Abuse at work? Ever had it?

[blackstar]

When I was a teacher at a residential school for boys in care (more than thirty years ago) I was stabbed in the face by a fifteen year-old who didn't fancy doing any writing that day. Worse than that was the response of the head who said, "If this boy misbehaves again, let me know and we'll stop his weekend leave." Fine, I'll just go and get my face stitched shall I?

yeah thats what i'm talking about :mad:

[marshlander]

Kudos to you, blackstar! I could not do the job you do.

When I took the job at the school I mentioned, the governor at the interview said to me, "Of course, you do realise that when someone says this boy should be put away, this is where he's put?" He wasn't kidding. It was my first experience of people who thought so differently from the way I saw the world that we might as well have been from different species :eek: We took boys up to the age of seventeen and every day was a battle. I don't know what your situation is like, but the non-stop barrage of name calling, the deliberate acts of petty provocation, the subtle and direct threats as well as outright acts of violence are all very firmly embedded in my memory. :frown:

[princealbertofb]

Being pinned against a wall for fifteen minutes, by someone who thought my band should be playing and singing Irish rebel songs ... yeah, right.

I used to drive taxis in the evenings, I got quite lot of drunken abuse in that job.

When I was a teacher at a residential school for boys in care (more than thirty years ago) I was stabbed in the face by a fifteen year-old who didn't fancy doing any writing that day. Worse than that was the response of the head who said, "If this boy misbehaves again, let me know and we'll stop his weekend leave." Fine, I'll just go and get my face stitched shall I?

I've not seen any marks, it must have healed well... :confused:

[blackstar]

Kudos to you, blackstar! I could not do the job you do.

When I took the job at the school I mentioned, the governor at the interview said to me, "Of course, you do realise that when someone says this boy should be put away, this is where he's put?" He wasn't kidding. It was my first experience of people who thought so differently from the way I saw the world that we might as well have been from different species :eek: We took boys up to the age of seventeen and every day was a battle. I don't know what your situation is like, but the non-stop barrage of name calling, the deliberate acts of petty provocation, the subtle and direct threats as well as outright acts of violence are all very firmly embedded in my memory. :frown:

yes i work with 16-21 yr old male juveniles. i have been doing this the past 5 years. i have totally changed. (from a human rights activist to this) what you just described is just like it is except on a higher level.
i was doing grand but i have struggled in the past year. i realise now that is just how it is. i have been handcuffed to inmates enough times and seeing the drama of the courts to realise that this is the way the world is.
it is a long time coming but i have accepted the way of the world. i don't get bitter anymore. i don't try and make people understand. i sometimes wish i could live in a world where i did not see so much corruption and decay.

but as i said i have come to terms with it. the only problem i find is that i have become emotionally detached. witnessing so much rapes, horrific crimes etc and seeing how the courts deal with it. also getting assaulted on a daily basis and the abuse. (syringes put up to you and brushes getting broken over your back all because i say NO!)
but ireland is in a bad recession and my wages have well dropped. i am back on the wages that i started off as a rookie!

sorry for the rant lol but yeah i know the story. we get those that graduated from your "school".

[Bookworm]

I imagine you must get loads of taunting and abuse being a woman working in a male juvenile facility! Can't be easy for you.

I've not received any physical abuse at work, although I was once threatened with a baseball bat for challenging someone I thought was a potential shoplifter. This was way back when I was Sales Assistant after school. I was also locked in a walk-in freezer too when I started another after school job part time at a supermarket, that was my initiation for being the 'newbie' - was more psychological abuse as I'm claustrophobic :biggrin:

[marshlander]

yes i work with 16-21 yr old male juveniles. i have been doing this the past 5 years. i have totally changed. (from a human rights activist to this) ...

You have my utmost respect for managing to keep doing such an awful job for five years. The thing I hated most about the job I had (during around 1979/80) was the way it changed me. I used to tell other people that working in that situation cured my social conscience. I think I believed it for a long time too. I developed animal instincts I didn't realise it was possible for any human to have. If I were ever stupid enough to turn my back on the boys I seemed to know exactly when my pocket was about to be picked or a piece of furniture was being picked up to be thrown at me. I hated the misogyny openly displayed to female members of staff. They had an uncanny ability to sense anyone's weakness and pick at it without mercy. Years later, when I kept chickens, I often saw them do something similar. They'd peck at a victim until it bled. Once they saw blood they'd peck it to death if I didn't manage to intervene first.

Feel free to rant as much as you need.

Hugs and best wishes to you.

[sudanese]

HR

abuse is those folks' job ...

they can keep telling you the referees haven't responded to their emails.. to find out they sent them to the wrong addresses 6 times

they ask you for a document, they say it is urgently required, you send it by express mail, they say they haven't received and no problem its required at the lastest stage and can wait, just to contact you a couple of days later and ask for it urgently again.

they ask for a check that takes a long time, when you receive that check and tell them what's next ? they say they haven't received their copy ( which was supposed to be sent at the same time by the same authority 10 days ago )

they say they can't proceed further without receiving a medical clearance .. u contact the occupational health and they say it was sent a month ago to the HR !

this may be not a typical example of abuse but I couldn't find a better word to describe incompetence, time wasting, stupid responses, unreliability and cold expressions combined. especially when one has to travel to another city 3 times just to hear this sh**t.
describing this as incompetence may sound harsh, but the other explanation would be it is done on purpose ...

It might be unfair to generalise, but also the similar and worse stories you hear from friends and colleagues make one thing there is a better explanation than just chance.

Should they be blamed? or should we blame large state employers who have the habit of focusing on trivial issues and ignoring efficiency.

[marshlander]

No, it's definitely incompetence, but unfortunately it is embedded in the institution