For months now, I've been meaning to post more about the ups and downs of my job. Just before Thanksgiving, I was getting really close to saying - I love my job! In fact, I had drafted part of a story that highlighted one of the best aspects of my work (this is from last November):
I’m so excited right now! So my phone call went like this. “Good afternoon, this is Emily.” “Emily – I love you” [oh..my…] “Who’s this??” “Rick.” [Rick had just had an interview with a manager late this morning] “ooOOoo Rick tell me good news!” “Well, Ms. Dionne…she said she’d give me a chance.” [you know when you can hear a smile in someone’s voice? That was this.] “Rick! That’s great! Oh man I’m so happy for you!...”and some other similarly exultant exclamations. The point is – he’s hired!
Here’s the thing. This guy has a pretty intense charge. Like, the kind where your stomach kind of drops when you see it sitting there looking up at you. But here’s where I love my job. He has just spent 14 and a half years of his life in prison; he was incarcerated for this intense crime as a 21-year-old, and he’s had close to half his life taken from him to think about how he wants to make a change. After meeting with him and hearing his story, I was able to then advocate to the manager about why she should take a chance with this particular man. Forget what you may think about an ex-offender -- this was Rick, and he is great. He is ready to work, he is open to learn, he will show up on time and will be a motivated employee for your team! You've gotta meet him!
And then things with work got tricky and difficult - from the internal-organization side of things. So then suddenly I wasn't sure if I loved my job or just enjoyed it most days.
Now, with nearly 6 months under my belt, I can say with pretty confident assurance that I do enjoy my job *most* days, but I'm not wide-eyed and naive about it being amazing either. The work is difficult, both from an organizational standpoint and from oh-hey-DC has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. There are about 500,000 DC residents and 60,000 of those are either un-employed or under-employed. Yowzer.
Tuesday and Wednesday were perfect examples of the up-and-down of this job. We had been [gloriously] off on Monday because of President's Day (woot!). So Tuesday was nuts with everyone calling in and seeing if there are interviews for them to go on (it typically takes 5-6 interviews before people get hired in this economy. So that could be 3-5 weeks of searching). I currently have about 26 open files of people (I started out only taking 7-8 new ones a week, now I'm doing 11-13 new ones a week) and if even only half of them call in, I may spend at least 10 minutes with each one (sometimes 15, 20, or 30 minutes even) and time just flies out the window. Add to that doing resumes with people or assisting with online applications and the day can literally just walk all over you.
Tuesday the highlight happened at the end of my day when one of the guys I've been working with since the beginning of January (and who's been exemplary in pounding the pavement) came in to say he'd been hired at Popeye's. HOORAY!! I tell every applicant that it takes patience and persistence, flexibility and preparation to go through the process of finding a job. But if someone sticks with it, they will get hired. It was so great to celebrate with Harold! And then Marcelle called in to tell me her good news - that this place where she had interviewed a couple weeks ago called her back and wanted her in for orientation! So great!
Then there was Wednesday. This was one of our long days (every Friday we get out at 3:30pm thank the Lord because 2 Wednesdays out of each month we stay until 8pm). We had a frustrating Job Counselor meeting in the morning (questions like - what did you do yesterday if we had no new clients to meet with?? are NOT especially helpful or supportive) and then there was more craziness on the phone. The low point was when Harold (see paragraph above) came in to tell me he COULDN'T take the job at Popeye's because the program he's in has a curfew for unemployed participants, but Popeye's wouldn't sign a paper that said he was offered the job because he was on probation so they weren't going to sign any binding paper. The form was for his recovery program and was not in any way related to a contract. But without the signature from the employer, his program wasn't going to give him an extension, and he'd be kicked out. So ... he couldn't take the job. WHAT??? NOOOOOO! So I got on the phone to Popeye's, but by the time I reached the manager, the owner (who made the rule) had already left. And I knew I wasn't going to be in Thursday, so I left a message with the recovery program asking them to PLEASE call the owner on Thursday because how stupid (I think I used a different word on my message...probably "silly") would it be for a great guy like Harold to have to pass up a JOB OPPORTUNITY IN A RECESSION BECAUSE OF A SILLY MISUNDERSTANDING WITH FORMS AND SIGNATURES???????
So anyway, THAT'S why the silent retreat yesterday was perfect timing. Space to sit and be. Space to walk and think. Space to be in nature without the phone ringing incessantly. Space to connect with this Jubilee Jobs staff that I really do love and am so thankful for.
Now. I gotta go. Because work is calling my name. Thanks be to God for challenging, meaningful, frustratingly delightful work.
