I like to work with the teenage boys. We go play football. I worked in with the little kids, six-year-olds. I was very good with teenage girls because they couldn't push my buttons. And I've talked to many groups and I'll say the worst creatures in the world are teenage girls. And everybody agreed, even the women. It's very emotionally concentrated. And when they're upset with you, they try to get you angry and they know just how to do it.

I bet some of your clients do the same thing. And I'm very good at being cool and neutral and not acting the way you think I'm going to act. I loved it. So I had my direct care experience and there's similar things in your evolution through your jobs is the thing that gets you, that's most struggling in your direct care role is that you don't manage your, you don't get to control your time. When you get to be a manager at the first level, that's the biggest break. People say, oh, you get to tell what people are to do and you make more money.

No, it's you get to control your day. Like, well, I know when I'm going to be here in the morning and I know where I can schedule my shift and this and that. But when you're on a schedule, you got to be here at 3 o'clock. It's 3.10, you're late. I mean, that's a big deal when you're in direct care. So I've done that. I worked for BNI for one summer. Career at the Sari. I had a supervisor who used to work for me running a summer program for kids on the autism spectrum. Summer therapeutic activity program.

And she says, you got to come work for me, Rod. The girl I got running this class is a 22-year-old girl a bunch of teenage boys. This is never going to work. I said, all right, I'll come to this 10-week program. I came down to their orientation and they gave me copies of the orientation material. They were probably 10th generation. They were all cloudy and 40-degree angle wrong and you couldn't read them. And I said, oh, I'm here in the big international barber center and this is what they think of me as the trainee. I don't feel any respect.

I felt like, huh. This little thing done poorly had a huge impact on me. The job was hilarious. I've never had so much fun working with boys on the autism scale. I agree. You can't say anything and they don't believe just the what you said. Guys, guys, guys, guys, I need you to settle down. Settle down for one second. Guy in the back goes, time's up! He meant it. He wasn't just goofing around. You said one second, it's been one second. Let's move on. So it was a blast. I had a blast. I've also done some quality management stuff here.

I wrote a lot of agency policies and procedures. They're still hanging around somewhere. So that's been my experience here. And what drew me to the job here was I did a chance to do something different at the time. The director was somebody who I'd worked with before and didn't even know that when I came in. All right, now, enough about me. I'll try to not ramble on. If you had to describe a typical day in your typical work day, how many days do you work? Five days a week here? Okay, you work five days a week.

Typical, you can tell me what your days are like, but just use three words. What are three words that would describe your day? If you only got one, that's fine. It's never the same. I don't know how many words. It's always different. The only thing that's always the same is going in and doing meds. Yeah. Okay. I think some days my days are boring. Some days my days are exciting. Some days it's a lot of my hair. Sometimes it could be repetitive. Yeah. It depends on the day. Does everybody in here give out meds? Yeah.

What's the most frustrating or stressful part of your day-to-day routine? I think one is getting one of my clients up because she does have behavior problems and for a second she'll be the sweetest angel and then the next second she'll just blow up. That's really stressful for me. You don't know what you're going to walk into one day. It could be one day they're happy to see you and the next day they don't want you there. Be ready for anything. Anybody else? I feel like, at least on mine, it's people not doing their work so you don't know what you're walking into.

What's left for you. You don't get up. So left required stuff to take care of the clients or the house and you walk in and go, why wasn't this done? I've got to do it now. So their work is on you. And sometimes you, depending on who the staff is, it doesn't always have to be a specific person, but just sometimes when you walk in, it could be this person didn't have time to do this because this was too busy for them so this shift has to come in and do first and second or first shift.

Yeah, so when you go to work, do you all work first and second shift or third or what? I work first. What do you work? First and second. Is there a structured communication between the two shifts? It's supposed to be, but it's not all the time. It depends on center how it is. Honestly, the house I'm at is a nicer, cleaner house, but I was at a rougher house, less clean, you know, less people were getting done. Since I cared, I had to do more about my job. That's a rule of life when you go to a job.

If you're good at it, you get to do more. But somebody else that didn't care, yeah, if you do less, you get away with crap. That's the way it is. That's the way it is. No, I understand that. Not just the workers in the house. It could be the three guys that are in the house. You might have a good house and a full bad house because a group of guys together, that's not the wrong one. No, I understand that. Not just the workers in the house. It could be the three guys that are in the house.

It doesn't always have to be a specific person, but just sometimes when you walk in, it could be this person didn't have time to do this because this was too busy for them so this shift has to come in and do first and second or first shift. It's not communicating with you. Yeah. So when you go to work, do you all work first and second shift or third or what? I work first. First and second. Is there a structured communication between the two shifts? It's supposed to be, but it's not all the time. It depends on center how it is.

Honestly, the house I'm at is a nicer, cleaner house, but I was at a whole different agency. I do other things in the summertime. They give you the extra card. They print my joint out on regular paper. You know, instead of a real envelope card. The CPR certified card. You know what I'm saying? Me being the guy. Because my voice don't matter in this field. You know what I'm saying? My voice don't matter in this field. When you came here to work, were you trained in crisis prevention? In some way. Every class is different, I feel like.

Yeah, I wasn't sure. How long was the training? It was all the one. It was here. That's what I'm saying. Were you actually trained in de-escalation of verbal stuff? Like if you were doing a restraint? Yeah, well that's part of the physical. But there's also the stuff. What do you do when someone's getting agitated to help them settle down or not to make it worse by getting agitated with them. Okay, okay. I wasn't sure about that. That sounds like something on Relius. Yeah, it probably is. What do you think about using Relius as your training vehicle?

Because everybody, every agency uses it. So it's going to be the same for the people here. Company uses it. I used it 20 times. Oh, really? Yeah. And you don't like it? It's horrible because honestly, because another thing. I know y'all had to get it done by July, right? Right. They didn't say nothing until two weeks ago. How, like, why are you doing that? Y'all supposed to, your job is to keep me in compliance, not my job to make sure y'all don't do something. You have no idea how long we've been having that argument here.

And then, honestly, I was in another agency that was paying me for doing Relius at home. Thanks for community service. This job don't pay you. But they want you to do a lot of different things. Because they know you were doing it because they've got a record. So it's not like you're... So how am I supposed to do it at work, but they want the client, you know? Yeah, I get it. Something in the house is getting done while I'm doing that. Yeah, yeah. So it's just, things don't make sense with this field. Yeah, sometimes that's, yeah.

Of all the training you get in a year, I think it's 24 hours or something. I don't remember. It's a lot. Are there live trainings in your group home or in another setting or in this building that you come and attend? Only the CPR and stuff that you have to redo every two years, I think it is. The CPR and then IV you have to come in to, just to renew your certificates that are on there. But that's a big thing in this agency. Like, not just this agency, but in this whole field. You know, in this field.

You might have a good house and a whole bad house. Because a group of guys together that was supposed to be... That's a big thing. That's a big thing. That's a big thing. So when you go to work, do you all work first and second shift or third or what? I work first. What do you work? First and second. Is there a structured communication between the two shifts? It's supposed to be, but it's not all the time. It depends on center how it is. Honestly, the house I'm at is like a nicer, cleaner house. But I did, I was at a rougher house.

Less clean. You know, less things were getting done. Since I cared, I had to do more about my job. That's a rule of life when you're going to a job. If you're good at it, you get to do more. But somebody else that didn't care... Yeah, if you do less, you get away with crap. That's the way it is. That's the way it is. No, I understand that. Not just the workers in the house. It could be the three guys that are in the house together. You might have a good house and a full bad house because a group of guys together, that could go wrong.

No, I understand that. Not just the workers in the house. It could be the three guys that are in the house together. You don't know what you're walking into one day. It could be one day they're happy to see you and the next day they don't want you there. Be ready for anything. Yep. Anyone else? I feel like, at least on mine, it's people not doing their work, so you don't know what you're walking into. What's left for you. You don't get up. So left required stuff to take care of the clients or the house and you walk in and go, why wasn't this done?

I've got to do it now. So their work is on you. And sometimes you, depending on who the staff is, it doesn't always have to be a specific person, but just sometimes when you walk in, it could be this person didn't have time to do this because this was too busy for them, so this shift has to come in and do first and second or first shift. Yeah. So when you go to work, do you all work first and second shift or third or what? I work first. What do you work? First and second. Is there a structured communication between the two shifts That's why I'm here, because I'm, you know, I like to do what I do.

You know I'm a stand-up person. When you're being just, you know. Well, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad I'm here. I can go against everything that you talk about and find more than every single thing. I'll tell you, I met with the board of directors. I met with the executive team. I met with the bridge staff. I met with all the managers, and I met with some of the office staff. I'm having another meeting with the office staff. And now I'm meeting with some folks from DSPs from residential. So, I'm hearing it from everybody. And everybody's got their view.

And there's some legitimacy to all these things. You know, like Chris said, you're not going to fix the agency, but we've got to pick and choose and make things better for the clients and for you. Because we want you to still be here. And if, and you just told me, I came here because it wasn't going good. I came here because that wasn't going good. If that's how we get people, that's unfortunately the way agencies recruit people. You came from another agency. Good. We don't have to train you so much. Why'd you leave the other agency?

I said the CI bed. That's not hopeful though, if she doesn't get, like, has a training done within a week, her job is being threatened. Just because, you know, she liked this job, and now because, you know, the environment. Yeah. But also, just because the environment is good, they can threaten her job. But when they're supposed to keep her company, you know? Yeah. If we're on the topic of trainings too, though, at Hope, it's different for all the other houses because you can't pick up a shift at my house unless you have fully training. Yes.

And a lot of people want to pick up because Hope always have shifts open. But a lot of people can't pick up because you're not trained for the house. So a lot of the staff are, some people don't have time to come in and train. Right. Yeah. They have outside lives too. So if you want, I feel like, you know, if you're gonna go into a medical house and work there, you should be able to be on-site trained, not have to come into the office on, because people could be scheduled for shifts and they can't come in or come into train for Hope.

And that's why Hope has a lot of open positions. So they do, I was here when they started. So why they do this, they don't even train anything in the house? They don't do it for Foley. For Foley, you've got to be trained in the house with past. So say if I wanted to come to that house, I'd have to come here and go out on my schedule. No, you'd have to come to Hope. I heard you got to come here to train. Uh-uh. You got to come to Hope because the nurse has to come meet you because you got to physically do it.

You have to demonstrate the skill that you need. That's different. Yeah. That makes sense. We trained in the lawyers and everything. Yeah, I was here when we started doing that. I'm like, that should get, we should get trained on that when we're doing orientation, like, that whole week. Like, we should at least do hands-on training for, like, what's about to be at the house. Like... Do you know when... One or two people, but we got to feed somebody. What is it, like, what is it? Like, why isn't it more medical help? Because we got an all-wheelchair house.

Yeah. And three out of four have to be... The fourth one's getting close to being a lawyer. I feel like things like that, people should, if you work in those, especially if those are your, like, main houses, that should be a different case. They talked about that in the past, yeah. It's a simple math, though. How am I going to ease your house compared to a house that has to do more, bro? Yeah, that's a good issue. It's been talked about. It's trying to make sure you run into all that stuff, like how do you train people to do this?

And you have to have hands-on demonstration. And I think probably, was anybody there at Blender diets where you got to chop up everything? No. No, okay. Does anybody work in a house like that? Where you have to have the food chopped up? I do. Okay. What about purees that you have to cut up? Well, there's cut up and then there's throwing in a blender. That's the reason why we... That's the reason why we do things, but... I'd rather deal with that than... Oh my God. Do you feel your ideas or feedback are listened to? Can you say that again?

Do you feel that your ideas or your feedback to leadership and managers are listened to? I don't want to give feedback. I just do my job. I don't know. My house, I like my manager and, like, anything that I tell her, like, you know, she'll be on it about it. So I wouldn't really say anything about my manager, but I never really had a situation where I had to come into the office and tell them about a situation. Okay. Yeah. I never give feedback about anything like that. You've got opinions, I can tell. I like it.

That's all right. That's right. I've seen certain things done wrong for some people. That's all. Are there any agency requirements, like administrative stuff or policies that you feel that get in the way of taking care of clients? Sometimes. They say sometimes they have three or four guys into one house and one guy make plans to go outside and one guy wants to see anybody. It's pretty good. Yeah. That's hard with our house, too, because we got one that just wants to be in his seat all day and he doesn't want nobody bothering him at all.

And then we got other guys that want to go out and we don't have enough staff to do that. Are you familiar with the ISPs of the folks you work with? And you have goals stated in those because the state wants to make sure you're running our money, I guess. Those are always mandatory in certain houses, you know what I mean? Do they, are they... It's mandatory, but it's not something that a manager has to hold on to, you know? Since she was a manager, she might have to have her house read, but me, I might just tell everybody.

Okay. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Do you feel obligated to work on those with each of your clients? Not... You can't make them do it if they don't want to. If they refuse it... I think we each all have goals that they just... Are the goals that you're working on something the individuals are interested in working with? What am I used to do, five years ago, 10 years ago? I don't know. One of my clients' goals are like, like she'll complete her ADLs or whatever, but she has seizures, so it'll be sometimes where she has, like, days where she'll just lay on the couch or whatever, not get her ADLs completed, and I just get confused on what to write in our book because my manager makes sure, like, our goals, their goals are completed or whatever because we have to document it every day in the book.

I'll tell you, my... And I just, I wouldn't know what to write for her because, like, she's not in control of her having seizures and being in the, laying on the couch all day, so... My wife's as they do the same thing. My client's goal are, they redo his goals, the same goal every single year, and he's getting to the age where he's declining a lot. So... Does that keep track up? So do you, when you write, I presume it's in the green books, where do you... It's in the blue books. Blue books. Are they blue?

Here's the green. The blue-green books. Summary books. Summary books. Oh, the summary books, yeah. Oh, okay, so you're checking whether they do those goals every day. If you have data, you're putting it in there. In the blue books. In the green books, it's basically is what they did that day. Okay, yeah, I got it. It's a narrative of the day. And the blue books are data. Are the daily goal books. So if you had a daily goal book and they refused to do their goals for three weeks in a row, it would be in there.

It would be, yeah. Okay. Well, some people don't... Some, it depends. Some people think that just because the client refused it that it's, like, counted. Yeah, yeah. So like, sometimes, I'm not gonna say it's false documentation, but it is false documentation because somebody could say, oh, well, he did this, but he refused it, but still go mark it in the book and say that they did do it. And they're not even saying that, oh, this person was refusing this goal when in the book, well, in our books, it goes that he accepted to do it, or it was hand over hand, or just a cue or something, saying that he did do it, but he hates that goal.

And when you try to get him to do that goal, he acts out or something, you know? It's not always 100%. Got it. I see what you're saying, yeah. If a close friend were considering applying for a DSP role here, what advice or warning would you give them? I'd say good luck. Get a good house, talk to people. Try to get a good house. Someone with a behavior house. I don't know what the workflow is gonna be in here any day. When you were hired and you're being oriented, when do you find out or do they channel you towards some house or group of houses?

How do you know where you're gonna be working? It's not up to us. I know, but how do you, when do you find out? In the last day. We met the manager, yeah. Okay. And that decision is based on, you don't know why. Or do you know why? I think it's based on your interview. But I think location too as well, to see if I live right here. Yeah, that makes sense. You know? Yeah. Right. Okay. What's the single biggest change the agency could make to improve your overall job satisfaction? Pay. Pay? They could keep competitive pay every year, so just pay more.

Why do I keep complaining with each other? 380 in the area, like Kingsford. This one. Well, you know how it works. It's like, we pay this much, we look at the other guys, we're similar. These guys just gave a raise this year. You go, now I gotta give a raise because people are all gonna go work over there and not gonna work here. So that's what happens. And then you're only getting so much money from, that's how you earn your money, but a number of clients you have. So you're limited. You can't just throw money out the door, but you're saying pay would be the biggest change that would make.

I heard that we not get a raise because of the accidents for our vehicles. I don't know how true that is. I have not heard that. I did hear that there was concern about an increase in accidents. I don't know what that means, increase in accidents, because I don't know. I don't know what that means because randomness has clumps in it. I mean, you can say, let's look at two years of driving data and, oh, there's three accidents, then there's none for a year. I don't know what an increase is, so I wouldn't know. That would be odd to say nobody gets a raise because of that.

Because you're gonna pay more for insurance, that's all. I don't know. Could be. Maybe you guys are wrecking vans left and right. I don't know. It's not that, though, because every year they take a pewty survey and every agency has a relationship. So this agency for the Liberty State, the accidents. Another agency maybe for the Eastern, they're not doing raises as good. But at the end of the year, when you see a certain number, you know, like, I don't know who is fighting for us to get more money, but every year I know they are fighting for DSPs to get more money.

Yeah. And they increase it every year. Well, like, it's not. Well, that's because they increased it something like six months ago or something. Something. Right? I don't know. Like six months ago, they did something and they said they would take 50 cents off the weekend or something. Oh, I don't know. I wasn't aware of that. I know many years ago. Increased our like our pay. I think everybody got like six months ago or some type of increase or something. I didn't get nothing. Something. I don't know. I've been making the same amount since I started and I've been here for a year.

Yeah. And they took 50 cents in. I feel some type of way about that because I'm full time and I work full time. I have one of my weekends. One of my days is my weekends. Right. So I do feel some type of way about that. Yeah. What's the biggest change the agency could make to improve your overall job satisfaction? I think everybody got like six months ago or some type of increase or something. I didn't get nothing. Something. I don't know. I've been making the same amount since I started and I've been here for a year.

Yeah. And they took 50 cents in. I feel some type of way about that because I'm full time and I work full time. I have one of my weekend. One of my days is my weekends. Right. So I do feel some type of way about that. Yeah. I know this was a weekend. I don't know. Just Saturday and Sundays. So I'm going to try to get back to you on this question, which was, when was there a pay increase? The pay. I think the pay just got increased when a year and a little bit. We first started.

And then you said they took something away. 50 cents differential or the differential. Okay. Then took away. That just got that just actually got taken away two days ago. Ah, okay. I'm going back to your question about what's one thing that would improve living conditions. I think working on the weekend, that's one of the things I really hate. I feel like if your first shift, you should have first shift. On the weekend, if we have to work on a weekend. That's the biggest issue at home is they have the seven days shift that all week.

Well, not all week. And then you've got Saturday and Sunday, 3 to 11. Got it. Nobody wants to keep that shift because they're working all weekend. Their whole day is work. So if it was constant, if there was five days that they're all first shift. Well, that's because they increased it something like six months ago or something. Something. Right? I don't know. Like six months ago, they did something and they said they would take the 50 cents off the weekend. Something like that. Oh, I don't know. I wasn't aware of that. I know many years ago.

Increase our like our pay. I think everybody got like six months ago or some type of increase or something. I didn't get nothing. Something. Right on. I've been making the same amount since I started. And I've been here for a year. Yeah. And they took 50 cents in. I feel some type of way about that because I'm full time and I work full time. I have one of my weekend. One of my days is my weekends. So I do feel some type of way about that. Yeah. What's the single biggest change the agency could make to improve your overall job satisfaction?

Pay. Pay. Competitive pay every year. So just pay more. Why do I keep complaining with each other? 380 in the area. Like this one. This one. Well, you know how it works. It's just like, we pay this much. We look at the other guys. We're similar. These guys just gave a raise this year. You go, now I got to give a raise because people are all going to go work over there and not going to work here. So that's what happens. And then you're only getting so much money from, that's how you earn your money, by the number of clients you have.

So you're limited. You can't just throw money out the door, but you're saying pay would be the biggest change that would make. I heard that we not get a raise because of the accidents for our vehicles. I don't know how true that is. I've never heard that. I did hear that there was concern about an increase in accidents. I don't know what that means, increase in accidents, because I don't know. I don't know what that means because randomness has clumps in it. Yeah. I mean, you can say, let's look at two years of driving data and, oh, there's three accidents, then there's none for a year.

Then I don't know what an increase is. So I wouldn't know. That would be odd to say nobody gets a raise because of that. Because you're going to pay more for insurance. That's all. Yeah. I don't know. Could be. Maybe you guys are wrecking vans left and right. I don't know. It's not that, though, because, you know, every year they take a few weeks every year. And every agency has the relation. So this agency for the Liberty State, the accidents. Another agency maybe for the Eastern. I'm not doing raises as good. But at the end of the year, when you see a certain number, you know, like, like, I don't know who is fighting for us to get more money, but every year I know they are fighting for DSPs to get more money.

And they increase it every year. This one. Well, you know how it works. Well, that's because they increased it something like six months ago or something. Something. Right. I don't know. Like six months ago, they did something and they said they would take the 50 cents off the weekend or something. Right. I don't know. That wasn't where I. I know many years ago. Increase our like our pay. I think everybody got like six months ago or some type of increase or something. I didn't get nothing. Something. Right. I What me and my second shift were trying to do was permanently switch it, and they basically said we're not allowed to do that because that's not what the shift was applied for.

Basically, you turn it into a new schedule and they stick with it. I don't know. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. How often do you ever ask for or are you asked to? I've got to word this correctly. Do you ever ask just to meet with your manager or do they ever ask just to meet with you to get you caught up on things or give you feedback on what's wrong with this?

I don't know. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. I don't know what's wrong with this. Well, that's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4.

It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It works both ways for both of us. That's the thing. That's hard. That's hard because she's 8 to 4 and then she was a 3 to 11 the day prior when I'm a 3 to 11 and then 8 to 4. It I'm sorry to tell you, that's the way you do it. You put it in the washer, put some disinfectant in there.

Now at some point, you can only do that so many times. You get a new mop. At my point, I don't wash it at all. You get a new mop. I mop it three or four times. I don't even need to do it. It depends on what you're cleaning and washing it with. If you're washing it with other things like kitchen rags and stuff like that. Yeah, don't throw the clothes in with the mop. Not the bath towels and the face rags and stuff. But I mean, some people just do that. Yeah, you don't know it's clean, right?

It's gonna be clean. Why isn't it clean? Well, it's just one of those things that doesn't pass the yuck test, okay? But we didn't get a new mop head until, I don't even remember. That's my point. I don't wash it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I don't know. It depends on what you're cleaning and washing it with. Like I said, I don't know. She told me you gotta go in the washer and dance. She told me that Aaron. I told Aaron, I said, we need a new mop head and we need a scarmer.

The floors are like sticky, like ew. And she went out and got them the same week. So I feel like it's just, I don't know what it is. Alright, now, we talked a little bit about where staff come from and why they come here and whatever. You're very aware that staff recruitment and getting enough people to come here and cover shifts is a challenge. It's been a challenge for years. But another problem is getting people who wanna stay here. How can we improve people's retention? What is it that would make someone come here and wanna stay here?

That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. It depends on what you're cleaning and washing it with. If you're washing it with other things like kitchen rags and stuff like that. Yeah, don't throw the clothes in with the mop. Not the bath towels and the face rags and stuff. But I mean, some people just do that. Yeah, you don't know it's clean, right? It's gonna be clean. Why isn't it clean? Well, it's just one of those things that doesn't pass the yuck test, okay?

But we didn't get a new mop head until, I don't even remember. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy.

I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy.

I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy.

I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy.

I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy.

I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. That's my point. I don't watch it at all, but the other ones are crunchy. I mopped it three or four times. I didn't even need to. And it depends on what you're cleaning and washing it with. If you're washing it with other things like kitchen rags and stuff like that, then I don't know. Yeah, don't throw the clothes in with the mop.

With the mop. That's the thing you think it's everybody's... Everybody thinks that that's the only thing that's what needs to be done. That's the only thing. So are you talking about their own stuff that isn't their job? It could just be a good worker, but the person you work with might not be completely the right tech. Like you can't tell him don't do it. If you're not a manager, you shouldn't have to tell the person you're working with what to do. Yeah. Right, you shouldn't at all. I don't want nobody telling me what to do.

Yeah. Because you're not a manager. But at the same time, it is something. But if you're not doing your job, you got to go to your manager too. And sometimes that manager doesn't tell them to do something. Yeah, like for instance, one of my staff, he's third shift, I'm first shift. I come in and the only thing that third shift did for us to help me out is pass meds. But we have to change two beds, make two beds, shower two people in the morning. So it's just like, can we work together kind of thing.

And it wasn't being recognized by my manager. So I went to my manager and said, Hey, like I need help with this. This is very exhausting. That come in at eight o'clock and I'm not, I don't even get a sit down for two seconds until almost 11 o'clock and can't even do that because you're already prepping for lunch. And it's like me being a staff, I don't want to go to one of my staff members and announce it because they could take it the wrong way. And then that could be, you know, it could retaliate in some way or whatever.

Sure. It just, I don't know what if some managers should, I feel like they should say, like, you need to do this or you need to do that or, you know, whatever. I don't know. Sometimes my managers, my managers sometimes won't see it how we see it. How about communication with other departments? Do you know who to go to? Who you can talk to? Why you should go to somebody? I don't know. I don't know who to tell you for certain things, you know, for the housing, you know. Oh yeah. Oh, that's the thing you think it's everybody's.

Everybody thinks that that's the only thing that needs to be done. So are you talking about their own stuff that isn't their job? It could just be a good worker, but the person you work with might not be completely the right tech. That could be a team that you can't tell him don't do it. If you're not a manager, you shouldn't have to tell the person you're working with what to do. Yeah. Right, you shouldn't at all. I don't want nobody telling me what to do. Yeah. Because you're not a manager. But at the same time, it is something.

But if you're not doing your job, you got to go to your manager too. And sometimes that manager doesn't tell them to do something. Yeah, like for instance, one of my staff, he's third shift. I'm first shift. I come in and the only thing that third shift did for us to help me out is pass meds. But we have to change two beds, make two beds, shower two people in the morning. So it's just like, could we work together kind of thing. And it wasn't being recognized by my manager. So I went to my manager and said, Hey, like I need help with this.

This is very exhausting. That come in at eight o'clock and I'm not, So that's, there's no chart or anything that would direct you, if I got an issue about this. Certain things they do want you to know, there's no chart. No, but what if you say, gee, I got a concern that has something to do with supply requests. What am I supposed to do? That's what I did, like, you know what I'm saying? Got it. Yeah. So there's a built-in filter, but it's also a built-in delay, and you don't know if it gets followed up on.

And then sometimes, like, if I message somebody, she might message my supervisor, like, hey, while I'm here, you don't want me to do that with him? Right, right, right. How about the other way around? People communicating with you? Problems, barriers? I don't know, like, there is no communication. Yeah, not at all. What is that? What did you say there's no communication? What does that mean? Like, all right, we just had an inspection. I don't see nobody come to ask me or ask anything, but now the inspection company guys need these works. It's just crazy to me.

It don't make sense, you know? Yeah, you have to look at I-Care. You have to look at I-Care, and you have to look at the actual meds to see if the meds were passed, because, like, one of my clients, he has a thing that goes up until 12. He could take his morning meds up until 12 o'clock. So it could be first shift. If he's up at first shift, he don't take the meds, but first shift, I mean, third shift doesn't tell me that he was given meds, so I could accidentally give him meds again if you don't look at I-Care or look at the med pack.

You got time bubble packs? You got time bubble packs? Everybody don't sign the bubble packs, though. Huh? Really? That's been... It's definitely helpful now, because, you know, people... I made that suggestion about 14 years ago. Because some houses would do it, and, oh, we got to sign the bubble packs, and that way you know what happened and who did it. So in the other things, we don't bother, usually because our meds are so simple here. It's not worth the trouble. I get that. But then you go to a different house, and you don't sign. That's why we... Me and I used to have to sign part and back on the bubble packs.

Do you sign the control count? You got to sign the control count. On everything. If I could take away one task you got to do all the time, and you don't think it's necessary for you to be doing it, what would it be? I feel like everything... I don't have to do it, but I feel like I'm not even... But ordering treats, like, baby, a lot of clients. You know? I'm something I don't do in the client's life. You know? So I have a different relationship from the baby. So when I see that, it's like, we're supposed to help them have the best independent life as possible.

That's not independent living. Right. Yeah, that is true. That's my job part, you know, if something comes up. Yeah, because they could give you a behavior because you're not babying them. Or you see them putting the shoes on the five of these people, and now this other company says, you want me to put the shoes on? Yeah, yeah. Exactly, yeah. I've seen that so many times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I never thought... My wife does that to my granddaughter. I say, put your shoes on. Oh, I'll help you, honey. Put your shoes on. Oh, man. You're trying to help them learn by themselves.

So if they're having trouble, let them know. Yes. But don't just do or baby. Absolutely. Do you need some help is a good question to ask. All right, I'm going to give you five minutes alone with Chris Cherry. You've been there. Take a bagel and sit in his office. You've got five minutes to tell him anything you want. What are you going to tell him? You're going to say, why don't you come to the house? That's my. That's what I did. Got it. Yeah. Be more around more. If you come see me, come see me in the night.

It's probably be helpful. It'd probably be helpful. Yeah. I made that suggestion about 14 years ago. Because some houses would do that. Oh, we got to sign the bubble packs. And that way, you know what happened and who did it. So in other things, we don't bother because usually because our meds are so simple here. It's not worth the trouble. I get that. But then you go to a different house. That's why I agree. Me and I used to have to sign part and back on the bubble packs. You got a control count? That's what I'm saying.

You got time bubble packs? Everybody don't sign them bubble packs, though. Huh? Really? That's been... It's definitely helpful now because... I made that suggestion about 14 years ago. When you say the office, what's that mean? The office is basically people who take care of the house. Like, basically the office people have a say-so or voicing opinions over... About the houses that they really... People who actually work in the house. Yeah. Like, we were just talking. Me and my manager were just talking about that, too. Like, one of our clients just goes in the bread and just rips the bread open and just eats it.

And the manager, or like office basically says, well, you can't stop them from eating. There's nothing you can do about it. But it's just like, well, I mean, it's a waste or whatever. You try to stop. Not try to stop them from eating, but like, try to teach them a different way of learning how to open the bag or whatever. And to the office, there's no other way. Just let them do what they want to do. But that ruins it for the rest of the house. Because the bread goes bad. The bread goes bad. The thing is all over.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you're in a group living situation, there's... People say, well, you get to do what you want because you're an adult. You can't throw the TV across the room. You know, you can't... There's a lot of things you can't do. I'm an adult. I can't do whatever I want. So what are you talking about? Okay, how do you manage it? Now, there's the how to best life possible question. How do we help this guy who's ripping open the bread, touching all the bread, making the toast contagiously? Who knows? Yeah. Making it a mess.

What... How can we help this person do a more lifestyle that's a little more acceptable so when he goes somewhere else or he's out in public, he's not... Yeah, there's good questions. Those are good questions. Just tell me what time it is. What is it? 10:39. What's the most rewarding aspect of your job? For me, I have a client. I have to get her up every morning. That's like my duty for the first shift. And I, like, dress her up and stuff. I do her hair and, like, I'll put some makeup on her or something.

I'll give her a nice outfit. And, like, seeing her happy, that's really rewarding to me. Yeah, yeah. Special time. You're the one that gets it. Yeah. I do that with my guy, too. Get him up, get him dressed. Cool on. It's just like seeing them look presentable for the day instead of lounging around in pajamas all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had that for me when I worked at the Serry Children's Center. I was just starting there. I worked in the morning to wake kids up. The person was on maternity leave. And sometimes I would come in with a shirt and tie on.

And the little boy... The staff would go, what are you doing? on interview, nice and all. I said, when you look good, you feel good. And the boys are going, can we have it? And they'd be looking for their snap-on ties as they go down to school that day, they'd all be snapped up. That was fun. Rewarding? Anybody? I think mine's just communicating with one of my guys. I think that's probably my favorite part about working in healthcare, is learning about their life before they were where they were. Yeah, yeah. My guy is so funny.

How old is he? He's turning 69 this year in a few days. Wow. I feel like we need more, I don't know, like more recognition, honestly. Like, when I first started, I got a welcome letter. I got a welcome letter, and then I got a three-month anniversary letter, and then a six-month anniversary letter, and that was it. Didn't get another one after that. Like, nothing. How many letters do you want? I want a five-year anniversary letter. Yeah, that was funny. I was thinking how to get to this question of what recognition is or should be, or what you would value as recognition.

And that's pretty standard stuff. By the way, we noticed you're here, and thank you very much, and you know, that sort of thing. Like she said, Jen Sheldon, she sent out a three-month and a six-month with a little gift. Like a, I don't know, it was like an animal, and it was like, thank you for being here. Like, that means a lot. You know, like, knowing that you know that I'm still here. It feel good, you know? But I didn't get that for my one year. I'm like, wow. I just get a letter in the mail stating that I got a raise.

I didn't even get that. Well, I did get that after my, the evaluation or whatever, but. You have no courtesy. You coming on her shift, not knowing that's somebody right before her shift. They're not putting that in the courtesy we're talking about. Right. And then it's like, you don't wanna blow the blame on somebody else, but this is actually what happened. Yeah. I feel like Hope has such a bad, like a bad reputation to it that even when, like, our guys go somewhere, they go to concerts all the time, they never get posted or anything.

Yeah, we got these. He's cool. He was at Bird's Eye. He was cool. But we never get recognized for our house because if anything, we got a lot to do there. And I think. Yeah, y'all got a lot more people. Because the client that she has there was at the house that she's in, but the house that I'm at, it's the people, like this is like last year's service. How are they working so easy when this guy is at her house? You know what I'm saying? This don't make sense. Like, you know what I'm saying?

On the other side of the coin, you know? That's why I said her house maybe should get paid more. You know, the people who work there. Y'all get it, y'all got more. Okay, okay. You see, I know that. That's cool. Yeah, I suppose. Sometimes that's not even worth it. No, I remember when. That's cool, I didn't even know that. That's good. And that's structured. Yeah, sure. That's four wheelchairs, and we did six or five in one. Really, really, Chuck isn't really a wheelchair, but his balance now isn't good. Cause he like pivot and stuff. He could walk on his own, but he's just super.

We hit the ground. Like. He's like dizzy a lot. So he's like super everywhere and you gotta walk with him every single place that he goes. And when that bed alarm like starts going off, you gotta hurry up and get to his room because he falls out of bed a lot. He doesn't like to take the blanket off of him. Right. So he gets, and that's another thing. We've been saying that he needs a little, not a little bed, but his mattress is too big for him now. He's got a queen bed. The queen bed isn't the issue.

It's just, it's super high up. He's got to crawl into bed and his balance isn't good. And he can't, he can't like get in and out of it easy. Got it. Yeah. So I feel like they need to get him a thinner mattress or something that goes up and down. Yeah. They said they get him a new bed frame, but his bed frame's already a low like platform bed frame. So he has a. So he's got the super. The mattress is just super thick. You got the box springs and then you got the. He doesn't have box springs.

Oh, it's just a thick mattress. It's still too high. Got it. Maybe get him a thinner mattress with a foam pad or something. Like an eight inch mattress or something. Something because he fell out of bed. He's like 14. I know. Because mine is 14. My wife's like five feet tall. You guys might know Margaret Miller who works in the front office once in a while. She fills in. That's my wife. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I just. This is not about recognition. But it was just a problem I had with on-call. Like. If I'm working a shift, like I expect my, the on-call to let us know that, oh, they're not gonna make it.

Or like at least let us know something. Like I have to usually call them and tell them, oh, my shift hasn't arrived yet. But whole time they already know. They said that. They already know that the person who's supposed to come in is gonna be late. So y'all could at least just call me. I mean, it's a problem that I had personally with on-call. But they did it a couple times to me. Oh, okay. So that's the communication issue. They know, they know information that matters to you. But they tell you you had to call them.

Thing with on-call too is, I noticed for myself is that I could fill a shift faster than on-call. So that's how I know you're not filling that shift. And it's like, y'all don't be picking up sometimes. Like I'm not about to turn this into a no-call, no-show because you didn't pick up. Like. Yeah. Like I'll have to be. I'll have to, like there was like two or three times back when I first started. I was almost stuck in a triple. And I could fill, I filled two of those shifts before on-call did. You know, it's just, it's crazy.

Like, and then I also heard that they only get paid like $3 when they're on-call. I guess they only get paid like $3 and 50 cents or something. I know that managers don't make much more than us. No, yeah, I know. But I mean, when they're just on-call, they get like a super like shift for like $3 or like $5. Well, if I'm getting $3 to $5 paid, you're only getting $3 to $5 paid out of me too. Because, yeah, I wouldn't, I don't know, I just, I don't wanna be stuck in a double even.

I have a life outside of here, and if I could fill that shift, I'm gonna fill it. And then sometimes, like, there could be somebody not stuck in a double, but there could be somebody that has, for instance, like, 90 hours, and they won't give that person that's willing to pick up that extra shift that's open, they won't give that shift to them because they already have too many hours. So they just wait and then it doesn't get filled, and then the first shift or the second shift is stuck on that second or third shift, or even first, because that one person has too many hours.

You're not allowed to pick up anymore. It just, if they want it, let them have it. What's the limit on the hours you can pick up? No, but I've heard people... There used to be, before COVID. COVID took that away. When you like bump people off the schedule or something because you have too many hours. That's another thing. They bump you off the schedule without even telling you. What does that mean, bump you off the schedule? Like, they take you off the schedule. So why would they do that? So, like, I'm thinking... They had somebody else.

Oh, so you're filling a shift but they can get another person to fill. Does it mean you're doing overtime? It's basically like, I'm full-time, she's part-time, and I'm, I, I pick up an hour that puts me in, say, 88 hours, and then she's part-time, she gets it before I get it. Bump you off, put her on, save some money. Exactly, but they won't tell you that. But they don't tell you. Exactly. You have to physically look at the schedule to know if you're working that shift or not. Even if you're part-time, they'll take you off.

Yeah, because they'll give it to somebody else that has more hours than you. Yeah. I've seen somebody call off the on-call. I've seen somebody working and say, hey, I see that they're working this many hours, so can you give it to me? That's crazy. All right. What's the last thing you want to talk about? I feel like everything's everything. We've covered a lot of it, yeah. Every time, say if we talked in a ring, it got, like, an answer to everything, the question, we don't answer every question that we ask, you know, for the reason why they can't do this.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a, yeah, that's not a bad, that's not a bad approach. Because some of you, you guys are intelligent. So you know that these things are intertwined. So sometimes there's reasons for stuff. You're dealing with a practical thing, like, why can't you call me and tell me they're not coming? Because I, I could have called my spouse and said, yeah, I might be late, or, so sometimes there's practical reasons why they're not doing that. Or sometimes it's like, I didn't think of it. I don't know. But you've got to deal with this stuff every day and if, you know, best life possible is keep me in the loop, keep me informed, let me know what I'm not going to agree with everything, but there's probably going to be some complicated reasons why things get done in a way that I don't fully understand.

Hey, I'm not running the world here. I would just like to have things be reasonable. And I'd like $4 an hour more. By the time, by the time I'm done, basically, it's going to get up to $24, $25 an hour. I don't know, I don't know. It's, it's one of those things, I mean, for... Would you think, you think it's going to get up there, right? No, I don't know, because it's, it's a weird thing when it comes to governments and money. Because governments change a lot. But we've got this folks with ID people been out there forever.

They're not going anywhere. They need services. So there's always going to be this work that needs to be done. And the state, the state messes around with how they model it. It used to be everybody lived in an institution, you know, and they pulled them all out and put them in, into more community settings. And I don't see that going away, but the number of people is gonna increase. And uh if you have someone with some ID issues or autism issues and they're becoming aged and need more help getting care than they used to, they're going into the system.

So there's always going to be this pressure to provide the service. Now where the, where the money goes, who knows? You guys think it's less introductory, like, easy to get into? Is it easy to get into? Like this job, like very, you've seen how hard it is to get into. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. Absolutely. So you just come in and make some food and help the people. So if you ever run into something you didn't expect when you, when you started here, can you, oh man, I didn't know that was gonna be here.

I don't know. When I got trained, I feel like because it's DSPs who have to train the other DSPs that come in, I feel like some people are like really, like, they'll just tell you some things, like the basics, and then just go on about their... Some people will really go to the extent to really train and I feel like I got somebody who really didn't care, like, she just told me here and this, this, and that. This is what I have to do. I'm a fast learner, so, like, when I saw her do it, like, I clicked onto it real fast, but I wish she would have just let me, like, do it hands-on, like, me doing it and showing her.

But I feel like I was trained more because I actually started off at 44, and I feel like I was more trained off of the drama than I was off of the house. As soon as I walked in the door, oh, you gotta watch her, you gotta watch out for her, you gotta pay attention to this, you gotta pay attention. It's like, I'm not worried about that, and I'm not worried about making friends here either. I'm worried about coming to work, doing what I have to do for work. When you say the drama, you mean between staff or dealing with the clients?

Staff. Okay. That's why I left. That's why I left 44, because I can't do a female house anymore. For real. It's just drama. Like, you know how female it is? I'll tell you a scary story. Because I had the... I was the crisis trainer, so I did nothing but teach people how to avoid crisis. And I'd say, I'm gonna tell you this little secret. You got two, you got, and they always had the line kids up. You got to line up so we can go down to the school. It's the only way you can keep order people who are running around.

You got six kids. Okay guys, I need you to line up here. We're gonna get ready to go. Some guys start arguing with the others. What's going on? He pushed me. That's why they're fighting. You get six girls to line up. There's some argument starter. When did this start? Three days ago he talked, she talked to my boyfriend down at the school. You got, you got to go back and track it to find out what happened. Sometimes it's just adds on. It could be like a game of telephone. I see, I hear you. All right.

I don't want to drag this longer than you two. We covered a lot of ground. I really appreciate you guys being so open. I'm having a blast doing these meetings because I'm learning. I learned something. I mean, I know a lot about this place. I know a lot about these, about how organizations work, but when you hear people in their day-to-day stuff and the stuff you run into, and some of it's like, I'd never do that. And some of it, are you kidding me? That's never gonna change to some of the things you're talking about.

So I really appreciate your time and attention. I don't think I'm going to go the whole two hours, but you'll get paid for the whole two hours. So, um. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know. I didn't know. They made you come in earlier. They might make you come in earlier. I don't know. I heard this was voluntary. Like you had a volunteer for this stuff. As far as I know, I think they were having trouble with, with residential because of the wacky getting people that are scheduled and are available. No, this is like, I got one more after this one.

Okay. So you did both groups before. Oh yeah. Yeah. I did the board. I got the board president telling me one thing and I got part-time bridge staff telling me one thing. There's a lot of different points of view. So you say, how can we help improve the agency? I like the idea that we're not going to make big sweeping changes that are going to be ignored in three months anyway. It's got to take little things. It's got to be smiling on the phone. That's how you get started. And some of these nitpicky issues that drive you nuts, that if only people could talk to you and explain it to you, you'd be a little more tolerant.

So that's why that happened. I understand now why you can't call me all the time because you're trying to fill five other shifts. That's why you didn't get back to me. Didn't think of it. Or that's a possibility. So, so to me, this has been a heck of a lot of fun. Now, after this, I got one more meeting and I got to talk to Chris about whether it's this week or next week. We'll get together in some format and say, Rod, you got all this stuff you generated. Now what? And there might be some group.

I don't think it's just going to be the exec team. So I don't know what this final group will be to make choices. And it might involve people at all levels. The other thing that might happen as a result of this is that it won't be a nice glossy spiral bound plan sitting on somebody's desk and then put in a drawer three weeks later because nobody cares. It will be projects and they might not all start at the same time. And they might be very small projects that are very departmental oriented. So it might be we're going to small thing in the DSPs for residential.

And we want to come up with three better ways to recognize good effort on the staff part. You're in charge of the group. Get, get a couple of DSPs, generate some ideas and get back to us. Here's your timetable. Here's who you talk to. Maybe it's me or Chris or whatever. The next project might be a thing that's across the ad building or it might be everybody involved. So that's cool. And you'll be fully informed of here's the steps we're going to try to make. They probably won't be all at once, but thank God, I hope, I hope we stick to it because it's so easy to let everything else get in the way and just kind of forget about it.

You're not going to all get rich though, I promise you that. That $4, don't quote me on that. So thank you so much. Take the snacks with you. Stick them in your pocket, take them to your family, whatever. Because no fair, buying them office people gobbling those things up. Hey, it was fun listening to you. What's your name again? Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier. I don't know. Okay, let's maybe give it a beat.

Okay. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry.

I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks.

What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day.

Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry.

I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks.

What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day.

Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin. Yep. How did I hear your name before? They call me DJ Harry. I thought they said you were going to be in here earlier then. Okay, must have been the beginning of the day. Hey, it was fun listening to you. It was good to meet you as well. Thanks. What's your name again? Rod. Rod. Your name was? Delvin. Delvin.