Tuesday, August 05, 2008

My Late in Life Career

I work for a substance abuse recovery program. About 20 hours a week.
I have worked there for almost 2 years.
My friend who shares my house with me is the Clinical Director of the program.
At first, I was sort of a "fly on the wall" as the business underwent its planning and formation in my dining room over the period of about a year.
As time went by, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and had to start contributing ideas. I have good ideas. I am good at executing projects. I know how to get information. I am highly focused and serious about any work I do. So, I developed their Outcomes Management program.
When the company first opened, I was asked to come in and answer phones for a couple of hours in the late afternoon.
When they saw that I did that well, they started asking me to look stuff up. I did that well too.
As the time approached for us to be reviewed by accrediting agencies, I was asked to research and develop various policies and procedures for the program. My favorite time was when the accreditors were on site asking where our policy on "wandering" was and I had to research and write a policy on "wandering" in about 1/2 hour's time!! They thought it was just fine!
Every quarter, I gather up all the Outcomes Surveys that clients have filled out and tabulate the results then write a report which goes to our state funding agency.
When the bosses saw that I was doing that well, they asked me to start auditing the progress notes in client charts. I means I check group and individual notes for accuracy in several areas. We must show our funding sources that we are really doing the work that we are being paid for.
Keep in mind that I still do all the other job duties I listed!
A couple of months ago, the person who worked front desk in the morning, made a (big) inappropriate decision - really big.
So, now, I come in the morning for 4 hours. And I do the stuff I always did before, except that now the clients are around to perplex me. I am also doing more and different kinds of reports and organizing the filing system, which was in bad shape.
I am having a wonderful time.
I wish I had a little more sleep and a little more time to handle the affairs of daily life.
Some day, I expect to be full time, but there are a few other important things in my life right now that I want to attend to. And then life will change. And it will be different and a little sad, but it will be OK too.

1 comment:

L Bug said...

OMG! You posted twice and I nearly missed it!!! You are so cute, you always get all worked up when you have to work more but then you end up loving it. Let's make a deal. You post more and I'll post more, OK?