These are our personal stories, our reasons for Occupying Portland, Salem, Eugene, (and so on!) beginning in October. In peaceful solidarity with Occupy Wall St.
Take a photograph of yourself holding a sign that describes your situation. You can show your face or not, your choice. Be creative! At the bottom of your sign, write occupyportland.org, occupyeugene.com, occupytogether.org, or Occupy [enter your city here]. Send your photo to oregon99percent@riseup.net. I will post photos daily.
Care giving is a joke these days. Over worked and underpaid. I worked as a caregiver in a "assisted Living" facility for 8 months until I was completely burnt out. First lets talk about how underpaid we were. for 9.00 an hour I had to deep clean the carpets. I had to dust, sweep, mop, clean lint traps, empty garbage, and clear out dishes from the laundry rooms. I also had to clean bathrooms and staff areas. I worked noc shift. From 10 30-6 30am. I received no night differential, obviously. I had to work through my lunches on most nights to help the only other caregiver on staff, if there was one. We also had to set 24 tables for breakfast. On top of all that we had to do continence care for a dozen people twice a night as well as answer all the other calls to help people. All the while keeping track of the people that wandered throughout the building and outside of it. Now lets talk about the turnover rate. In the 8 months that I worked there, I met 5 people who quit within months, some on the same day. So on the nights that there was no one to help I was stuck by myself in a building with over 100 people in it. Never received any kind of gratitude or anything. After 5 months I started having back pain, in which my doctor noted as a pinched nerve from lifting people over 200 lbs, some way heavier than that. Sometimes I would come on shift to find people just sitting in feces and urine. I do not blame the coworkers because there were just to many people to take care of even in the day. I finally had to quit because as I said, I just could not take it anymore. They still have not found anyone that will stick with the night shift and I wonder why? lol. I am just appalled at how the system works. these people were paying anywhere from a minimum of 4K a month to be taken care of and that is not the case.
I am with you Coco. Until last year we did not even have worker's comp in our program. If we got hurt on the job that was tough.
ReplyDelete26 years in this field and it ain't getting any better. I am amazed at the salaries at state institutions compared to community services.
Care giving is a joke these days. Over worked and underpaid. I worked as a caregiver in a "assisted Living" facility for 8 months until I was completely burnt out. First lets talk about how underpaid we were. for 9.00 an hour I had to deep clean the carpets. I had to dust, sweep, mop, clean lint traps, empty garbage, and clear out dishes from the laundry rooms. I also had to clean bathrooms and staff areas. I worked noc shift. From 10 30-6 30am. I received no night differential, obviously. I had to work through my lunches on most nights to help the only other caregiver on staff, if there was one. We also had to set 24 tables for breakfast. On top of all that we had to do continence care for a dozen people twice a night as well as answer all the other calls to help people. All the while keeping track of the people that wandered throughout the building and outside of it. Now lets talk about the turnover rate. In the 8 months that I worked there, I met 5 people who quit within months, some on the same day. So on the nights that there was no one to help I was stuck by myself in a building with over 100 people in it. Never received any kind of gratitude or anything. After 5 months I started having back pain, in which my doctor noted as a pinched nerve from lifting people over 200 lbs, some way heavier than that. Sometimes I would come on shift to find people just sitting in feces and urine. I do not blame the coworkers because there were just to many people to take care of even in the day. I finally had to quit because as I said, I just could not take it anymore. They still have not found anyone that will stick with the night shift and I wonder why? lol. I am just appalled at how the system works. these people were paying anywhere from a minimum of 4K a month to be taken care of and that is not the case.
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