I work for the State of Oregon as a child protective services caseworker.
This means that when there are concerns about child abuse or neglect I’m the one that goes out into the community to investigate and intervene when necessary.
Since COVID-19 the Oregon Child Abuse Hotline has decreased it’s call volume by 70%, meaning that although fewer cases are making their way onto my desk the ones that I end up getting assigned to assess are incredibly complex and severe.
Part of my job involves entering people’s homes and going to hospitals, which is frankly terrifying right now during a pandemic. Families already balk at letting CPS into their home, and it involves a different level of engagement to do our necessary safety checks now. We are deemed essential, so the messaging we have received is basically “business as usual” despite nothing about our current situation being “usual” at all. Our managers are working remotely so it’s a strange and different experience being supervised from afar without the immediate accessibility of in-person communication with our supervisors.
We are deemed essential, so the messaging we have received is basically “business as usual
For me it’s always been crucial to have physical separation between work and home given the vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue that comes with the job. We have been given the option to work from home, but when we are still required to respond in-person to new cases it makes more sense to go in to the office where I have access to my files and double monitors.
As a shameless extrovert the hardest part about the quarantine is not being able to spend time with friends or go out after work to decompress. I like having a buffer activity between work and home. Since we can’t get happy hour at our go-to bar my coworkers and I have been going on white claw walks after our shift. It’s not the same as sitting on a patio at The Alleyway (our favorite bar), but it’s the best we got right now.
Something that people don’t know or that would be interesting to know about my job is… Whenever I tell people I’m a CPS worker the first response is usually something like “oh, that’s so sad” or “that must be really hard”. I think when people hear child protective services they think all we do is go in and remove children and place them in foster care. While removing children is a part of the job, it’s a really minor part of the scope of what I do. So much of the work is preventative. I love the problem-solving aspect of working with families going through difficult times and connecting families to community resources. I mean, it can be a really sad and hard job, but getting to see how resilient children and families are is incredibly rewarding and makes the tougher days more manageable.
What I like most about my job, and what I wish I could change:
- I LOVE my coworkers!! We joke that we are all trauma bonded, but that may not be too far from the truth. Our job exposes us to some pretty unbelievable situations, and there’s no way I could keep coming back day after day without the support, trust, and dark humor from my peers. We take such good care of each other. There’s a certain vulnerability that comes from sharing such intense experiences with my colleagues. We have been joking that COVID-19 has turned us into unrelatable weirdos because we are only spending time with each other since we can’t hang out with our non-work friends in our spare time and our unique brand of humor doesn’t make sense to our partners and other friends.
- Over the past few years there has been a huge push for data analytics and productivity from upper management. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cringed hearing the phrase “we are a data-driven agency”. We work for the Department of Human Services, and sometimes I feel like the “human” part comes second to the paperwork and data reporting. I understand the importance of documentation, but sometimes it makes me feel more like a number than a complex person working in a complex field.
Every day my coworkers and I discuss how different our lives are going to be come September when the children return to in-person school. It’s terrifying to think about how many children are at home in unsafe situations. So many of our assessments are generated through reports from teachers/school staff, so we’ve seen a huge decrease in those types of calls. It doesn’t mean that abuse isn’t happening, it just means there’s no one to see it and report it. We aren’t prepared for how completely slammed we are going to be when all the kids are back and disclosing the things they experienced during quarantine. I know we will rally together and do the best that we can, but I’m worried that we don’t have the support systems in place right now to tackle the volume of new assessments that are going to come our way. By that point I’ll have graduated from my master’s program and hope that having those three expensive little letters after my name will help me transition into more leadership-oriented positions.
So many of our assessments are generated through reports from teachers/school staff, so we’ve seen a huge decrease in those types of calls.
What have you struggled with most during this time? What has been the biggest blessing?
It’s really hard for me to be supervised by a remote manager. I’ve always valued having a boss with an open door policy where I can pop in and staff issues in realtime as they arise. Now I have to practically schedule every call and by the time I can have her ear for a minute I’ve usually solved the problem on my own. I guess there’s something to be said about taking some space and trusting that I know what I’m doing, but my work is largely crisis driven and it’s been a hard adjustment navigating everything through phone calls. I think the biggest blessing is how kind and loving my coworkers have been during this time. Colleagues I’ve never been particularly close to are now considered some of my dearest friends. My unit has always been supportive and close-knit, but now more than ever we are checking in on each other and supporting one another. We text each other positive accolades outside of work and have more inside jokes than ever before. We are all feeling the pressure for productivity from our remote management team and being able to process these stressors together has been huge.
Outside of work, what have you been doing to keep busy?
I’m an avid reader, but have struggled to pleasure read since quarantine began. My book club still meets monthly (now over zoom) and it seems like we are all having a difficult time concentrating. I’m glad for the seasonal change and have been spending nearly every second (when I’m not doing homework) in my garden. Rainy days are tough and I find myself moping from room to room sighing loudly. My partner got a Nintendo Switch right before COVID began so he’s had his games to keep him busy and I’m sure he’s getting sick of hearing how much I miss the mall. Aside from working in the yard I’ve been spending a lot of time waking my cat up from naps to tell him how beautiful he is, organizing my pantry, and scrolling through the same instagram feed over and over. Exciting, I know.
What does a typical day look like at your job?
Oh man, there’s no such thing as a typical day in child welfare. That’s one of the reasons why I love it so much- you never know what you’re going to walk in to. Could be a quiet day catching up on paperwork, or you could get a call that the FBI needs your help conducting an interview. Some days I leave the office right at 5 on the dot and other times it’s after midnight by the time I finish my work day. I’ve had to climb fences, I’ve sat in pee, and once was invited to participate in an easter egg hunt at the trailer park. It may not be a glamorous job, but there is seldom a dull moment.
Final thoughts…
In three weeks (!!!) I’ll have my master’s degree in social work. It seems like just yesterday I was shopping at IKEA and receiving my acceptance email (man. I really miss Ikea). These past two years have been some of the hardest and most rewarding of my life. I’ve made forever friends, pushed myself harder, and learned so many valuable skills. The truly exciting thing about getting my MSW is that now I can finally be on an equal playing field for career development with hetero white dudes with undergrad degrees. I joke, but like… only partly.
