My Peeps

I am finding that my cynical age that anything that makes me not is of great value if to no one else but to me. A couple of weeks ago actually a couple of months ago I made contact with one of my workmates at the last job I was actually at over at 211 which is a part of United Way.

Readers who follow this blog long time but remember that in my job evaporated with the state that Claire, my boss, worked out a deal with United Way of Utah are Salt Lake to provide me with a phone line in a workstation at two and one Salt Lake County's information and referral system housed at United Way. By being outsourced to 211 allow me to stay an employee of the state of Utah for another year allowing me to finish in time I needed to become fully invested in the state system allowing me to take my full pension which is made all the difference in the world. Though rarely expressed there is also hope that I would become an employee of 211 Information and Referral. I don't not know how good a fit I would've been with United Way overall but I did okay with my group of operators.

The operators at 211 were not ready for me when I came on board. I was a bit of fresh air something completely different to what they had been working with. I was used to work in my own shop and I was pretty radical for a state worker. My style was a little brash but challenging to my callers especially if they had to work within the traditional medical model system. Many of my callers are parents of kids with disabilities and they often needed not only encouragement but a nudge in the right direction opted permission to advocate for themselves since nobody had ever taught them how to do so. I think I only got in trouble twice for advising my callers to challenge the system. Do not totally accept direction of their private nonprofit worker. Especially be wary out input from city County state and even federal officials. I was busy pushing the thoughts and concepts on Independent Living, a national movement of people with disabilities taking control of their lives.

As in any call center our phone calls were often monitored . And I got called on the carpet twice. For the end of my station at 211 I was still radical but not as much center started to be. Actually I worked in I don't think I'll be working long before I would be asked to leave.

My coworker still love me I was really kind of surprised. We were a tightknit group. Members of my calling group took care of me. In the dead of winter but it was so cold and I would wear my big white gangster coat/parka and they would actually pull my jacket over me and made sure I was safe and tucked in before I left the building. Many of our callers are Hispanic and a large number of our operators are bilingual it only makes sense. But they often were shocked when I would give my callers permission to fight the system anyway they could. We became a tight group. Today a large number of the operators I worked with came together at a little restaurant not far from the office and had lunch. This is the first time that this happened with me. It was such a great experience I really liked these people. They are my people and I love them dearly.