The Good and the Bad: Temp Agency Clerks and Social Workers

A few civil servants (temp agency clerks) are like the little stones which make you stumble when you walk bare-foot on the beach of hard knocks.

If you resist them, then they will assimilate you i.e. reduce your funding by misrepresenting your case to a case worker.

Today, most case workers are assigned a client by "alphabetic lottery", where the client's last name is matched up to the last name of a social worker.

However, this association of worker with client changes weekly in catchment areas where client to work ratios are high and monthly where they are low.

This is because workers tend to lose their objectivity when they listen to the client's life story, whether it is told by the client or by other workers who know of hir. As well, temporary stress leave is regularly assigned to busy social workers. This job is not for workaholics because it will burn you out.

However, new clients should never divulge their life story to a worker. If a worker cannot get a background report on a client from other workers or from the archives at the Victoria office, then it is better that way.

Woe to the worker who sympathizes!