Well, today we basically ran out of staff for the aged care hostel. Most of the key day shifts were assigned to Lynette, who's AWOL, and the usual backup staff are all out of town (funerals), including the manager. Dylan has just done 60 hours straight. So I rang Doris in hospital admin and said, "Doris, we have a problem." At first Dylan and I were getting the usual "Oh have you tried calling so and so" thing, but I firmly pointed out that we were hired as carers and are not trained or experienced in hostel management (I deliberately avoided mentioning that I have enough organisational skills to run a small country), and reason prevailed when I showed them how disastrously screwed up the roster was.
Doris rang Norm, the head of the hospital, and he said "Fine. Close the hostel, bring all the residents over here to the wards." This seemed like a great idea until the residents refused to leave their units (fair enough), so we rang Doris back and said, "Doris, we have a mutiny." They eventually found someone to come and take over. I was pleased that I stuck to my Waggin' Trail resolution that I will no longer sacrifice my spare time or be the endlessly helpful "pick up the pieces for the incompetent" person. There is that subtle discrimination where those of us who do not have conventional family arrangements are seen as being freely available day & night when things go wrong, because we can't use excuses such as "I have to pick the kids up from school" and unfortunately things like "I have to go and cuddle the dogs and design a chook house" aren't seen as having the same priority.
So if anyone wants a job, I'm sure there will be a few available starting from tomorrow! I'll be busy taking photos of the giant stick insect plague and scrubbing red dirt from my feet to see if I have any toenails left to polish.
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