Thought of the day - working at HG

There are times when life puts us exactly where we're supposed to be.  When I graduated with my BSW, I never really imagined that I would be working in housekeeping a year later.  That has brought several things to light for me.  My interest, while getting my degree, was always to be working with our senior community, which is what I am doing now.  Also, I went through a period of mourning after graduation because I was not able to do anything with my degree.  Most jobs didn't want someone with little to no experience or didn't have a Master's, so when working at Heritage Greens became an option, I jumped at it.  I started out working in the dining room, which I honestly loved.  I had never waited tables before but I was pretty good at it.  I don't know if I'd be good at waiting tables other places but in a senior community, I was great and spoiled my residents.  Just ask them yourself if you don't believe me!  That made me realize that social work can be done in any setting.  Social work is a broad term that covers a lot of areas.  Social work does not discriminate.  I have learned that just because I am not working at a non profit agency or for the government does not mean I am not a social worker every day of my life.  That realization made my degree a little more attractive.

I am now the Housekeeping Supervisor at Heritage Greens.  I have learned a lot in the four weeks I have been on the job.  I still have a lot to learn, but am loving every minute of it.  Honestly!  I still get my daily interactions with the residents plus paperwork and fun things like that.  I have a staff of seven women who work in housekeeping.  They are pretty amazing.  All very different personalities and I am learning their strengths and their weaknesses, as well as my own.  I am finding myself very protective of these women because they are good people and work hard.  With the way they each care about their residents, I am seeing that my staff embodies what HG strives for.  We care and we're here to make their lives as comfortable as possible.  This is their home, after all.

Yesterday, I met a resident that I had not met before.  We had seen each other in passing and once she thought she recognized me as someone else, but that has been the only interactions that we have had with each other.  I wasn't even sure if she was a resident or just someone visiting a resident.  She didn't eat in the main dining room when I worked there, so we had not had much contact.  Anyway, as I was leaving for the day, she stopped me in the hall to ask who I was and what I did at HG.  I told her my name and that I was working in housekeeping.  She told me that she had been waiting to meet me and was excited for the opportunity.  We talked for about 10, 15 minutes and got better acquainted.  As our conversation was coming to a close, she told me that she has been impressed with how quickly things get handled lately.  She said that she could tell such a difference since I started my new job and what a great job I was doing.  She was even going to go to the big boss and tell him how great things were now because of me.  Whether or not that's really true, it felt great to hear.  Our mission statement at HG is "Making a difference everyday".  And yesterday, I felt like I was.

That is all.