October 2011 Archives

There was a time when people wrote poems about daffodils, or tigers or the night mail crossing the border. How times have changed. Here is a rather splendid poem about hot desking by an anonymous social worker:

Hotdesking's fine if you're all the same size,
With identical leg-lengths, identical eyes,
Fit, young and supple, with delicate thighs,
But hotdesking's really the pits otherwise.

First a free desk you must find - oh what fun!
Then, is the computer a "Social Care" one?
If the base unit's massive, an obsolete mess,
With a high screen on top, indeed that's a yes.

If your chair won't adjust, that's the norm, and so be it.
Crane your neck at your monitor, hope you can see it.
All the Health monitors' stems will adjust,
But at least my neck swivels, so it's chin up, and thrust!

So I've now found a chair where my feet touch the floor.
Like a kid watching fireworks, my craned neck is sore.
We're all in the same boat. I mustn't complain,
But my posture is awful, and causing me pain.

I wear varifocals, which give me sharp sight
Only with screen, desk and chair the right height.
Sick of the blur, a solution's in hand:
I'm going to make my own monitor stand!

A morning of frantic endeavours it took:
A Tupperware biscuit tub and Argos book.
A precarious structure, of that I've no doubt,
And now that it's finished... it's time to go out!

My hotdesk survival kit's almost complete,
And I've even been given a rest for my feet,
But I don't have a desk where my kit can be stored...
So tomorrow - it's back to the old drawing board!

Pictured above is three-month old puppy Roxy who is apparently bringing joy to fellow residents at Colten Care's Fernhill care home in Ferndown. The clever dog "breaks the ice" and gets residents talking, the company says.

It seems that Cardigan The Dog really did set a trend.

Just finished editing Community Care's latest podcast in which we discuss the idea of housing homeless people before dealing with associated substance misuse problems, charing parents who put their children into care and news that social work assistant are taking on the responsibilities of qualified social workers.

You can listen to the programme using the player below, or you can subscribe via RSS on the new Community Care podcast page or via our FeedBurner page.

It's probably no suprise to readers that public sector workers are more likely to take time off due to stress. Our government's particular hatred for the public sector has seen it being blamed for an economic crisis caused by the financial sector and bearing the brunt of budget cuts.

The increasing workload for those who have kept their jobs is particularly felt in areas such as social work. The results of rising caseloads and falling resouces are starkly illustrated in a CareSpace post in which a contributor describes going from loving their job to feeling like they are cracking under the pressure.

There's lots of useful advice on the thread so it's well worth a read. It seems particularly important to say that those suffering from such stress should definitely seek help from a manager, occupational health department, trade union or professional association.

We put together a page compiling some of our articles on stress a while back, which might also prove useful.

An article on our Student Zone about using social media has prompted folk on Twitter to start thinking about what advice they would give social workers or students planning to use the micro blogging site.

A new hashtag #twittertips4sw is being used to compile the various pieces of advice. It's a great idea and if you go into Twitter and do a search using that hashtag you will be a able to see a list of all the advice offered so far.

Here is a sample:

So, get involved and add your tips to the list on Twitter. If you have a longer piece of advice you'd like to impart the please drop me an email.