u/PimeydenHenki

Hi all, I’ve been working at a teen boys group home since April 15th of this year. I absolutely love the job and I’d like to think I’m improving and building connections with the kids more and more each day.

First a little background, we haven’t had a PM since the first of this month (June), the second in command quit that same week, and our APM stepped down so now it’s just us DSPs running the show.

I’ve been working as hard as I can, covering shifts left and right, lots of overtime, doing everything I can to be the best I can be at this job. I cook, clean, pass meds, tend to the needs of the kids, hang out with them all shift, take them on little outings outside, do all the logging on therap, etc etc,

And I truly love it all!

But the thing is, we have this other DSP that’s been here a few months longer than me and she honestly just sucks at the job. She has no initiative, makes zero attempt to do anything with the kids or get to know them, struggles with simple tasks, and pretty much just sits in a room alone on her phone the whole shift.

The senior DSPs talk shit about her, I hear it. And while I hear their frustrations I also feel for this girl, I’ve been in her shoes before.

So this gets to the root of my post

Because of how I hear the other DSPs talk about this coworker, I’m terrified of being seen like her, so every little mistake I make I feel really bad about. Like today my coworker asked me to roll up the windows in the van (first time in the van, I haven’t had a chance to take the driver test yet) and it had a key fob that I’ve never used before and was sorta confused about it. So I asked a client for help because they’ve ridden in that van many times, and he laughed at me for how simple it was. I know he’s gonna tell the other DSPs that I had to ask for help and I’m just terrified of being seen as incompetent by them.

As much as I enjoy the job, each day feels like humiliation ritual. I’ve never experienced this type of desire for perfectionism or this sort of pressure before, so I’m just asking for some guidance from elder DSPs.

Thanks for reading!

Hey all new DSP here! I work in a group home for teen boys (14-16) and I’ve really been enjoying it! Today I took a client out on a shadow walk (trail behind them, observe what they do, don’t talk to them), we went to the store down the street to look for supplies for an art project. While my client was asking the cashier if they had the product they were looking for a lady came up to him and said “just so you know a man is following you around because he thinks you’re gonna steal something!” At that point I decided I needed to step in. I showed the lady my badge and explained I was their support person and the company I work for. She insisted that couldn’t be the case and I was being “creepy”. I’ve been doing this for a little over the month so I’m still trying to get the hang of it. I understand how it looks from the outside but was a little shaken up by the interaction. Has anyone else experienced this before?

Oh also my client didn’t seem bothered by what happened, they told me they didn’t know what she was talking about when we got home.