Welcome to Gaia! ::

I don't know if this counts, but I just lost another job.

No, I didn't lose it. I quit. This is mostly rhetorical, but why can't I find it in myself to stick it out?

Right now, CBMS, the Colorado Benefits Management System, has just taken away it's employee's ability to rescind cases. That means, if you should apply for, say, food stamps or county help and you get your materials in even one day over the 10 day deadline, your case can't be restarted. Now, most people I work with are either homeless or a little loopy. Getting their stuff from a doctor or digging their termination paperwork out from their bosses can be more than a little challenge. Getting your stuff in late is ALWAYS expected.

Now, the staff manual used to have these guidelines that let people applying for aid have 10 days extra to rebutt any denial. If I turned them down, they were allowed another 10 days to provide adequate proof that the denial was improper before moving on to the lengthy and resource-consuming (for the county, the state AND the client) appeals process.

However, thanks to the butt-heads at Colorado State, regular county workers can't rescind (reopen) a case that they've had to close down for initial guidelines. This are the same jerkwads that implemented CBMS in the first place, a million-dollar monster that rarely does what it's supposed to and has become more of drain on the taxpayers than the welfare system it was supposed to alleviate.

Keep in mind that CBMS, made by that sell-them-something-someone-else-didn't-want firm, EDS, in Plano texas, is so crappy, that it doesn't populate fields with residency information from one case to another if both sets of data have the SAME participants. I mean, clearly, the participant is a shared data string, but somehow this does not include residency information. Also, if more than one person is on a case, you cannot simply tell this thing that a person should not count as part of the household, even though that is what Federal and State rules require. You have to collect information on, for instance, a child living in a house even though you have adoption documents or other evidence that a different couple living in the household have legal custody over the child and, according to regulations, should NOT COUNT toward the amount of Food Stamps the house is getting. The Rube Goldberg-esque teeter-totter of dates, conflicting and overlapping rules and calculation triggers make hitting any button on this system like sticking your fingers into a mousetrap to get one tiny bit of moldy peanut butter.

Beyond that, they've made sure that, God Forbid, should you get the ability to rescind a case, it goes into something crap like Supervisor Approval Pending mode. That means that a supervisor has to review the case and get it going again. Now, I have piles (it used to be 27, but diligent attention by my overworked boss has reduced it somewhat) of supervisor pending cases on my desk - and many of these are for cases that required emergency food stamps in the first place. Meaning that clients can expect to wait months (not weeks or days, but months) for any help from the state. Many of my clients are older folks who just got laid off or are beyond the employment age limit, anyway.

Anyway, I quit. I don't want to see the state of Colorado succeed at this time. I'd like to shake the dust from my shoes and leave this beautiful countryside to freeze, dehydrate and eletrocute the 2-bit fundamentalist Jingoists who run it, but I've been living day to day as it is and I've promised to save Umberella from the house that is trying to eat her soul.

Somehow, I might still do it, but I can't do a job where they won't let me do my job. This is, perhaps, because I lack valuable military experience in sitting on my hands.

evil First of all Harbone, I certainly can empathize with your frustration, when I received aid as a single parent, the state of Oregon wanted me to do "Job Search" and gave me a sheet that had like 25 spaces on it to fill in the names, addresses, and phone numbers of companies I turned in applications to (in the lobby there were two single women getting aid as well with those forms and filling them out by copying things out of the phone book instead of actually doing the 'searching'! GRRRR. If I was offered a job, I was not to turn it down or they could cut me off completely, so I I could not work too many hours or too little hours, I couldn't make too much money or too little money if I made too little I couldn't make it on my own- leaving me in the proverbial Catch 22.
Lil Jo I wish your sister could leave that arrogant S.O.B to. I hope he doesn't come between you and her, sometimes in relationships like that the guy gets jealous....what a jerk *^$@#&!!!

We still need a buyer for our house... ANY ONE WANT IT???

I had a call last night asking if they could do a showing this morning at 9am... ok, we hurried this morning and left at 9, came back just after 10. There is no business card here from a realtor and no sign that they were even here. I have no way to know if they showed up and I hate that. I clean and hide things, lock the dogs out, then waste gas to leave so they can do their thing... then they don't even leave me a card to know if anyone was here, HOW RUDE!

Most the people that come threw either are kind and don't leave much for comments or they are the rude ones that want to only go threw spottless or empty houses. They complain about us having too much stuff or the animals, or whatever they can think to add. Don't people realize that when we move that we will be taking our stuff and our animals? The house is clean... and we don't have a garage to throw things into... PLUS, we still have to live here until the place is sold!!!

The last comment sheet we got noted that "the house next door was a real steal compaired to ours". The house next door is for sale too, it is the same year as ours, it is smaller than ours, it has half the property as ours, it's listed $22,000 higher than ours, and it has been on the market longer than ours... the difference is that they have a garage... If it is that much of a steal, why did they not buy that one???

Co-Workers Who Are P S Y C H O!

I know you've come across one of these... maybe two of these... maybe a whole friggin office full of these. Yes, the Psycho Co-Worker who is like a landmine ready to explode if you accidently step near it, over it, or on it. My Psycho Co-Worker is the Technology Director for our school.
Little Background Info: Besides teaching Art I also produce the school's yearbook. The last few years, the photography company that we've used has screwed me seriously with my students yearbook photos... so this year I opted not to renew their contract and change photographer. Of course, I did not do this without first consulting my Principal who also sat with me as we interviewed new photographers. Once we chose the new photographer I promptly introduced him to the Technology Director who over sees our students school ID badges. I informed the photographer that he would have to provide the TD with a copy of all photos for her to maintain incase a student loses his ID which she would recreate. Now, why would the TD have anything to do with student photos? Well, that was my question and the answer was that since she oversees anything to do with technology like the student database, she was put in charge of the ID cards. Make sense. Good. Well, after introducing the TD to the photographer the TD went balistic... she stormed into the Principal's office and demanded to know why I had changed photographers. Yes, the TD was quite aware that the previous photographer sucked because he screwed up the TDs copy of the student photos but this didnt matter. What mattered to the TD was that "I" had chosen the photographer and that "I" didn't consult with her. The Principal calmly explained that the choice was actually made by both the Principal and myself. That there was no need for the TD to be involved since the students photos were primarily for the yearbook and the student IDs were secondary. The TD exploded with frustration and demanded that "I" be made accountable for not consulting her. The Principal told me that she looked at this lady and said "accountable for what?" You have no say in who the photographer is and to let it go. Okay that was 2 months ago.

PRESENT DAY TIME:
Yesterday, I receive a phone call from the photographer who is extremely upset that the TD called and yelled at him. Trying to calm him down, I ask what did she want. Well, she told the photographer that if he wanted a list of the students for the yearbook photos that he was supposed to go through her not through me. That I had nothing to do with the student photographs and that I was only the art teacher and yearbook editor. Then she demanded that he come down to the school and show her his portfolio and tell her what he was going to do for her before she makes up her mind about using him. The photographer was confused and pissed off. I was not only shocked to learn this BUT Horrified that the TD did this. How humiliating and embarassing is all I could feel and think. So, I called the Principal and told her what happen. The Principal was shocked and horrified. She called me later to tell me that she pulled the TD into her office and told that if we lose this photographer because of her behavior that she would be fired. She told the TD to call the photographer and apologize and to call me and apologize. The TD apparently kept insisting that she was incharge of the photographs and the Principal was confused. The Principal told me that she just looked at this lady and said "what is your problem with Maori, do you think she wants your job or something or do you want to do the yearbook?" The TD didn't answer and told the Principal that she just takes her job seriously and that she is incharge of any technology that comes in or goes out of the school. The Principal told me that she didn't realize how whacko the TD was until that moment. The Principal then told me that she called the photographer to apologize for our TDs behavior and that should she ever call him again that he was to notify the Principal immediately. OMG as I sit here and type this I still cannot believe the DRAMA of this PSYCHO... next week I go back to school and don't know what this woman will do when she sees me. I may have to put those locks back on my door again to keep the PSYCHO OUT! pirate

Slow down, Fr34x0r ~ you've got plenty of time to be superman... burning your candle at both ends will surely lead to insomnia... which still won't allow you to get everything done anyways... sweatdrop

Try adding a job now...

That much sleep is why you woke up tired, too much can do the same thing as not enough.

Thanks Umberella for the kind words. When I returned to school today, I was told by my Principal to document the whole incident, return a copy to her and to keep one for myself. Apparently, the Technology Director decided to go off on another teacher yesterday and has now been put on written notice. The school wants documentation in case, as you say, for legal purposes.

I'm glad to see you haven't given up, Maori Wahine. Let me tell you a little story. I can't give details, because my clients have a right to privacy, but I can generalize about the services and conditions we encountered on a daily basis.

At least once every few weeks I'd meet a woman like your sister. Usually, their husbands had not handled the finances very well. I met one who earned only $125 per month from Social Security because her husband had never let her work, another who could get no help at all because of the controlling crap that their husbands had pulled on them. In the end, your sister is going to need your help. Find some way to talk with her privately and find out what is really going on. I suspect something more than just "Born Again Christianity" is involved, although that is enough to bring out the macho, wife-crushing and brutish side of most men. In the end, you're either going to look after her when her husband dies (because her husband has taught her well and good how NOT to look after herself) or you're going to have to help her find herself again if the marriage breaks up for legal or financial reasons. Good luck, it's going to be tough. I reccommend checking out your local women's shelter for advice and literature. (Like Ruth's House in Honolulu.)