u/blackberryice11

Hi everyone! I am an RBT in Colorado. 👋

After working at a clinic for 10 months, I was fired. The client I consider myself the most paired with and I were playing. He is adorable and I have great instructional control with him. My name is the only one he says and I feel extremely honored.

Anyway, he ran a little too far ahead in the clinic (not the building itself, just the clinic) and I lost sight of him. We were just playing chase. I turned the corner after searching for a few seconds and immediately found him. He had elopement in his BIP but has never eloped from me before. It would have been extremely unlike that he would've eloped out of the clinic, or been able to.

Because I didn't follow protocol by using my walkie talkie, they fired me. I have been in the field for a year and a half now, nothing close to this has ever happened. Mind you, he was in the playroom with other RBTs and clients. Not once did he attempt to escape the clinic. They immediately went to HR, no reminders of policy, and I was fired.

Let me know your thoughts. I said nothing to them but ok, thank you for the opportunity. Dropping off my badge on Tuesday.

I plan to file for unemployment, but I am still struggling to make sense of their reaction and whether it was fair or not. This has happened to other RBTs at my clinic, and worse (a child eloping and then hiding in a cabinet), but they were not fired.

Sorry last edit...I was pulled from my session the day after with the same client into a meeting without prior notice. That's when they put my employment on hold. Then, I was fired without given a chance to say goodbye to that client or my other clients. Not actually say goodbye but at least feel like I had a last session, or closure.

I had a client who I was playing with, we were playing chase/hide & seek where I pretend I can't find him. He is the client I consider myself the most paired with, and I'm also the only one whose name he says, so I just feel very close to him.

I lost him for 3 seconds when he went around the center. He did not attempt to go out any exits to the building nor go anywhere near them. He was waiting for me in the play room when I found him, aka the common area. Even his speech therapist said that what he is doing is not technically considered elopement because he is playing.

I was reported to HR and I am facing termination, at minimum a six day pause in services because I did not walkie when he left my line of sight when I found him in that 3 second time frame.

Just wondering if this is normal.

I'm feeling really bad tonight. I had an unexpected overlap today with the clinical director who oversees operations. We have no onsite permanent BCBA currently. All supervision is virtual and infrequent, barely getting my supervision hours in atm.

My client (5 yr old boy) had lots of behaviors during session today, including disrobement, and I did the best I could with trial counts and tracking the data, ensuring his privacy, honoring assent, etc. When he hit me in the face, I started to cry bc it was right by my eye and it hurt. I normally do my best not to react to getting hit in the face, but I was unable to hold back my tears today.

The clinical director basically told me that I had 6 trials in 30 mins which was unacceptable since the requirement is 20 per hr. Even though the client currently has 8 behaviors we are tracking and collecting data on. 20 trials per hour seems reasonable, but as a requirement day in and day out, with behaviors happening, is a struggle for me.

She did not offer to model anything, nor did she offer any support. Just that I wasn't doing what was expected and I need to be more proactive vs. reactive. That he isn't the first kid with behaviors in the building, and won't be the last (this part felt condescending).

I'm just feeling really bad. For awhile I was feeling like I was making a lot of progress as an RBT. Not anymore.

How do you deal with coworkers who treat you like an outsider? Tired of feeling like a ghost at my job. They will talk amongst themselves and I have to fight tooth and nail to be included lol. A lot of the time its stories from before I was hired. It's been 10 months and it's still like this. I go through waves of not caring but it always comes back to me. Looking at other jobs now but idk if this is worth quitting over