I wear more hats than Rachel

So far I love my job. My official job title is Case Worker. However I’m finding that defining what I actually do at work s difficult. So I thought I’d make a list of some of my job responsibilities that might or might have shown up on my job description.

Practically I'm a gatekeeper. We are only open to our program participants from 9 am to 1 pm and they cannot come in other times. Sometimes they don't understand this. That's always fun.

Sometimes I'm a disciplinarian. I have to say no. We have policies for a reason and I can't overstep my bounds. I've never had a job before where just straight up no is an acceptable answer. I don't want to say no. I want to say yes, however, sometimes I can't.

I'm personal secretary and also personal shopper (this one has three categories: food, clothing, or toiletries). This week we had many cans of soup to give away. Today people kept requesting specific kinds of soup. So personal soup shopper can be added to my job skills list.

I am tech support. I help our participants post resumes online, navigate their email, and sometimes even move the mouse. I will be doing one-on-one computer mentoring sessions where I teach these skills and more. Computer mentoring was supposed to begin on Tuesday, but my appointments didn't come. Or I should say 2 of them came an hour early, had to be turned away and didn't come back. Which was a disappointment, but I'll be really prepared for next Tuesday.

I am an ESL teacher. Sometimes I help those who's first language is not English navigate important documents. One man in particular speaks about 4 languages but needs a little help from this English major with his grammar and word choice.

Counselor is the one role that I shy away from. I am not qualified to give any kind of therapy. I can be an ear to listen, but the best thing I can do for someone is to encourage them to go see a professional. This is difficult sometimes as people like and trust me, but I simply cannot help them in matters of mental health. Again it can be hard to say no, to determine the boundaries.

I need to be an expert in referrals. Samaritan Ministry doesn't provide many services ourselves, instead we refer people to other agencies. Often we give bus tokens or actual written referrals to help get our participants what they need.

I am the task master. I hold people accountable. We set next steps together. They tell me what they want to do and every time they come in, I ask them if they've done it. This one can be fun, but also frustrating. I can only motivate so much, if they don't want to do something it will not happen.

Personal cheerleader is my favorite role. Being able to just tell people they are doing well, that they are making steps in the right direction, whatever that might be, that feels great. I had a participant come in the other day, just to check in. He didn’t need anything, didn’t want anything. He just said, “You’re my case worker, you’re on my side.”