Welfare clients

[klo1335]

I know that I have bitched about my welfare clients before but I just can't take it anymore!!!!! These people have no motivation and no drive to find a job in order to become self-sufficiant. The best part is that they think they deserve to be handed everything. The go to training before they come to me in order for me to assist them in finding a job. Not give them a job but assist them. The training basically sucks, they learn nothing, but think they can get a job that pays $15-$16/hr. Now I think its grea to have dreams but you have to be rational. When I try to explain to them that it would be better to take a job right now only making $7/hr, it would be better then their welfare check, and then they can look for something different. THEY JUST DON"T UNDERSTAND or won't listen to me. UGH! I need to get into another field. But the job market sucks!!! AHHHHHH! I need a vacation! :frustrate :madder:

[coll214]

klo-
That really sucks!! i know what you mean about people thinking they deserve so much more...i work w/ a few people who don't have degrees and basically are doing secretarial work and think that it's sooo beneath them but they don't want to do anything to better themselves, they just want the money. They refuse to learn new things if procedures change, and then complain when other people end up doing it and getting a promotion because of it.

do they just want the welfare check and not have to deal w/ getting a job in the first place?? maybe some of them look at it as their income rather than something to help them get back on their feet??

[klo1335]

Thank god my day is almost over because I am ready to strangle someone. I actually had a client say to me "oh, i haven't been applying to any jobs, just looking." Then what is the point of being in a job placement program!!!!!!!!!!!!

The people I work with are no better then my clients. I sit right near the copy machine and I have seen people open up the machine and say "oh, its out of paper." Then not refill it!!!!!!!!!! Hello!!!!! These people need to be taken out of the genepool. They think it is beneath them to make extra copies or refill the printer or copier. I am constantly refilling them. But when I said something to my boss...she agreed with me that something needs to happen...does something change..NO!

I can't wait to go home!!!!!!!! I am getting so frustrated with this job that any new job that is presented to me, I will probably take it.

[coll214]

that would drive me insane....i'm the computer support person here so anytime ANYTHiNG electrical breaks they ask me first like i know how to fix a copier!!have you ever seen that movie office space? it's hilarious for anyone whose ever worked in an office and dealt w/ the craziness...:D

it's almost over and then it's the weekend!!!!

[slater1018]

Office Space is the BEST movie!!!

I second coll on the movie choice!!
Funny, I was just talking to my brother about that movie this weekend - how I've seen it about 8 times and find something new to laugh at each time!

klo - you will NOT be disappointed...it is the funniest movie and after watching it you can't help but think, "boy and i think I had it bad?!?!" (and of course ron livingston is an extra added bonus - he's a cutie...)

[klo1335]

I have seen Office Space numerous times. At least they don't have to deal with my clients in the movie :)

[kjames]

Hey there,

I responded to your previous post about your clients. I think, and I *know* I'm gonna take heat from this, but I think you gotta put yourself in their shoes. I mean, hell, I couldn't support *myself* on $7/hour, let alone kids on that salary. What really sucks is that nowadays a lot of jobs out there are service positions like at WalMart, et al, that only pay $6-$7 an hour and either don't offer benes like health ins., or the health ins. premiums are just too expensive. There aren't the old style factory jobs like there used to be that offered a decent wage with good benefits and a pension. Do you guys offer across-the-board services, or are you just a job placement service? The reason that I ask is that some of these people probably have some major issues: substance abuse, low literacy levels, kids w/disabilities, etc. When you've got kids with disabilities for example, you really need to have health insurance, and maybe these women (I say women because I assume most of your clients are probably women) are afraid to lose their Medicaid coverage. The f'd up thing is, when you get a low-wage job, you're stuck in this netherworld where you're no longer eligible for insurance for the poor, yet your crapola job probably doesn't offer any insurance either.

Don't get me wrong, I realize your job has got to suck, otherwise you wouldn't be posting :) Believe me, I grew up in an area where Section 8 housing/subsidized apartments were commonplace, and I used to marvel how the kids were always dressed in the latest fashions, whereas I wore hand-me-downs and Kmart clothes. The parents really had sucky personalities, too, always yelling and screaming when a "quiet voice" would've sufficed. (Look at it this way, at least you don't have to live around your clients. That bites ;) That's another thing, too: soft skills. Yeah, in the late '90s, when the economy was going so well, people on welfare had a relatively easy time finding a job because employers were hurting for people. Now, when you've got former IT managers that made $300K a year working at the Gap for $10/hr (Re: NY Times magazine article "Commute to Nowhere") and laid-off flight attendants working at Target making $7/hr, do you think that a hiring manager really wants to take a chance on someone with no refs, a spotty work history, and interpersonal skills that could stand to be improved. I mean, some welfare clients need to be told things that one would just think should be obvious: like not wearing see-through clothes to an interview, not cracking gum, not being late, etc.

Wow, I really rambled to the point that my post wasn't even about you or your job! Doh!

Karen J.

[klo1335]

Kjames...You make so many valid points and you hit the nail on the head about my clients and their skills and why they aren't getting hired. The other crazy part is that when I do try to assist them with their soft skills and how they dress, they get all offended and can't take constructive criticism. I think the worst part is that I don't directly deal with the welfare department and I wish I could because I know that my clients know what they need to do and that the welfare dept is giving them this information. Yet, they call me and are always saying that they don't know what is going on. They think I can pull strings or something but there is nothing that I can do when it comes to the welfare dept. My company is seperate from the welfare dept. I am glad someone understands how frustrating my clients are :)