Social Service Burn Out

Answering Phones and Providing Resources

I will be finished with my current job in about two weeks. I work from home a 12.5 hour shift answering calls from people with needs and connecting them with resources to meet those needs. The crisis calls are intense and they pushed me to putting in my notice about two months ago. I can see how people in social services get suffer from burn out. It is not just the crisis calls it is also the people who feel they deserve help and they want you to give it to them now.

I am probably the worst social worker on the planet because a large percentage of these callers were getting on my nerves. I am really good at keeping a pleasant voice while thinking "why don't you have a job" but some people want everything for free while my husband and I work to provide for their needs. Please don't get me wrong there are plenty of nice callers and plenty of people who just want a little help or have a really good reason for needing help.

I realize the job market in Toledo is beyond bad and there are a lot of people out of work. I am not talking about people who are trying in any way shape, fashion or form to improve their lives. I am talking about the caller that got evicted for non-payment of rent and couldn't get anyone to move him or her so they just left their stuff there and now they want free furniture. Not only do they want free furniture but they want it at 3am and they want it delivered.

I thought I had a high tolerance for this but in my opinion there are a lot of people out there that are in need and can't get help because they are not needy enough. The people who get the most help seem to be the ones who just want others to give things to them. I guess what I am saying is there is a huge flaw in the system and you can't help people avoid a crisis. Most of the help is not available until they loose almost everything.


Help People Help Themselves
I wish I had the business knowledge to start a program that was able to help people that wanted to help themselves. I am so sick of the just give it to me mentality I could just pull my hair out on some of these calls. I don't see why it is so hard to help someone who had an emergency car repair and now they can't pay their bills this month yet we can help someone who has not paid their bill in 3 months and now they are getting things shut off.

The government system perpetuates dependence on it and that really bothers me. I am not a particularly political person but I do believe that we as a people have become entirely to dependent on the governmental support. Just so your clear I don't just mean the people who receive food stamps, cash assistance and other common welfare services. I am talking about all the entitlement programs including Social Security and Medicare.

I don't have a solution for the problems but if the government can spend our tax dollars on what ever they want why are more people not fighting for the wise use of their money. I am really glad I don't have television because I would just be angry all the time. I am very good at budgeting and when needed we make sacrifices if the government is not willing to do that I don't believe we will keep our status as a great and powerful nation.

I went to church yesterday and the people who went to Haiti on a mission trip said over and over how much it impacted them. One of the recurring themes was how grateful these people were for such small things. Maybe people in the USA need to learn a lesson from the people in Haiti who truly are needy.

My stance on what a needy person is not a popular one in my given line of work or the current political climate. No one needs a land line and a cell phone and they really don't need a phone plan with all the bells and whistles. No one needs cable television (I don't have it) or even a television set for that matter but they really don't need the 250 package they are paying for while receiving food stamps and cash assistance. You don't need a boat or a new car or........well you see where I am going with this.

There are things you do need I am not going to argue that. There are wonderful people out there who live on the bare necessities and when they call and ask for help I think they should get it. I don't think we should be supporting people who are always going to live beyond their means. People who want someone else to pay their way and have no intentions of becoming self sufficient.

Okay I will get off my soap box now.