I became a certified Personal Care Aide on September 1st. I wish I had known beforehand just how sexist people can be toward male aides, doctors, nurses, etc. After wasting much of august taking 8 hour classes and taking tests for this bullshit, I feel like this is just not working out—at least with the healthcare agency I work for.
Since Sept., I have only had two clients, both males, both were fine to work with. First guy was just me filling in for another aide and the other man I saw called the agency and said he didn’t want me there anymore even though I did everything right.
I almost had my third client, who is another male (for context, I’m a guy too, I got into caregiving because of my own family struggles and also an ex gf’s idea). Was told over the phone by my supervisor that this family was supposed to be suuuuuper nice, but then she called back ten minutes later to tell me that the client “is not comfortable working with a male aide”. Apparently, this is an ongoing issue.
I feel so degraded. This guy hasn’t even met me, the second client just slept the whole four hours, I’m really beginning to rethink this whole thing but it’s a higher rate of pay than most jobs. But at the same time I need consistency and I don’t appreciate it when people flake on me and I especially don’t appreciate being sidelined because of my gender, sex, race, age, whatever the case may be. Fine, he can wipe his own a$$…
And people wonder why there is a shortage of workers in senior care…