tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post2517801512145642686..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: ConferenceAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-7816457854796422812011-11-03T23:04:49.979-04:002011-11-03T23:04:49.979-04:00The self-congratulatory part of the speech was a p...The self-congratulatory part of the speech was a pep talk. It is very easy to get discouraged in the social services field, especially in mental health, because there are often so few indications of accomplishment.<br /><br />Clients keep coming back with the same old problems, not having made any progress. That gives one not a feeling of accomplishment, but a feeling of futility- that working in social services is like treading water, or pushing back the incoming tides at New Castle Beach.<br /><br />I suspect that the pep talks keep a certain amount of people from quitting the social services field, by allaying feelings of discouragement.<br /><br />One consequence of hearing so often that "we in social services are SUCH GOOD PEOPLE," is that taxpayers who do not like the expenditure of their tax dollars on programs that to not appear to accomplish much get labeled as BAD PEOPLE by those working in social services. We are good people doing good things, so those who want to cut off our funding are bad people. So Head Start, which has been documented to have done zilch in its nearly half century of existence, keeps getting funded.<br /><br />One rationale for funding social services is that while clients may not make progress, those who are unable to care for themselves need assistance. Certainly the mentally retarded, for example, deserve assistance without the expectation that the assistance will enable them to become active members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce- because they cannot.Gringonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-54427603523159449832011-11-03T21:34:08.623-04:002011-11-03T21:34:08.623-04:00Well, when a bunch of technicians/engineers get to...Well, when a bunch of technicians/engineers get together to celebrate a project, there are two factors at work.<br /><br />(1) celebration at overcoming challenges<br />(2) celebration if the company thinks that the project will be a net positive on Accounting's balance sheet. <br /><br />Some members of the team may brag on their own intelligence, but I've never seen much sense of <i>we're good people because we do this.</i> And I suspect that anyone who's has done more than one project with a team realizes how hard it is for a single individual to do the entire task.<br /><br />However, the culture at large (especially as influenced by the Arts & Humanities tribe) doesn't think that, so why should a bunch of engineers and techs think that?<br /><br />Although the team that works on things like <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6502466/Japans-inventions-for-the-elderly-four-of-the-best.html" rel="nofollow">this</a> may have a different opinion.<br /><br />However, I do wonder what the American engineers and industrialists of 1870-1920 would have thought and said.<br /><br />That was an era that had popular culture exalting the engineer and businessman, to some extent. They were the wave of the future. <br /><br />In the 1920's, a successful engineer and businessman became President of the U.S. Part of this was the cultural attitude that celebrated businessmen and feats of engineering.karrdehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00205160745963596856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-58091265394351066262011-11-03T21:16:54.234-04:002011-11-03T21:16:54.234-04:00Yeah...that happens at sales meetings too. ;-)Yeah...that happens at sales meetings too. ;-)Dubbahdeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00075702513873912334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-7384428534656569622011-11-03T20:23:27.670-04:002011-11-03T20:23:27.670-04:00My wife's friend was dating a guy that seemed ...My wife's friend was dating a guy that seemed very smug about being a licensed social worker. That would be fine except he failed to recognize that the businessman that employed thousands of people and paid all the taxes that make social services possible was doing just as much if not more for society than the social worker.Boxtynoreply@blogger.com