Update
Mmkay, some of you may remember I posted a blog last Friday (June 12) about my new job, and then on Saturday it mysteriously disappeared.

So, what happened is I got a comment from someone concerned about a few things I said in the blog, and because I was short on time this weekend, I just took the blog down until I could deal with it properly. Which is apparently at 7 am after I just worked night shift. Why am I not in bed?

Anyway. In the meantime, I’ve also been in contact with the commenter, who is a friend who had some valid concerns. The concerns warranted some changes to the original post, those are asterisked and in italics.

Original Post (with changes)

Now that the job is a done deal, I can tell you a little bit about it. But just a little, since it’s social work, and the government, and involves things like “confidentiality” and also not getting caught on the internet saying derogatory things about my public sector employer. Not that I have anything derogatory to say. Yet.

My official title is Groupworker, and what it means is that I’m “staff” in a juvenile detention facility. You know, jail. But for kids and teenagers.

Now you see what I was saying about sweet ass blogging material that I can never use?

For all my grumbling about going back to social work, this job has lots of benefits. Namely, shift work. When I’m done with my shift I’m done. No one is going to call me to say so-and-so ran away from their foster home. I’m not going to lie awake at night wondering which phone call I forgot to return, or which assessment I forgot to write up, or if maybe I really should have removed that kid.

And it’s similar to the work I’ve done in group homes and psych hospitals, but different enough that it will still be interesting and challenging.

I don’t work my first shift until this Sunday. So far I’ve attended two orientations, and one involved a tour of the actual facility and a little bit about what to expect on the job.

Which is where the negatives start to come in.

*Negatives like zero internet access. Zero. Which when you factor in driving time, means like 8 and a half hours with no blogger, no twitter, no facebook, no smutty fanfic…
(OK, this actually has nothing to do with the comment I got, I’m just telling you that last night I found out we aren’t even allowed to have our cell phones on the unit at all. There goes my back-up plan of getting an iphone. Just shoot me now. Seriously.)

Negatives like only getting to pee and eat on scheduled breaks.

* Negatives like having to eat meals with the kids. I mean, yeah, it’s free food. But, it’s free jail food. Something tells me it won’t be gluten and dairy free.
(Apparently there is some high school culinary arts program onsite that prepares all the food and is quite kick ass and nothing at all like jail food. So, I get free delicious food. Don’t hate.)

Negatives like having to wear a belt so that you can “gear up” when you get to work. Which is not nearly as cool as it sounds. Yes, we get cool radios and big sets of keys. But that’s it. No weapons, not even a big flashlight. Did I mention I hate belts and never wear them, never? In fact, there is a good chance I don’t even own one.

Negatives like having to strip search a teenager before you do their intake so they don’t stab you with a pocket knife when you’re doing their mental status exam.

Negatives like how mind-numbingly boring some shifts can be. I’m the first one to say I prefer a quiet shift over restraints and lockdowns, but it is truly painful how slow time can pass on a quiet shift.

And you know how when you start a new job, you’re nervous because you don’t know anyone, and you don’t know where the bathroom is, and all the hallways look the same?

Well, picture a meandering maze of locked doors, that each require some combination of (pixie dust) and one of 8 or 9 (spells) to unlock them. And that require knowing when you are in a (Muggle) or a (wizarding) hallway. And that require knowing exactly where you came from and where you are going so the kid you’re escorting has less time to flip out and/or try to escape.

*To make things more interesting, and as a way to help me remember where everything is and what it’s for, and because I’m a huge geek, I’ve been renaming things. In my head, not out loud to anyone.
(Here the concern was that I may have given out too much information about a secure building. For the record, when I was writing the original post, I was being careful not to describe anything recognizable. But since it IS jail, you can’t be too careful. So here I’ve just redacted any identifying details. Which is most of them.)

The (redacted) that the (redacted) to (redacted)? That’s the flight deck.
(I totally got to play with the flight deck last night. It was awesome.)

When you go from a (redacted), you have to (redacted), let it (redacted) you, then (redacted). That’s the airlock.

The desk where the staff sits is already called Pod Command, which is pretty sweet, but I’ve renamed it Galactica Actual.

The (redacted)? That’s Dradis. The Dradis thing might not stick because I think they just give us actual pieces of paper with that information to carry around with us.

Maybe I’ll just settle for cutting the corners off.

Tags: bsg, i'm a huge geek, juvenile detention, social work

This entry was posted by Cathy on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under My Former Life, Stuff I Like. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.