New School Puritan, puttin' the smack down on incompetance

I have often feared that it would read on my tombstone:
"She worked REALLY Hard at her job"

I was raised with a work ethic that makes Puritans look like slacker bums. And I love my job. I have been blessed to have chosen a career that I am proud to be a part of, and that makes a difference in the lives of children living in poverty - every day.

Furthermore, I felt called to serve in this profession. Early Childhood Education was too often the bastion of the mediocre, and I felt that it was important to be a really intelligent person who chose to do this work, rather than had to do this work cause it was the only thing I could do. You know the people of whom I speak. Many of you have seen them in the child care centers sprinkled throughout our country.

It has hurt my heart in the past couple of weeks to be training a person who has no passion, no career, no knowledge in my field of expertise. She is , for lack of a better word, a worker drone in the system of state government. She knows the right person, has some connections, and so she has landed on my proverbial doorstep. She won't read my "handbook" on how to do my old job. She doesn't care to learn anything "new" ( she proclaimed this on her first days in our bureau). She seems to spend most of her days trying to convince me she is working at her desk without doing a damn thing.

And her people skills? Holy shit. A talking goat would be more helpful to the public at large than this chick. I actually heard her tell a client that "She didn't know nothing, she was new here, but it all seemed to take a really long time to get anything done". I wanted to stand up and yell - "YES!! CAUSE OF LAZY FATASSES LIKE YOU!!!".

So I spend all day squashing my rage. Willful Incompetance makes me unreasonable, and I see it on parade for 8 hours every day. I watch her dismantle a system that I carefully built for three years. A system that nearly 8000 children a month depend on for child care.

But the most galling thing? She doesn't care. She doesn't care that without the smooth movement of paper in the Machine that is government, Child Care providers don't get paid. Without that payment, parents can't work. Thanksgiving's don't happen. We had our first call today from a provider who won't be having a dinner on Thursday because his $50.00 check isn't coming this week.

For many of these parents and providers, this IS the money that keeps them afloat.

So, for all the government workers you may encounter who act like assholes and don't give a shit, just know that there are the people like me in there too. Those of us who really do care about doing the right thing, and a good job. On behalf of Us, I apologize in advance for the deadwood like her.