A couple of short notes about work...

1.) I HATE MONTHLY REPORTS. They make me want to jab a pen into my eye socket so that I would have a valid reason for not actively working on them.

2.) I hate that I occasionally I feel like I'm working harder on a case than the parents who are supposed to be trying to regain custody of their spawn. There is no reason that I should EVER be working harder than those parents. Granted, I work hard in every case I'm given, but the fact is that if I feel like I'm putting in more effort just to set up and supervise visitation than parents whose responsibility is supposed to be attending visitation and taking the necessary steps to get their kids back according to court orders. If you want your kids back, then you should be working hard, if not, then save everyone else the time and trouble of dealing with your stupid ass and just sign away your parental rights so that the kids can be adopted by a family who will actually give a damn about them.

3.) I think if the office sets a minimum number of hours for salaried employees to work in a given week to obtain said salary, and then they require you to put in additional hours doing things like CPR training during hours when you would otherwise be doing case work, that they should have to compensate us for our time.

4.)I think I'm getting a reputation around the office as a champion-level smart ass. (This is appreciated in my office, but still...) I say this because while sitting in our weekly staff meeting (which was incidentally attended by both of the founding partners of the office and it's sister company,) on Tuesday, a coworker was trying to get a visit covered. He said, "Hey, if you get lost, call me! Don't call the foster mom... She will get all pissed off and hang up, and then we'll be in a world of hurt." (He was saying this aloud, as a general statement to whomever elected to cover the visit, and not to anyone in particular, let alone speaking directly to me.) I said, half under my breath, and half aloud, "Oh jeez, that's really encouraging, way to sell that visit!" When appreciative laughter erupted from other areas of the meeting I realized just how loud I'd said it... Well... At least they know I'm a realist.