When You Work For A Bureaucracy...

• You are instructed by the Foster Care Big Dog that you cannot generate a voucher because you must use your child's private earmarked money (SSI Disability, Child Support, Survivor's benefits, etc) to purchase clothing, shoes, personal hygiene products, school uniforms, or any other item your child might need. Then to be told by the finance office that you cannot use your child's private earmarked money because ALL the money is going to be used to pay the state back for the child's placement. You are instructed by the finance big dog to generate a voucher. You generate the voucher only to be told by the Foster Care Big Dog, that she will not approve it because your child receives private earmarked money.
• You are signed up by the Big Dog to go to a specialized training, you travel four hours and over 300 miles to receive a phone call from the Big Dog telling you that you will not be paid mileage due to budget cuts and because it was not a previously approved training by the State Big Dogs.
• You have a case reviewed two months prior to the Federal Review by a State Consultant who tells you that since the agency holds permanent custody of a child and the plan is adoption, we are NOT to allow the child to visit siblings not in our custody due to the liability. The case is reviewed by the Feds and upon receiving the write up and scoring, you now have to send a written response to the Big Dog Assistant Director explaining why you have not scheduled visits between siblings for the last two months.
• Your supervisor approves your leave for the afternoon so you can attend your child's Open House, only to call you 15 minutes before you are scheduled to leave for the remainder of the day to tell you that before you go you must submit a report on a specialized permanency study the Quality Assurance Team is asking for. You don't leave the office for another hour and 45 minutes, missing the Open House. Only to find out the next day that the report was not due for another week.
• The Big Dog calls for a formal investigation on your case practice after a birth parent files a formal complaint against you because she is not allowed to have contact with her children, although her rights were terminated 4 years ago, her children have been adopted, and the Judge has issued a standing no contact order at the Guardian Ad Litem's request.

Dump truck driving is looking more and more promising every day!!! I wonder if they offer a 401K?