I am a CNA and work for a company that does in home care, and while I have not been around the business for years as several of my co-workers have, I have seen many different clients both at my current job and beforehand, so I am surprised that this is my first time working with someone who upsets me so much! And unfortunately, I know it will not be my last.
I had been working just on call, filling in for employees who were sick or had something come up, and jumped at the chance to get a case of my own. I would get 20 hours a work a week, plus any on call shifts I wanted! Great, right? Well, I thought so at first. The client I visited during the week seemed pretty average - needed house work done, occasional help with a shower, running errands...
Then the job became more complicated and I found myself driving in to the office more often than not to fill out reports, and then it progressed to my client slowly but surely bringing me down. I could clean her whole house top to bottom and cook her meals, etc., and her only comment towards me for the day would be the one little thing she was not satisfied with, for example, the way I made scrambled eggs. Or telling me any time I mentioned my dog being less than perfect that she needed to be put down or given away. I am newly married so she also insists I should prepare myself for him to cheat on me. Dropping hints now and then that she thinks I am overweight just because I outweigh her. Pointing out when I get a pimple. Putting down my house cleaning. Putting down the times I have helped her with personal care; comparing me to her past caregivers.
But I have put up with the put downs, I could deal with someone who didn't like me from time to time because I had a steady income for the first time in my life and was able to afford a good car, bills, and occasionally go out.
I began to notice, however, that the client was showing alarming signs that I reported to the office, which was immediately followed up on.
So, now I know that tomorrow the client will know I spoke up to management, and I dread what I will be walking in to tomorrow. I imagine she will rip me a new one to the point I just want to walk out, but I have a shift to complete and can't. I came home today and have been thinking it over...and over. And over again. I would hate to drop steady income and return to on call jobs rather than regular hours, but I feel that my reporting the situations I was coming across may have sealed that fate, simply because if I thought the client was tough before, she will certainly be more so now, and I am already feeling pretty low when I go there.
Decidedly, I am going to go in tomorrow and hope she only has one day of anger in her, but if it continues beyond that, I will go into the office and tell them to replace me with someone else for this client, preferably with someone older than me who may be able to communicate better with the client than I have been able to.
Am I an idiot? A wimp? I feel so awful for not being able to work with a patient, giving up steady income in this economy, and doing what the client will view as a betrayal. But I don't want to go to a home where I feel like I am not good enough for the job and not good enough in my own personal life. I'm sitting here ready to cry because of the frustration. What would you do?
I had been working just on call, filling in for employees who were sick or had something come up, and jumped at the chance to get a case of my own. I would get 20 hours a work a week, plus any on call shifts I wanted! Great, right? Well, I thought so at first. The client I visited during the week seemed pretty average - needed house work done, occasional help with a shower, running errands...
Then the job became more complicated and I found myself driving in to the office more often than not to fill out reports, and then it progressed to my client slowly but surely bringing me down. I could clean her whole house top to bottom and cook her meals, etc., and her only comment towards me for the day would be the one little thing she was not satisfied with, for example, the way I made scrambled eggs. Or telling me any time I mentioned my dog being less than perfect that she needed to be put down or given away. I am newly married so she also insists I should prepare myself for him to cheat on me. Dropping hints now and then that she thinks I am overweight just because I outweigh her. Pointing out when I get a pimple. Putting down my house cleaning. Putting down the times I have helped her with personal care; comparing me to her past caregivers.
But I have put up with the put downs, I could deal with someone who didn't like me from time to time because I had a steady income for the first time in my life and was able to afford a good car, bills, and occasionally go out.
I began to notice, however, that the client was showing alarming signs that I reported to the office, which was immediately followed up on.
So, now I know that tomorrow the client will know I spoke up to management, and I dread what I will be walking in to tomorrow. I imagine she will rip me a new one to the point I just want to walk out, but I have a shift to complete and can't. I came home today and have been thinking it over...and over. And over again. I would hate to drop steady income and return to on call jobs rather than regular hours, but I feel that my reporting the situations I was coming across may have sealed that fate, simply because if I thought the client was tough before, she will certainly be more so now, and I am already feeling pretty low when I go there.
Decidedly, I am going to go in tomorrow and hope she only has one day of anger in her, but if it continues beyond that, I will go into the office and tell them to replace me with someone else for this client, preferably with someone older than me who may be able to communicate better with the client than I have been able to.
Am I an idiot? A wimp? I feel so awful for not being able to work with a patient, giving up steady income in this economy, and doing what the client will view as a betrayal. But I don't want to go to a home where I feel like I am not good enough for the job and not good enough in my own personal life. I'm sitting here ready to cry because of the frustration. What would you do?