Ladders 'n Lattices

Joe Meets Scoot 01

2009-12-07T16:07:00.002-05:00

Joe Meets Scoot ...

2009-11-27T10:49:00.002-05:00

It’s only Joe’s second day on the job. Already he has received the Policies and Procedures Manual. He has met Stella, the Senior Career Specialist. And he spent the remainder of the previous day reading through the Policies and Procedures Manual. Today is the big day!

Today the boss assigned Joe a case load! That means Joe is now responsible for customers and clients who use the services there in the Career Center. Starting today, Joe will be helping unemployed and under-employed people decide what they should do with the rest of their lives.

Somewhere in the process, Joe is supposed to help the customers and clients find a new job too. The Policies and Procedures Manual said that Joe would not actually find them a job. The customers and clients would be responsible for finding their own jobs, though many believed the Career Center would do that for them. What Joe was supposed to do was help them access services that would make it easier for them to find a new job.

Normally, Joe would have had a week or two to figure out how to do his new job before he was assigned customers and clients to serve. But in this new economy, there was no time for that! Because of the big layoff down at the local plant, everyone at the Careeer Center had to pitch in right away. They all had to do whatever they could to help their neighbors through this crisis.

So Joe entered the Career Center on his first full day of work as a Career Specialist. He had no idea what was waiting for him. Little did he know he was about to have a life-changing expreience himself. Joe was about to meet Scoot!

Career Center 12

2009-11-24T13:05:00.001-05:00

Career Center 11

2009-11-24T13:02:00.002-05:00

Career Center 10

2009-11-24T13:01:00.002-05:00

Career Center 09

2009-11-24T12:58:00.002-05:00

Career Center 08

2009-11-24T12:55:00.002-05:00

Career Center 07

2009-11-24T12:52:00.001-05:00

Career Center 06

2009-11-24T12:50:00.002-05:00

Career Center 05

2009-11-24T12:48:00.001-05:00

Career Center 04

2009-11-24T12:45:00.003-05:00

Career Center 03

2009-11-24T12:41:00.002-05:00

Career Center 02

2009-11-24T12:40:00.002-05:00

Career Center 01

2009-11-24T12:37:00.002-05:00

The Calm Before the Storm at the Career Center ...

2009-11-24T12:31:00.002-05:00

Meanwhile, the daily business at the Career Center continued. On this particular day, a new Career Specialist named Joe was being welcomed to the team.

Joe had no idea what was happening at the local plant down the street. He was was just glad to have a job himself in this terrible economy. Joe didn’t know anything about career planning or case management. He was just a “people person” who was in the right place at the right time when this job came open.

Joe liked the idea of having a job that helped people. Although he was a little nervous about learning a new job, he really was looking forward to getting started. Little did Joe know that he was about to enter a world of the “Policy and Procedures Manual” and “spare time” performance.

Joe’s new supervisor welcomed him this morning and told him how much he was needed. Nobody mentioned the enormous size of the case load he would be managing very soon. Neither did they tell him about people like Scoot -- long time members of the workforce with “serious attitude issues.” If Joe had known these things, he still would have accepted the job. But he probably would have been more cautious on his first few days here at the Career Center.

Just as the lives of those on the first shift were changing on this day, so too was the life of one new member of the team at the Career Center. If this was not the perfect storm brewing, it surely was a most remarkable day in that little community somewhere in the Midwest. It was the setting Joe walked into as he joined the team at the local Career Center.

Promises 16

2009-11-18T13:26:00.003-05:00

Promises 15

2009-11-18T13:25:00.003-05:00

Promises 14

2009-11-18T13:22:00.001-05:00

Promises 13

2009-11-18T13:19:00.003-05:00

Promises 12

2009-11-18T13:14:00.003-05:00

Promises 11

2009-11-18T13:13:00.003-05:00

Promises 10

2009-11-18T13:12:00.003-05:00

Promises 09

2009-11-18T13:10:00.002-05:00

Promises 08

2009-11-18T13:05:00.006-05:00

Promises 07

2009-11-11T14:46:00.003-05:00

Promises 06

2009-11-11T14:45:00.003-05:00

Promises 05

2009-11-11T14:42:00.002-05:00

Promises 04

2009-11-11T14:41:00.001-05:00

Promises 03

2009-11-11T14:36:00.003-05:00

Promises 02

2009-11-11T14:35:00.003-05:00

Promises 01

2009-11-11T14:33:00.003-05:00

Promises! Promises!

2009-11-11T14:11:00.000-05:00

One thing the members of the first shift did not anticipate was a bunch of promises. If they were going to be laid off -- well, okay then! Do it! But it was the promises that seemed to hurt the most.

First, there were the politicians. Scoot thought they were all crazy! But that was especially true of Senator Izzy Sane! And then, there were the promises of a Career Center and retraining and better paying jobs with a brighter future. None of it seemed to matter. And none of it really made much sense either. What Scoot knew was that he had worked all his life, and now, he was about to be unemployed. That was unacceptable to him!

Bad Day 12

2009-11-10T16:25:00.002-05:00

Bad Day 11

2009-11-10T16:25:00.001-05:00

Bad Day 10

2009-11-10T16:21:00.002-05:00

Bad Day 09

2009-11-10T16:21:00.001-05:00

Bad Day 08

2009-11-10T16:18:00.000-05:00

Bad Day 07

2009-11-10T16:15:00.000-05:00

Bad Day 06

2009-11-10T16:13:00.000-05:00

Bad Day 05

2009-11-10T16:12:00.000-05:00

Bad Day 04

2009-11-10T16:11:00.001-05:00

Bad Day 03

2009-11-10T16:10:00.001-05:00

Bad Day 02

2009-11-10T16:08:00.001-05:00

Bad Day 01

2009-11-10T16:06:00.001-05:00

A Very Bad Day Indeed!

2009-11-09T13:36:00.010-05:00

There was something in the air that morning. It was not like any other morning that Scoot could remember. He had worked the first shift of this plant for a lot of years. He had come in to work in the dead of winter, when it was still dark outside. And he had gone to work in the summer, when the sun was up early. But he had never come to work like this.

The gates were locked. There was a sign on the fence that said, "No Admittance." And the members of the first shift were all huddled nervously, like cattle about to go to the processing plant.

The first shift talked quietly among themselves. They stood there asking each other questions and reassuring one another that everything was alright. And then, the lady from the Human Resource Management department approached the first shift at the gate.

She had a strange look on her face. It was not anger, but clearly, she was tense. She walked straight up to the group, looking at them without ever once looking any of them in their eyes. Yes, it was a different kind of morning for Scoot and his co-workers. And it seemed like it was about to be a really bad day indeed for the members of the first shift at this little plant located somewhere in the Heartland of the USA.