After getting up this morning, eating breakfast,
brushing my teeth and checking my computer only to see zero replies to an ad
yet again and that my ad had been buried on Craigslist again, my frustration
inspired me to write this…
Just an advisory before I begin. My abundance of
frustration is what is prompting me to write this. It’s nothing personal
against anyone who reads this and it most certainly isn’t about any of you.
Those who have worked for me for awhile (past or presently), and by awhile I mean
at least nine months, know that you’re the best. I wouldn’t trade you for
anything in the world. I really wish I could clone you or better yet, offer you
enough pay and benefits to keep you forever. There just aren’t many people like
you in the world nowadays. But, I know that there are others – sick in
hospitals, others with far more significant lifelong conditions, or businesses –
who need your wonderfulness more than I do.
And, by writing this I am definitely not asking for
sympathy and for people to think my life is hard or sad. So don’t. I hate it
when people think that.
With that said, let me begin my rant.
It’s become hard… so hard… to find good quality care
attendants. It seems to be a fairly new problem, not only to me but to others I
know who also rely on them. It used to be that I could post an ad on Craigslist
and in a matter of minutes the replies would start flowing in. In less than a
day I would have on average 30 replies. And, at least half of them were worth
pursuing. I miss the days of having narrowed things down to five wonderful
candidates and having trouble deciding which one to hire, because I truly liked
all of them. Oh, those were the good ole days!
Present day is typically very different. I can post
an ad on Craigslist and if I’m lucky, I will get maybe five replies in a day
and rarely more than 10 in a week. That would be fine, if they were people who
actually read what the ad says. 99% of the time these people don’t meet the
requirements, can’t work the hours advertised or clearly didn’t read the
directions for applying. Honestly, I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the
people replying are simply just fulfilling unemployment requirements. All they
have to do is tell the unemployment office that they applied for x number of
jobs and that’s it. They get their benefits. The unemployment office doesn’t
verify any of it. If people were truly eager to get a job, they would take the
time to properly apply for the job and even make an impression. Society has
become lazy because the government makes it too easy to freeload off of it and
my experience with applicants just proves this. (Note, I'm not saying everyone is lazy.)
So where are the applicants? That is a good question
and one I would really like to know the answer to. When the economy was good
and unemployment was lower, I had tons of replies. With the economy bad and
unemployment is higher, I have far fewer replies. This baffles me, because you
would think it would be the opposite and I would be overwhelmed with replies.
People should be desperate to find a job. There are a couple of factors that I think
are partly to blame…
People (although, not everyone) have less of a work ethic than they used to.
Some people don’t want to work, even when they need to. It’s become easier to
live off of other resources, such as the government and parents. Now I’m not
saying everyone and every student has a wealthy mom and dad to live off of. It’s
just that when people can just get by without having to work and having no
responsibility, they do. People would rather go out drinking and partying, or
just sit at home and do nothing, instead of having actual responsibility and
developing work skills and work ethics they are going to need to survive later
in life or even currently in life. It used to be that getting a job in high
school or college was something you just did. It wasn’t a choice. I guess you
could say it was a rite of passage. Now, young people would rather just live up
those years.
I should be clear and say that I will not only consider college students. Yes, probably 90% of my
care attendants the past 12 years have been college students, but that’s just
because they have been the best candidates. College students can have a
flexible schedule, depending on what degree and schooling they are pursuing.
They are usually physically fit enough and have the stamina to be able to
handle the physical aspects of the job. They usually will enjoy the same
hobbies and interests as me, and will want to do these with me. And, if they
are pursuing some kind of healthcare or medical degree, they are usually eager
to learn and genuinely interested in learning what I need them to do. With that
said, I’m certainly willing and do consider
others who are not students and may be older than the traditional college
age, as long as they meet the requirements, can physically do the job and that I
feel we will mesh well (more on this later).
The other factor is entitlement. Or at least I think
that’s the right word. I could almost also use the word, greedy. People (although, not everyone) want to
make money and a lot of it. Maybe this is sometimes because they have high
standards for material things and want to live a luxurious lifestyle, that in
reality they can’t really afford. Maybe it’s sometimes because they know there’s
a shortage of workers – for whatever reason – and so they like to follow the
idea of supply and demand. I cannot tell you how many people have replied
trying to negotiate the pay. Some people demand around $20 or more an hour. While I perfectly agree care attendants are
underpaid (mine are some of the highest paid by an agency), you simply aren’t
going to get more or much more than I can offer you, unless you can find a
client who private pays. I think it’s safe to say – but could be wrong – that most
are not.
When I do find candidates worth interviewing, there’s
a whole other set of issues. I would say I experience around a 30% rate of
people not showing up for their interview. They can come across as being super
interested in the job and I can confirm with them the night before or the day
of, and they still will not show up. No phone
call. No email. No text. Nothing. I’ve wasted an hour of my day. I plan an
hour for each interview I schedule and sometimes I go out of my way to agree to
a time that is convenient for them
but isn’t great for me. I understand that maybe another job offer may arise,
maybe they realize it’s farther than they thought, or maybe they decide it’s
just not a job they want. No matter what
the reasoning is, just tell me instead of wasting my time! When people do
show up, I cannot count the times there’s phones going off, they didn’t bring
something with that I asked for, they aren’t paying attention and so on. I try to see past these things, but it
makes it hard to know that they will be a good fit.
Earlier I mentioned meshing well. By that I guess
you could call it getting along. Being a personal care attendant is just what
the title implies – personal. Some
people just have care attendants a few hours a day and then there are some like
me who can have them all day. I think no matter how much time you spend
together, it’s important that you get
along. Yes, first and foremost, they
are working for you and that you are
not hiring people to be your friend. But having similar personalities and
interests is important so that you get along and enjoy being around each other,
and that you don’t dread them coming to
work. Sometimes people just don’t mesh well and they drive you nuts and
stress you out. This is not a good situation to be in and I can tell you from personal experience that at some point –
probably sooner rather than later – it isn’t going to end well… possibly even
leaving you or putting you in an unsafe situation. I’ve tried to whole idea of
hiring someone because they “look good on paper and could physically do the job”
even though I felt the personality wasn’t a great match – a few times – and it
just didn’t work for me. There were usually problems with behaviors, following
directions, feeling like they weren’t at all interested in anything we did and I
found myself not feeling like I could be myself, kept to myself more and generally
looking forward to the end of their shift. Needles
to say, I love it when I’m actually looking forward to someone coming to work!
If I can get through the interview process with
successfully finding someone I want to hire, I’ve had a problem that is
definitely new. People accept the job
only to not follow through. Eight times since February this has happened.
At least half have gone ahead and completed the paperwork. One even completely
trained in and trained in good. After accepting the job, people either receive
other job offers, rethink the job or realize that maybe they won’t have a car
or be able to change their schedule to work the hours like they originally said
they could. Sometimes I think people just get nervous about starting a new job.
What these people don’t realize is that it
costs me time and money, and my hiring agency money. Every time my hiring
agency runs a background check, it costs them money. I think it’s $25. For me,
it costs me usually at least seven days (not including the weeks spent
recruiting) as new hires cannot train or begin working until their paperwork
has been processed and their background check has cleared. If I have started
training them, factor in roughly another five to seven days. When they back out of the job, I’m first
suddenly left without someone to work the hours I planned on them working. This
means I have to ask others to work extra. Sometimes they can and sometimes they
can’t. When they can’t it can mean I have to cancel some appointments or even
worse, miss my own work. It’s my personal
policy to never allow my care attendants to affect my ability to work. Then,
because usually I didn’t have any other suitable candidates, I have to recruit all over again. This can
mean weeks of my time, $25 for every post on Craigslist and the cost of
Care.com memberships. So while backing out of the job doesn’t cost them
anything, it costs me… a lot.
Being completely successful in hiring someone – and by
that I mean they didn’t back out, they completed training and have started
working – should mean that I can relax. This used to be the case. I could hire someone and know and trust that
they would be here as scheduled, do everything that is expected of them, be
able to catch on to things and take initiative to do the things they are
expected to do, follow the rules and guidelines of the position, and just be a
mature and responsible adult understanding
that I need them there in case I need help and not to be their babysitter or
chatty partner. While I need them there and like having them there, I need my space. I need time to myself and
to do things on my own. I don’t need a babysitter. Maybe this is asking too much. Or maybe the kind of people out
there has changed. I don’t know. In the last year – maybe less – I’ve sort of
struggled with newer care attendants. Even after weeks of working here, I find
myself having to do much more supervising than I should. I find myself
routinely having to tell them what needs to be done, that they actually need to
do it and how to do it, even though all
of this is posted for them. I routinely find myself having to remind people
that they need to be on time, despite multiple times emphasizing the importance
of punctuality during recruiting and training. And, despite initialing and
signing guidelines and contracts acknowledging these things, and again
(hopefully) reading these things in the training manual, I still have to tell
people that they really do have to turn their phone off and put it away, and
that they really do need to not (excessively) speed in my car. But again, maybe I’m asking too much.
I’ve definitely learned that even though I could not make things clearer – whether it’s doing my
personal cares, household tasks or following the rules and guidelines for the
position – I have to be clearer. This
new kind of “workforce” must learn differently or have a different kind of
attitude, because managing and supervising care attendants has become a
fulltime job. A fulltime job that I don’t
get paid for. Factoring in the recruiting aspect of it, it’s a fulltime job that I actually pay for.
I realize all of this ranting… actually, I want to call it venting… may sound like I’m complaining
or angry or depressed or hate life or hate my disability or hate having care
attendants. I want to be clear that that
is not the case. I certainly do not hate my disability or my life. On the
contrary, I’ve always embraced my
disability. It’s not and never has been a hindrance to me. And I absolutely love my life. I think it’s
been pretty great and I feel fortunate to have had and have the
opportunities I do. There are others who
have it a lot worse and I wish I could be like Ellen DeGeneres and help people
in need and make their lives better. I
am definitely especially grateful for even getting to have care attendants.
They are my lifeline. They are my independence. They are the reason why I can
do the things I do. Without them I would
be nowhere. I have been blessed with
many wonderful ones. And, I’m definitely not depressed or angry. I’m just frustrated.
Or
maybe I’m just getting old and crabby.
