Day 9 and 10: Taking a break.

Day 9:

I have been a little bit lazy about posting. And even at the moment I am testing out the app version of Blogger because I was too tired to type it out on my computer. 

Yesterday and today were crazy, busy days. After I got home from work and the chiropractor on Tuesday, I jumped into bed, grabbed my computer, and checked to see what was on Netflix. At about 7:30pm, I debated whether to get up and make some supper or take a nap. 

I took the nap. 

I woke up at 10pm and drifted in and out of sleep for 30 more minutes. After cooking some food and preparing my lunch for the next day, it was already nearing midnight. I couldn't fall back asleep until 1am. 

Ultimately I didn't get more sleep than I average a night, but I felt better about myself having chosen to rest instead of aimlessly searching through Netflix. 

Day 10:

Today was rough.

Working with clients who have varying worldviews, cultures, values, and languages is not always the easiest task. 

Instead of having a meeting with just a client of mine this afternoon, she was joined by an older brother. I'm not sure about family dynamics in their culture, but I'm going to take a guess that it is male dominant. 

Toward the end of this meeting, I had to go to my supervisor's office to ask about getting a bus card for my client. Previously I had explained to my client and her brother that I could not give a bus card for various reasons. I explained this in detail a few times. 

Because he was persistent, he asked me to confront my supervisor. After relaying the conversation to my supervisor, he had decided to step into my office to explain the situation in even greater detail. 

The brother did not receive this information in a polite manner, and at that point I was ready for the meeting to be done...

After the two had left, I managed to knock on my supervisor's office door again and quickly apologized about the whole situation. He understood and then began affirming how difficult it has been to work with this client. 

I left his office, grabbed my Job Club materials and lunch, and headed over to the classroom to set up for the 1pm workshop. During this short break, I became anxious as I wondered how my supervisor perceived my interactions with my client and her brother. I thought he must think I can't handle tough situations or that I had made the brother angry by giving false information or that maybe I wasn't the best person for this job. 

It was nearing 1pm so I pushed these thoughts aside to focus on the topic of the day: interviewing. Only two students came, both were new to Job Club. One of them stayed after class ended to fill out an application for Burger King. I stayed there too since I had nothing better to do until my next scheduled meeting. 

The student showed some concern about including previous employers who might not speak highly of him. His job counselor said thelikelihood of these people remembering the details of those situations as vividly as the student did was very slim. 

This caused me to wonder if my supervisor actually may have been thinking those crazy thoughts I had following the confrontation with my client's brother. I assumed the answer was no. Or I hope it was no. 

So what I did for myself today was to know that I handled the situation with my client and her brother in the correct way. Yes, I had to ask my supervisor to intervene, but he had no problem addressing the situation in greater detail. 

Do I still feel crummy about what happened, yes, but I also know there were so many factors involved to make the situation turn out the way it did. 

So I'm giving myself a break because sometimes people can be unpredictable.