I managed to avoid the evacuation drill downtown today. Not that I would have minded the day off work but you better not fuck with my commute home!
The past few days I have seen my supervisor on the ride to and from work. She’s a good supervisor, nice, near my age but we don’t talk about much beyond work, weather and the CTA. So I’m wondering, do I have to sit next to her when I see her on the bus or train? Am I mean if I wave and keep walking? Most of the time it’s not an issue because the bus is crowded by the time I get on. I like to zone out on the way home and not talk to anyone. I’m also afraid I will see someone I know and they’ll greet me with “Hey, whore!” in front of my boss. Because that is the type of friends I have. This shows how corporate I am becoming, that I care about this stuff.
I’ve been sick for the last couple days. I’ve been popping supplements and vitamin pills like a dirty hippie and I’m starting to feel better. Vitamin C, echinacea, zinc, multi-vitamin, Tylenol and Chlortrimetron fix me up good! And tea, lots of tea.
The short client interactions that I have at work are beginning to take their toll. We are encouraged to explore and empathize but we don’t have time to do a lot of either. So I get the client to spill their guts and sometimes cry about what’s going on, then I say “there, there”, pat them on the head and send them away with a name of a nice counselor. So lots of problems, no resolutions. The rewarding part of counseling is seeing your client succeed in some way. I guess there are also rewards in the act of helping but I want closure! I want clients to call me back and say “What you said helped me with my crisis. The counselor helped too. I am slightly less crazy now.”
Some woman I was talking to yesterday got upset because I couldn’t find her in our system. She whined “I must have fallen through the cracks with you guys just like I fall through the cracks everywhere.” I was happy I was just on the phone with her so she couldn’t see me roll my eyes. Shut up and give me a minute to do my job. Oh what? You have a super complicated name that no one spells correctly? Hmm, maybe that’s why I’m having trouble finding you in the system.
Woo! Empathy!