It’s that time of the month. My turn to be on call for the whole month of April. My agency likes to spread this joy to all of its employees. Everybody gets a turn because it rotates monthly. Poor me, after April I’ll have to wait a whole 'nother year. I really look forward to those late calls.
I work for a substance abuse treatment agency and they decided that our clients might need a hotline. It’s a great idea but doesn’t work. Most of the calls are because someone wants to check an appointment (can’t do that, I’m not at the office), or want to know where they can find an agency to help their loved one. I usually tell them to call the office in the morning. Rarely, does anyone call because they are considering getting high and reaching out for help, which was the idea behind the hotline. It would be great if I were really helping somebody make the right decision but mostly it’s just annoying.
We have an oncall number that we each get for a week (big team so only have the duty phone about every two months).
What’s funny is that we discovered if you dial the wrong (nearby) area code it rings to the county jail, so we’ve gotten used to a lot of stressed-out callers at odd hours…“I’m sorry ma’am, you need to dial xxx, not zzz…no that’s all right, you have a nice night”
Most of them are thankful to be corrected but every so often we get someone who insists that we are lying and we really ARE the jail and they keep ringing back. Probably a drunk trying to bail another drunk friend out.
Nope, I’m salary. On call is just one of the fringe benefits of this job. Everybody anxiously awaits his or her turn to carry the phone with them as they wait, with barely concealed anticipation and joy, for the next call. I have soooo many co-workers who are jealous of me right now because of this illustrious duty.
The trouble with good ideas like that is that there’s no clear way to turn them off when the results don’t meet the goals.
Robert Townsend, author of “Up The Organization” and former head of Avis Rent-a-Car, said 4 of 5 special programs prove to be failures in the the first couple of months, yet cannot be killed off until the next recession forces budget cuts. And even then they share the same prospects as the 5 goo program.
Redfrost, I’m wondering if your agency has a legal responsibility to provide 24-hour availability. Some managed care panels require access to a clinician within x hours of a client-initiated contact. You may be involved more in a CYA than meeting a general client need.
That said, I wonder if your agency has an intern or some other eager young person who could be given the task of constructing a wallet card for clients:
We are not required to have a 24-hour hotline. When someone calls after-hours they get a list of numbers to call. One of the 1st ones is Mobile Crisis, then our detox transportation guy, and the hotline phone last. This state has an Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous hotline. Last time I was on call, I got 3 phone calls. 1 wanted to talk about his drug use and trying to stay sober, one who fell asleep on a bus and needed a ride, and one who needed information about how to get her boyfriend into treatment. The only one of real value was the 1st one. The other 2 could have used a phone book.
So, just out of interest, what are the practical effects of this duty for you? How many call are you likely to get during your free time or sleep time, over the month of April?
Hopefully not many. I just don’t like dealing with a crisis. It is quite taxing. I usually feel good afterwards, like I made a difference, but I just want to have to deal with if I don’t have to. Free time, I don’t really have any free time. I’m at work now (my part-time job) and will be here until 9pm. I don’t like being responsible for other people, not in this litigious [sp?] society. Pratically, it is really not so bad. Just annoying being the go to guy.
