Today, 22 days after our SW told us she would "check into" where we could take first aid classes and "get back with" us, still no answer. Luckily, I am not one to let grass grow under my feet. Late last week I contacted J, the social worker who taught our foster/adopt classes along with another SW in a nearby county asking if they knew where we could take the proper first aid classes. Both got back to me within 24 hours. Both had answers for me. We completed our first aid requirement last night.
However, the "DING" bell (signifying that I am officially DONE) has gone off re: our SW. Last week when I e-mailed J about first aid classes, I also spelled out the frustrations we had with our SW. J. said that she was sorry we were being "mistreated" and suggested talking with our worker's supervisor. I can't tell you how appealing that sounded - to fire off an e-mail spelling out every single time our SW has dropped the ball, time after time after time. But O especially felt as if we owed it to our worker to first communicate our concerns with her and give her an opportunity to address the situation herself.
This afternoon I sent her an e-mail covering many of our concerns. I struck a good balance, I think, between getting our point (and frustrations) across yet not being angry, hateful, or accusatory. Included in the letter was the fact that we completed our first aid classes last night - spelled out very clearly.
FIVE MINUTES after I hit the "send" button, she forwarded an e-mail to me re: a first aid class that would be held at a local D*C*F*S in the coming weeks.
Either it's the world's biggest coincidence and she hadn't seen our e-mail before she forwarded that one (twenty-two days later and FIVE MINUTES after I hit "send") or she only half-read our e-mail and has no idea that we have completed first aid. I know which one I'd lay money on.
Ironically, one of our specific concerns was that our SW often seemed to briefly skim through our e-mails and when/if she did get back with us, her response rarely had anything to do with why we wrote her in the first place, leaving us back at square one in an attempt to get whatever information we needed. We chose not to cover that in the e-mail, because we didn't want to create a "dump on the SW" type of letter filled with page after page of every transgression. We simply wanted to get our point of view across.
Anyway, when I opened that forwarded e-mail from her, my mouth literally dropped open and all I could think is, "You have got to FREAKIN' be kidding me!". I just had to laugh.
If we don't get a response from her in a week, we will have to contact her supervisor. I think the laughter will probably stop right around that point.
However, the "DING" bell (signifying that I am officially DONE) has gone off re: our SW. Last week when I e-mailed J about first aid classes, I also spelled out the frustrations we had with our SW. J. said that she was sorry we were being "mistreated" and suggested talking with our worker's supervisor. I can't tell you how appealing that sounded - to fire off an e-mail spelling out every single time our SW has dropped the ball, time after time after time. But O especially felt as if we owed it to our worker to first communicate our concerns with her and give her an opportunity to address the situation herself.
This afternoon I sent her an e-mail covering many of our concerns. I struck a good balance, I think, between getting our point (and frustrations) across yet not being angry, hateful, or accusatory. Included in the letter was the fact that we completed our first aid classes last night - spelled out very clearly.
FIVE MINUTES after I hit the "send" button, she forwarded an e-mail to me re: a first aid class that would be held at a local D*C*F*S in the coming weeks.
Either it's the world's biggest coincidence and she hadn't seen our e-mail before she forwarded that one (twenty-two days later and FIVE MINUTES after I hit "send") or she only half-read our e-mail and has no idea that we have completed first aid. I know which one I'd lay money on.
Ironically, one of our specific concerns was that our SW often seemed to briefly skim through our e-mails and when/if she did get back with us, her response rarely had anything to do with why we wrote her in the first place, leaving us back at square one in an attempt to get whatever information we needed. We chose not to cover that in the e-mail, because we didn't want to create a "dump on the SW" type of letter filled with page after page of every transgression. We simply wanted to get our point of view across.
Anyway, when I opened that forwarded e-mail from her, my mouth literally dropped open and all I could think is, "You have got to FREAKIN' be kidding me!". I just had to laugh.
If we don't get a response from her in a week, we will have to contact her supervisor. I think the laughter will probably stop right around that point.
