I’m one of the rare breed of people who found a job early in life that they like and am still doing that exact job in their 50’s. I’m a direct care worker with people with disabilities.
The situation is pretty much as the title goes. In my particular area I’ve worked since the very early turn of the century with the same people at the same place, all in all I’m coming up on 30 years “service”.
Supervisors, team leaders, managers, co-ordinators come and go, swap and change, act up, transfer etc on the regular. This results in me being the most experienced person in any meeting about the client, knowing the history or current details of the workplace or the shifts. Because of this I often get referred to as ‘the person who’ll know’.
Onto my pay. The job itself is quite easy to qualify for. It’s essentially a certificate (requirements have changed. When I originally got the job it was literally 4 days of classroom work and 1 day on the job experience and bingo bongo you’re an employee. The attrition rate is significant. Of the 40 people who started with me, it was just 2 of us remaining a few years later. The company hires/trains 300 new direct care staff each year, we are not growing, we simply haemorrhage staff.
There are 2 pay scales. 1 for newly employed partially qualified staff with a pay bump after a year, and a second pay bump after the second year (we are talking 10-30 cents, basically nothing) the second pay scale (that I’m on) is when you’re ‘fully qualified’ again, a minor pay increase, with a bump on your second year.
And that’s it. 1 pay increase to recognise your 1 year of experience.
Come the end of the year I’ll reach my 30 year anniversary of my start date. I’m paid as if I have 1 year experience so I’m going to act like it.
I’m going to be familiar with anything that happened in 2022, but before that? Sorry, you’ll have to check the files. Maybe ask the manager? They’ve been here a while.
What sparked this off? Having paper work left for me to fill out on behalf of a client. A massive wad that took a significant portion of time during my work week. I should have proof read it, because turning to the last page I saw the signature line for the person filling out the paperwork was labeled for ‘the co-ordinator’ aka the person who sent me the paperwork in the first place. So I shredded the form and emailed them saying I couldn’t locate the material they were looking for and hand balled it back to them.
I love my job, I’m easy to work with, but hard to take advantage of.