Blog Post 1

This week in class we discussed the social work code of ethics and how as social workers we have to navigate our obligations as social workers around the confines of federal and state employment laws. When we came to the topic of employing someone who might make choices that go against your agency's mission, I was unpleasantly surprised to hear that there has been incidences of domestic violence among the employees at SafePlace. I know that several of the women I currently work with have experienced domestic violence in the past, but I hated to hear that there have been batterers working at SafePlace as well. We discussed that statistics are statistics, that no matter what building or organization you're involved with, you're still faced with the same problems with the same frequency everywhere you go.

That conversation made me simultaneously grateful and resentful of federal employment laws. While it would be disconcerting to employ a violent person in a nonviolent organization and not be able to do anything about it, I can see that these laws are there to protect people, and I am grateful for that. Everyone makes mistakes, and I am glad there are laws to protect the everyday person who commits a lesser crime from losing their job.

In class we also watched Dan Pallotta's ted talk, which really got me thinking. I've seen the video a few times before, but each time I see it I feel like something different strikes a chord with me. This time what really hit me was his description of pay rates within the nonprofit sector. I have thought for a long time that what I really want to do with my social work degree is private practice counseling, but it got me thinking about how much of that decision is subconsciously based on the difference in pay I know I'll receive. I haven't faced any opposition with this decision - no one has said to me, "you should stay in an organization with a low hourly rate because thats where we need the most help" - everyone seems to just accept my decision to work in counseling without a problem. There is, however, a different feeling that goes with working in a nonprofit versus telling someone you're going to be a counselor - when I tell the average person that I work in a domestic violence shelter on the hotline, there's always a few responses I get that make me feel a little bit like a martyr or somehow holy, like I'm somehow above the average UT business graduate who is only out to serve themselves. People will say, "Oh bless your heart, we need more people like you", or "wow, there's no way I could do that, thank you so much" (being thanked right off the bat is a strange one but it happens all the time). I guess that's just the aftertaste of puritanism that Pallotta was describing.