Sunday, December 15, 2013

The Client

I was still waiting for my voucher from the health department. I only had so much time to book my exam, take it and wait for the license in the mail. If all that didn't happen in time, I was going to lose my job. I kept checking the mail, like a lunatic, every time I thought of it, I was downstairs checking the mail. Deep down inside, I had a feeling it wasn't going to happen. I wasn't going to receive the voucher. I don't know why, but I didn't see it  happening.

Every month at my job, the supervisor would change our roster. There was this girl, who joined the company two weeks after me; she got my schedule in the beginning. I went on to temp while she got the permanent schedule that I was promised. Whatever happened to first come, first served? When I confronted the supervisor about it, he told me he forgot about me, or something lame like that. Noted! The girl turned out to be nice, she went on to be my best friend. Every month, when the sup drew a new schedule, he scheduled that girl to work from the first day of the month thereby giving her a leg up on all of us, I always got left overs after he had scheduled everybody. For example, that girl would work 25 days in a month, I would end up with 18 or 19. We got paid per hours worked. Every now and  again, they would ask me to fill in for people but that wasn't the same. It was as if they were doing me a favor by giving me more hours. I was working full time, I deserved the same number of days as others.  With overtime, I would sometimes make more than them though, because they paid time and a half for overtime.

Almost everybody else had a second and even third job. It's difficult when you don't have a car. Especially in Utah where public transport is non-existent. My colleagues always said I was lazy for only working one job. I'm sorry if where I come from, one job is supposed to be enough for you to have a decent lifestyle. I'm so sorry that I don't have 8 kids to support. Sorry I am not from Mexico or anywhere in Latin America, my bad! They would say these things to each other in Spanish, with me right there. I knew they were talking about me because duh! Plus, my friend wouldn't be able to make eye contact with me. And she would sometimes refuse to tell me what they said. It still didn't change anything about my life though. Whatever they said about me. Plus when you work a lot of overtime for the same company, that's kinda like a second job, but I wasn't about to explain myself to them.

They always hired and fired CNA's at work. They hired two new aides (CNA's) towards the end of July. One was about to take her nursing exam, soon as she did, she would leave and go work as a nurse. They started while I was on my off days. My friend texted and told me about them, she thought they were nice people. I went to work after my off days and met them. They were supposed to be floats that night, meaning help around whenever help was needed, especially where I was working because there are a lot of special needs people in that wing. Instead, they were attached to my friend's hip, they followed her around like two loyal CNA puppiess. Small wonder she thought they were amazing. They were huge fans!

Because it was taking too long for me to get the voucher, I had to have a plan B, so I started looking for another job. I got a private client; an elderly man who lived by himself.  He hired me as a housekeeper. I took the job. I started the last week of July. I will never forget my first day at work. I had never seen so much faeces in my life! He had nursing aides who helped him with daily activities like showering etc, and a nurse. They all worked for agencies and came in a few times a week. When I got in there, the house smelled like faeces and mould and and and. I couldn't believe the state the house was in. The nurse came in that day and told him that their agency was done with him. The house wasn't in a healthy condition for anyone to work in, they put in a few day's notice. He was f*cked! I had plastic bags over my shoes, and gloves on my hands the entire time. Even in the kitchen, there were flakes of faexes. It was unbelievable. I didn't know if I was going to keep that job at all. Man is huge too, and has very little use of his legs. He asked me to go grocery shopping for him. He was literally glued to his chair, eating the whole entire time.

I ran to the store to get him what he needed. When I got back, he was on the floor! He had fallen. F*^k! Where will I even begin? I wanted to call 911, he wouldn't let me. He told me to hold his hand and pull me up. Good idea! Only, his feet were not moving! And I would have broken my back, if they were. I tried all kinds of things. I eventually called Spotty. He hadn't really dumped me remember? He came over in no time. I was like, don't use the limo haha.  He tried, but that wasn't a job of two men, men being Spotty and I. We eventually called 911. Six fine men showed up, they already knew the client. Apparently they had been to the house so many times. They helped us get him up. It was already time for me to go home. I was bummed, I had worked all night and all day. I needed to go home and catch a nap. Good thing I was off that day. Client wanted me to work for him once or twice a week, I told him he needed more help than that, so we settled on four times. So, every other day.

Spotty waited for me outside. He couldn't spend a minute inside the house, he had to get the heck out for some air. Thank goodness for my poor sense of smell. I am good with nice smells, but I don't always catch the bad ones. Yay me!

We had agreed that he pay me on a daily basis. I could tell that he was either going to end up in hospital or somewhere, I didn't want to work in vain. I got paid and left with cash in pocket. Nice feeling! Spotty took me hope, we had plans to hang out that evening. I was going to shower and nap, he'd pick me up later.


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