Waiting on Perfect
May 4, 2013
Just a few thoughts while I patiently wait on that golden, dream job opportunity call on my phone…
I have been working in the field of counseling for about 20 years. Mostly, I worked in agencies that served at-risk youth and their families. I didn’t have a bachelor’s degree when I first started. As the promotions went, I was forced to get my undergraduate degree. More experience and more promotion ceilings. In 2009 I moved to Alabama to pursue a personal relationship. There really were no attractive options for employment other than a “line staff” or something equally entry-level. So, what is a boy to do? Go for the Master’s degree, of course! Two years later, 30k+ poorer and still people want to offer entry level “opportunities” to a guy with 20 years of experience (public speaking, prolific writing, policy drafting, quality assurance, significant management experience) AND now a MS in Counseling Psychology.
Here is the trouble (as I see it) with our field. I see a lot of program contracts that have been farmed out to the lowest bidder by various state and federal agencies. I won’t get into the potential for graft and corruption here. The initiators/creators of the programs are doing well, and get by with a churn & burn of revolving door mental health technicians and lack-of-experience clinicians who are only there for supervision or internships or to say they have some experience at the next job. The line-staff often are hired with no real experience (manager needs a warm body to fill the hole in the schedule). The scared and frustrated line staff won’t be disempowered by the clients, so they often resort to brute force or verbal abuse to maintain control on the floor. Meanwhile, the clinicians get burned out hot and fast like the flame under the space shuttle as it struggles to get out of the powerful gravitational pull of the Earth. Often, they burn very bright and fade quickly and leave because the system is dysfunctional or rather not growth oriented for clients or staff. Where is the management you ask? They are covering and coveting their office chairs and ensuring that their butts don’t move from that perch. Opportunities are missed and the cycle continues. The dysfunctional system that was tasked with helping people with dysfunctional lives does nothing but add a new painful chapter in their already scarred lives.
Folks, money is important. Job security and quality opportunities for growth are important too. Perhaps what is most important to a caregiving professional like me is the ability to make a difference. I am well past the phase of my career where I am best utilized by serving the individual needs of the clients. I certainly still enjoy helping individuals seeking help, but I believe the best use of my skills and abilities is to help mold, build or fundamentally change systems that serve people in need. Through my many years in the game, I believe that is exactly the skillset that isn’t wanted by most agencies that serve people in need.
It is sad that people in other fields are falling all over themselves trying to decide between the offers and large salaries. I think of sales as I write this. Sure, pushing out a product is good for the company making it, but what does it really do to make the world a better place? And sure, I am just a little bit bitter and jealous. I often get mouthy at the TV when I see some athlete complaining about 5.5 million being so insulting to them as a salary offer. Really, what do you do again??? You play a game! I can sense that this particular line of thought will just nosedive into a very righteously indignant diatribe about our culture and the entertainment industry as a whole. So, I will stop. Meanwhile, I sit waiting in my shared room in my volunteer job waiting for the next person to come in expecting me to work miracles in their life. All along, I know I am looking for the opportunity to change systems that CREATED most of the dysfunctions in this person’s life.
I also know that I make the people sitting across the table during the interview uncomfortable because I am open, honest and freely share my goal for utopian helping systems achieved through frank discussions and freely challenging what is inefficient, unhealthy or just plain dysfunctional. Is there an organization or company out there with a position for a guy with a ton of experience who would be best suited for turning around poorly performing agencies in order to better serve the clients? I promise I don’t want to rock the boat! I want to rock the ocean.
— R. A. Grier