I went back to work at the homeless shelter this past Sunday and encountered a bit of frustration.
Our policies are quite clear about what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do. One example is that I do not clean up messes that clients make. They are adults and are responsible to clean up their own messes. On New Year's Day one client arrived at the shelter, so intoxicated, that she made a mess in the bathroom. I was in the middle of conducting an intake interview with another client when one of the volunteers approached me and attempted to tell me to stop doing the interview and clean up this other client. I politely declined. (I spoke with my supervisor and she backed me up. My boss was appalled that a volunteer would attempt to do that to me.) Then, on Wednesday evening a client, who had the ENTIRE day to fill her prescription, wanted someone else to take care of it for her, which staff cannot do. The same volunteer who attempted to order me to clean up another client attempted to order me to take the client to the pharmacy. I explained that policy forbids that. The volunteer demanded that one of our drivers transport the client. Again, I explained that policy forbids that. Then, the volunteer announced that she would arrange for one of the group of volunteers to transport the client in one of their personal vehicles. I told her that policy does not allow that because of liability issues. (That volunteer was NOT happy with me because I DARED to say the word "NO" to her!) She called my boss Thursday morning to register a complaint about me because I was "uncooperative". Sheesh!!!!!
Bones
