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Perspective (see which description most nearly resembles you):
I make a decent income (being a so-called Senior Tech writer for a good
company). I mostly find my work activities pleasant and interesting,
sometimes challenging (which is not always a euphemism for frustrating), and
I'm surrounded by roughly 35 of the nicest, smartest people you'd care to
meet, five days a week. The honchos who visit from head office every month
or so are very sharp people, but genial and a pleasure to work for. I work
easy hours with occasional sprints (but haven't had to do a literal
over-nighter in ten years, no matter how badly a schedule got munged). I
leave my work on/near my desk when I depart the office. I don't carry a
pager or a Blackberry, and nobody officially knows my cell number.
Compare to:
A family member was a "screw" (Federal, max-sec) for several years, and has
been a parole officer ever since. He makes a bit more money than I do (and
actually lives in a region with a lower cost of living, so he can afford a
nicer house and more toys...) and definitely has a better pension (meaning
he has one at all) and benefits package. He works "regular" hours, now, but
only after learning that there's no reward for working longer. He works
hard, but as much to keep sane as anything. Not for enjoyment. He deals with
the scum of the earth, with only the very occasional sprinkling of
recognizable humanity that might, potentially be reclaimed. From among those
latter, only very, very, very rarely does he experience true success, where
the parolee goes straight and becomes a functioning member of society. Due
to cutbacks and high-level incompetence, his "standard" caseload is triple
what it should be, and then because of make-work paperwork and bureaucratic
... um... quirkiness... his actual workload is some multiple of that again.
By definition, he cannot possibly do a good job. Federal regulations mandate
that most of the paperwork MUST be filled out or bad things happen in the
judicial system (like violent multiple offenders being released
free-and-clear because a paperwork requirement was not met on an inflexible
schedule). The time left for actually interviewing and assessing and....
guiding?.... his charges is practically nil.
At any given time, a third or more of his department is out on burnout
leave, that normally lasts for six-to-fifteen months, but no replacement
officers are hired. Then there are the members who take a year for
baby-raising, also not replaced. So he's actually carrying at least a second
person's full (over-) workload. I don't need to tell you what further
happens during vacation season, do I? Basically, two or three weeks of
vacation is not enough to unwind from the previous weeks covering for other
vacationing co-workers. During the time where he's actually
eyeball-to-eyeball with his "clients", it's a steady stream of excuses,
whining, lying, inveigling and relentless attempts to con, cajole and
threaten (him) broken only by the incoherent ramblings of the final-stages
druggies who can't even make both eyes track anymore. Nevertheless, he's
found time to be on a first-name basis with virtually every city cop, every
staffer of every halfway house and mission, most of the fire, rescue and
paramedic crews, and the coroner.
Also psychiatric and psychological consultants, social workers, welfare
officers... His office is actually regional, so he has responsibility for
keeping watch over parolees who live in villages more than 60 miles away,
but with no allowance for travel time to those Federally mandated site
visits (I mean, he gets paid for mileage, but his horribly constricted
schedule doesn't recognize that it takes time to physically travel to and
from those places).
He's had credible threats against his life, both by "clients" themselves and
by their druggie, biker-gang and other hard-core friends. There have been
several (so far un-successful) attempts to follow through. He drives home
via circuitous routes, making sure he's not followed. His phone is unlisted.
His home is in his wife's maiden name. He sleeps with a loaded gun under his
pillow - his wife has gotten used to it - in a house with more sophisticated
and redundant alarm systems than you'd see in so-called "secure
installations".
Remember that pension I mentioned earlier? He's got enough time invested
toward it that he feels he must stick it out to the first possible
retirement date, despite the fact that his job is literally killing him -
he's younger than I am and looks older. He stuck it out five years longer
than anybody else in his department, before finally acceding to his wife's
and doctor's demands and taking some of that burnout leave. He's also got
nearly a year of rolled-over, accumulated vacation due. But it could be
worse. He could be doing the same job, for the same pay (no adjustment for
higher cost of living) in Toronto, where the oldest surviving officer is
something like 33 years old, with most achieving total, permanent burnout in
their twenties.
Did I mention that the government revoked one of the early-retirement
milestones not long before he would have reached it?
Anybody wanna trade?
By the way, this is a guy whose skill-set would let him walk into a senior
HR position in any corporation or government department, relax utterly, and
still do a tremendous job. He just doesn't believe it when I tell him. I
have the horrible feeling that I'm going to outlive him, and that he very
likely won't reach that "generous" pension he frets about.
Kevin
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