An "Ohhhhhh" kind of day

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Mornin ... morning ... Everybody sleep well? We had good rest ... makes a nice start of the day. It was supposed to have gotten down to 40 last night, so we got to snuggle up under a blanket again. Sure do miss that in the summer.

Yesterday, we went for Italian with our friend. That was real nice. Gives us a chance to catch up with each other. He’s had a worrisome week because his daughter was in a car accident that totaled her car. She walked away from it with just some soreness. He says the air bags and seat belts did their job. But, being a father ... they worry you know?

Mostly, we talked about work though. Hehe, I had to tease him. Usually, by Friday he’s tired out and has many complaints of the week. But, we told him that he shouldn’t complain, because by Friday, people are all warmed up! He didn’t want to concede to that one though ...

We ended the formal week well. We felt really good about the progress of the work, because even being out a day and a half ... things were getting done and were organized. I don’t feel as behind as I normally do ... even though there is a terrible amount of work left to do. The new schedule system is working like a dream. Except now, we’re using it as we go, rather than trying to collect our thoughts from the memory of what we did.

It’s still not perfect and we’re having trouble marking time throughout the day. But, we are trying and having some fun with it too. Yesterday a very happy Anniemi was telling our friend about our new coloring system. She’s very excited to have created a "Team Idea," that was well received. She told our friend, while gushing over ... "Well, how could you not like the color of powder blue!? So, of course we had to do the work!"

The new deal is that if the area is completed then the report says in light gray, "Completed." That’s a pretty nice looking line to see. Dignified, you know? If we did new work and progressed one of our areas, then it is colored Annimie’s favorite powder blue. But, if it’s a carry-over job that didn’t see progress, it’s left in a light orange. Light orange is not a bad color, but after all, it’s still orange! And who would want that mixed with the pretty soft blue/grey colors!? You know ... It’s all about making a system that works for you! Sure, you all have your own set of eccentricities? *Giggle*

I think the really neat part of the schedule is that it feels like we are more efficient. You start off every morning with a list of things to do from the night before. Well sorta... What we’ve been doing is to pull up the schedule from the night before, change the dates and re-save it under the new date, then all the areas that are blue that are already done, get erased and if there is not already, we take the last set of thoughts and carry them out to the new set of thoughts.

Like one day, we may have completed the staff survey. We don’t have to do anything with that, so it gets erased. We keep a paper copy of completed work to refer to. But, on the other hand ... We might still be working with that client on his impulse goal, so we write something new on it. Like ... try to increase his ability to self-control from 63% to 70% by being more quick with the "hold" command. So, later in the day when we look at our schedule. We have to only think. "Let’s go."

We’re figurin there must be natural times ... need to sit ... when we’re more apt to think, then there are the other times, your more ready to go visiting. For us that means dropping something off to one of the staff’s mailboxes, making copies up front, stoppin in to see Sr. Tess about a directive, checking in with one of the clients, or for that matter going to the washroom! Since, we can’t stand/walk for long, we really need to be efficient.

In general, we’re trying to ease the pain of our own self-resistance to starting up new tasks. Hehe - In the morning after we’d taken care of mail and immediate problems, we dared even to look in our cubby hole. I think everyone that works must have one of these. Last night, our friend said he has a box on the left hand corner of his desk and I know Sr. Tess has a stack to the left of her desk’s "writing space." It’s the pile of stuff to do yet ... umm, when there is time.

In our cubby hole, we’ve got a couple of bundles. Each of the bundles of paper are attached with those clips for ½ to 3/4" worth of papers. Just love those clips! Ya know? They come in gold or silver too! One clipped bundle has our information from the Performance Analysis we’ve been working on. Another bundle has our our work with the new intake procedures. And, another clipped bundle has our monthly tasks. Every month the secretary hands us a pretty new monthly calendar that gets clipped to the outside of that bundle.

The thing is ... the clip can only hold so much paper, so if you want to stay organized ... you periodically have to go through the stack and eliminate some of the paper. I think this is a real cool part of writing and having your own desk(s). Almost everything that a person do can be represented by paperwork or written down on a paper as a reminder. We use paper clips and staples to keep things together too! Can you imagine, we get up early in the morning to just think and flutter about such things!

Yesterday, we were being determined so when we looked through the monthly bundle, we figured we could take care of 5-6 things (progress them) in the hour and a half before lunch. So, we started the process and just kept working.

We were given a small reprieve in that Sister came back to our office and was looking for a ride to the bank. She was explaining coverage complications and we quickly added that if she took the secretary, we could watch the front and continue with our work. *Giggle* That tactic worked for both of us, although the secretary left mumbling under her breath, "I hate to run to the bank!" We whispered to her ... yeah, us too, but we’re sneakier! Hehehe.

By the time, Sister came back ... (We’d been working in her office), we turned our chair to "fill her in." Just went "like here, and here, and here." Felt pretty d*mn good! Always remind your boss how much work you do, especially directly before staff evaluations (start this week!)

Later in the afternoon one of the DSPs wandered in as they are apt to do. The last half hour of the day, all the clients meet up in the multi-purpose room, because it is easier to be calling them out for their rides and only one staff has to be working on a small task with them giving the DSPs the other four days, free time to take care of computer/paper work type things. The clients like the change of pace working with other staff too.

Well, aynway ... this is usually when the staff will stop by to ask questions, or whatever, cuz the activity/staff computer room is way in back by my office. Yesterday the staff for Group 1 (our highest functioning group) had figured that her client was bored with a work goal made to help him express his feelings. *Giggle* poor staff. She doesn’t seem to think we’ve opinions on "boredom?"

And, we know when staff says, "The clients ..." it usually means the staff is bored.  Most our clients could entertain themselves fully by sharpening pencils! And,that’s not meant as a criticism. I used to take great pride that our youngest son could entertain himself with a paperclip for 2-3 hours. It means their mind is more flexible and willing in both discovery and self enlightenment, not to forget fun. Hehe - that’s our interpretation of it at least.

So, we started asking her questions. Most staff seem to like questions more than lectures. Funny thing that. We’re the same way! We got to the point of understanding that she was just asking the questions to the client in a flat 2-dimensional uninspired way. It’s like ... she asks the client, "How are you?" He says, "Fine." She says ... ok, that question is answered, what next? Like wrooooong!

I’m more like the type to be yellin at the client ... in an over exaggerated expression, "whadya mean fine?! Like what does that mean? Does it mean that you had a good lunch? Does it mean nobody was crabby? Does it mean you can push 10 carts without a sweat?? Does it mean that a rabbit came by and gave you a $2.00 tip?? Whadya mean fine? Tell me something interesting of your day!!" I mean the whole point of this goal is to help the client become more expressive in his communication.

Hmm, this catches the DSPs attention, but she’s still not convinced. So, it was like here... Let’s work on building depth in a conversation. I’m going to be you. I then asked her "Why do you like coming to work every day?" She said, "because I want to make money." To which I fairly "snort! You want to make money? Then why did you get a job at this center ... obviously this is not a well-paying job? Is that your only draw?"

She then said, "Well, no ... I like working with all the variety of clients." I said, "Hmm, now we are getting somewhere ... what variety of clients do you like working with?" She said, "pshwew ... there are so many!" We say, "Hehe - I’ve seen that decoy before ... name five client qualities that you like." "Well," she says, "so and so is peaceful, so and so is cheerful..." We let her complete the five which appears to be making her happy. So we say, "Ok, fine ... now lets just pick a few of these ... what happens to your day when you encounter these peaceful, cheerful people at work? How does that make you feel?"

She said, "Well like I can get my work done." "Yes, and ..." "What kind of work do you like doing?" She said, "Well, I like things to be in order, I like structure, and Ilike getting things done! I like to be comfortable." So, then Iasked her if therewere client qualities that made her work difficult?" She thought for a second and answered, "I don’t like it when they are negative." "Ahh," said we ... "That’s very interesting!"

Now,for a second ... let’s step back and review. With just a few dimensional questions we took it down several layers. Layer #1) Why work, Layer #2) People variety is good, Layer #3) Some varieties are better than others, Layer #4) You feel good when... and Layer #5) Your job is more difficult when... It’s all about being interested in "more!" than surface chatter.

Then we asked, "How did the exercise make you feel? Did you know all these things about yourself." She responded, "Well, it was fun, and no, I’d never really thought about it." To which we added, "Maybe the clients could enjoy "real" thinking too? How would this compare to someone accepting just a "fine" response and walking away satisfied?  Sometimes people need help in understanding how interesting they really are. This is what I meant about depth!! On any level you could develop a whole new train of thoughts and ideas, connections to others, cuz hey!  I like order too - your "just" like me!  I can understand you better.  We could be friends, or at least better peers!!  It’s magical!

It’s this, "ohhhhhhh" moment that we thrive on!! *Giggle* So, such and such is what was the consequence of having lived out our Friday. We think this is like "The good stuff!"

Pictures - http://www.christcenteredmall.com/cartoons/cartoonapril99.htm