Re: “SLO County employees threaten labor strike as pay lags: 'Patience has worn out'”

The demands of working after-hours was a major factor in choosing, after twenty-nine years as a child welfare social worker, to retire. Working a full day, taking calls on and off through the night, and then be expected to work a full day was asking too much, for too little, when I was a young man and far too much on a now sixty year old body.

When I retired, my caseload had a fair number of teens and young adults (former foster children now non-minors in extended foster care). I hated walking out of their lives as so many adults had done before. I miss working with them the most, but also missing working with my other clients as well. However, I had to think of my own health and my own family. This Thanksgiving will be the first Thanksgiving I have not been on call in five years.

My daughter attends Cal Poly. For awhile, she had a job delivering meals for restaurants. Some nights no orders would come in, but she would be "on call" if someone did. She was paid $6/hour to be on standby. Frankly, it was embarrassing that her father made half the much to be on standby to remove a child a from an abusive or neglectful home environment.


Lance Hillsinger