Problem Solving - One Step at a Time

Hmm, thought we should take some time to figure out this next part. There was another upset with the boss yesterday. Apparently, two of the DSP’s had gotten together to complain to her about me.

They said that I was giving them too much work to do, especially with the individual’s goals. Problem was that instead of them talking to me, Sr. Tess had to come in my office (my friend was there too) and she was yelling it at me. We got defensive pretty fast, so the whole thing stayed on kind of an emotional level.

After this had happened, we decided to leave and in so doing accepted the invitation of going out to dinner with our friend. He didn’t really want to get into it, but we were pretty insistent, so he reverted back over to the boss role at the dinner table.

I guess the situation had continued after Sr. Tess left our office. Both she and he were in her office up front and one of the DSPs had decided to complain some more. Through all the wish-wash of the situation, my friend had decided to support my side of the argument, but he was challenging back I'd have to control my emotions.

Basically, we have the situation of some DSPs who don’t want to do the extra effort of helping individuals one-on-on and they don’t want to do anything new. They prefer to lecture to the group, give the group the answers, mark them all 100% learned and go happily on to whatever other subject comes to mind.

My friend is saying that my co-workers are still pretty threatened of me. Even though, I’m very careful to meet their needs each time a problem comes up, intellectually and with passion we’re still overwhelming them. I’m not sure what to do about this. First thing, I guess is to calm down. Have we mentioned before ... we don’t do anger well?

My friend was able to explain to Sr. Tess what she already knew. The State and CARF expect "individual" goals and for the goals to change as necessary. But, the DSPs are threatening to quit if they have to really be challenged. They are 6 hour a day people, that's it.  And, through all this frustration, I’m fretting because it’s a block in getting my work completed.

I actually really read the notes from the DSPs and the individuals. I try to comply to needs. Thing is this DSP is upset even that I am asking the individuals their needs.  How are we to handle this line of thinking?