Remind Me Again Why I Got Into Home Care

It can be surprisingly easy to forget why we got into the home care industry in the first place, with such fierce competition for customers and employees, yearly increases in insurance rates, and more and more regulations.  We are always under pressures–to hire and retain better employees, to meet payroll, to grow census, to increase profitability, to keep clients and referral sources happy, to perform.  Even our elected officials often treat us with hostility, sometimes appearing as if they think that the home care industry is a license to steal or commit fraud.

I have had to remind myself and my staff what a privilege it is to be chosen–to be trusted–with the health and welfare of families’ loved ones.  This is a difficult and challenging business we are in.  It requires continuous attention to a myriad of details and needs that make each client unique, and that make each case uniquely challenging.  Of course, it not only involves providing the direct services, but following all of the countless policies and procedures exactly as written in order to receive reimbursement.

In the course of our day we do so many things at many levels.  For example, when we apply an attendance policy, it is not just to keep employees in compliance; it is to assure that we are doing what we say we will do.  Our clients depend on us being there to help them with their daily activities.  These policies are in fact our values in action.

We agree to take on these tasks because it is our jobs to do so, but couldn’t we find an easier way to make a living?  Of course we could.  We all know how difficult this industry is to perform well.  I am in awe at the sales skill that national franchises display in their abilities to sell so many overlapping private duty business franchises (more on this later).  They promise some big returns, and with a lot of hard work and the right attitude, all things are possible.  But I think that many of these entrepreneurs go into the home care industry because underneath they have a need to do some good in the world, and they have no idea how hard it can be.

But it can feel great!  What home care owner/manager has not experienced the feeling of complete satisfaction in knowing that all of our hard work, all of our careful selections and training hours and check-up calls have resulted in happy and safe clients?  The work that we do really matters.  What we do is not only rewarding for us personally—it is important.  Hundreds of thousands, probably millions of seniors count on us to help them with their housework, a bath, a hot meal, and a friendly smile.

Knowing at the end of the day that what we have done—despite all of the frustrations and the energy-sapping challenges—has served people who need us and that we have made a difference, is really quite a return.  And you and I can take that to the bank.

WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE?

I know most people think giving excuses at work is a sign of trouble, but let’s not diminish their value.   Without excuses, our egos would be laid bare and we might actually have to accept responsibility for our performance.  Yet, as much as I appreciate excuses, I’m a much bigger fan of scapegoating.   By finding a scapegoat, we get to throw suspicion and blame elsewhere.  We might even have the opportunity to demonize our co-workers a bit just for the entertainment value.

Most kidding aside, the answer lies in the organizational culture and individual psychology.  Is it a culture of fear and blame or of encouragement to take some risk and learn new ways of creating value and serving our customers?  And how mature is the employee who makes excuses?   We all make excuses from time to time, but inside, we know the truth.  It is a face-saving shield we all learned to carry early on, but most of us grow out of relying on excuses to explain our mistakes or shortcomings.

I once asked a key mid-level employee why she had emailed the director to approve what I found to be a minor decision that should have been standard operating procedure well within the scope of her authority.  She replied, “I was just, you know, covering myself so it wouldn’t come back to bite me in the butt.”

I asked her, “In the six years you have worked for this company, has management ever come down hard on you for any mistakes you made, small or large?”

Without hesitation, she said “no.”

So this is an example where an organizational culture is actually very forgiving in certain ways, yet the individual still couldn’t believe it.  Why?  There is an explanation.

I discovered that this organization also permits key longtime employees to provide excuses and explanations for why some efforts did not go right. Even in the face of customer complaints (some justified-others not, as always) there was still a culture of making excuses to avoid blame.  In reality, there was little or no blaming from management.   But by allowing an excuse-culture to persist, employees felt little responsibility for the problem, and worse, for achieving the solution.

A non-blaming culture is an excellent start to inhibit excuse-making, but the other message that management was sending to employees at this company was a hesitancy to hold employees accountable for not achieving the company goals.  When this is the case, you can be pretty sure goals will remain unmet, and when something goes seriously awry, better duck for cover to avoid flying excuses.

Now that you found me, are you going to read, or what?

Welcome to the initial, incipient, and redundantly, my first blog.  Although I have written online articles, been quick to comment on other sites and posts of others, this is my first bonafide blog.  I have launched into the blogosphere.   Before becoming entirely too self-indulgent, I will quickly state the principles under which this blog will operate.

1. This blog, like me, has no principles.
2. I do not mean this.
3. Ignore any principles stipulated herein.
4. Except those in which you find useful instruction.
5. If I fail to cause a ripple of laughter, a guffaw, cackle, chuckle, entertained” hunh?” or even a feeble smile, I have not done my job.  For which, of course there is no compensation save the uncertain satisfaction that someone may accidentally stumble upon my blog and actually read it.

I will in some cases state interesting (to me) observations and oddities which compose the net of my daily existence.  I shall also write occasional pieces on subject matters related to my paid work–id est the business and career coaching fields, and organizational topics.

I don’t have a clue whether this will “drive” surfers here or there.  People searching for things will probably end up at sites and blogs where people designing and writing them know what they are doing.  This is only a test.  But everybody in my class who shows up gets a “B.”  Class participation can get you an “A.”  So can unusual amounts of flattery.

Come back and read future editions if you want entertainment or desire to learn certain secret information, such as the meaning of life (it is not a number or Curley’s “Just One Thing,”) and the truth about Area 51 and the Kennedy Assassination.  You see, while they were filming National Treasure, I was a Production Assistant, and in between fetching glasses of vodka for Nicholas Cage,  I sneaked  into the balcony of the Library of Congress and skimmed through the Presidents’ Book of Secrets. They fired me, of course, when they found out I was a double agent working for both the Beverly Hills Police Department investigating an alleged script theft and the Norwegian Secret Service, assigned to uncover documentation written in Sardine skin proving that Vikings claimed North America three centuries before Columbus, thus validating Norway’s claim to collect a tax on all honey meade sold in the states.

See you (actually I can’t-that’s a completely inaccurate colloquialism) later.