Hello, I am looking to create a place where I can bounce ideas and out into cyberspace and connect with others who are seeking the same. I am a 48 year old wife, mom and grandma who needs an outlet for some of the challenging and distressing issues that have been attacking me and the family for the last 3 years. Homegrown or homespun therapy as it were. I work for a state agency that monitors physical and mental conditions in the general public and how it effects their ability to safely drive on our highways and bi-ways. This can be extremely stressful since 99% of the driving public believe that their Independence is directly linked to their ability to get into their car and go when and where they please. I am the face, or the voice of the bureaucracy that licenses their driving privilege and hence The Enemy!It takes energy and patience to try and calmly explain to someone that their doctor has diagnosed them with a physical or mental condition that will generate a revocation of their driving privilege, many people are in denial about the seriousness of the condition. They are angry and want names and say they are going to sue the department and the doctors, others have mental conditions that have destroyed their short term memory and so they will call multiple times a day and ask the same questions or repeat the same stories. When you try and explain that you have spoken with them the seem incredulous and deny they have called, but the comments are there and you know the condition is not getting better. Then you also have the family members to contend with, some feel our department is not moving fast enough and some feel that we are just an idiotic system infringing on their lives, either way we rarely "win". With the furloughs that have been set in place by the Governator, our immense piles of paperwork are moving even more slowly through the evaluation and review processes necessary to complete each file. I feel overwhelmed every day as I ride the multiple buses I have to take to work and wonder if the service I am trying to provide is in fact doing what it was intended to do.... Some days you get a Thank You from a customer, but those days are rare and few. Not that I am in it for accolades or pats on the back, but it seems to me I should feel more confident that the job I am doing is helpful to society as a whole and not quite as draining to me in the entire scheme of things. I suppose I believe that I should feel more content with doing a necessary job that keeps the public safe, but I am becoming more and more worn out and depressed with my job. So, the question is: what do you do to regenerate yourself and get back into being energized and optimistic about your job?? Leave your comments and Thanks for taking the time to share!
