A Day In The Life of a PSW that works in the Community

I am a Personal Support Worker, I do not work for Red Cross Care Partners and I am not on strike, but felt it was important for people to know some facts about our job and our pay and what is expected from us for our pay.

For the most part people support the PSW's but as always there are people who open their mouths and their brains fall out, they simply do not know what they are talking about, and I am sick of the dumb ass comments from these people such as “try working for $15/week” (nobody in Ontario has to do that with welfare available to them) or  “lots of people would be happy to work for $15/hour” (well where are they, because PSW’s are in high demand now and are being hired everywhere)?

THINGS I’D LIKE YOU TO KNOW ABOUT PSW'S THAT GO OUT IN THE COMMUNITY:

          -             I don’t make $15/hour that Red Cross PSW’s make, I make $14 hour and am classed part
              time, full time jobs are few and far between

-          In addition I am paid mileage at $0.38/km but there are several expenses this has to cover and it doesn’t even come close (I believe Red Cross pays $0.34/km for mileage)

-          There is a stipend of $10.50/hour for our time and mileage but only if we travel further than 60km on any given day (I average anywhere from 10 – 50 km a day)

-          I don’t get paid for my time or my mileage when driving to the first client, I am only paid mileage for the distance between the first and last clients.  There is an exception if we are asked to travel out of our area and it is more than 20 km but we have to request it, it is not just given to us

-          I have to have a reliable vehicle in order to do this job, I purchased a used vehicle for $6,000 and paid one year’s worth of insurance for $1,300.  Prior to this I didn’t have a vehicle for over a year

-          I have to pay for gas, approximately $300/month for work

-          I have to pay for  roadside assistance as many of my routes are in remote locations (I got stuck in the snow yesterday for over an hour on a cottage road that wasn’t thoroughly plowed)

-          I had to buy top of the line snow tires rather than just use my all weather tires at a cost to me of over $1,000

-          I frequently have to get oil changes and change my wiper blades at $107 a pop out of my own money

-          It is 5 pm on December 18 as I write this, we still don’t have our schedules for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day even though we were asked over a month ago which day we would prefer to work (we have to work at least one of them), kind of hard to make plans with family and friends

-          I work in all kinds of weather and on all holidays

-          I do not get any benefits whatsoever, I am dire need of dental work but can’t afford it (if I were to collect welfare I would have health and dental benefits

-          I do not have life insurance as I cannot afford it

-          My day might be 12 hours long but I’m only paid for the 6 hours I work with the clients in between my travel and admin time

-          I have to own and carry a cell phone with me at all times

-          I get phone calls at 5 a.m. to see if I can cover someone’s shift, I get phone calls almost every weekend that I am off to see if I can cover other shifts

-          I have to fill out a special form to request a day off even though I am not paid for that day, in other words even though I am only part time it is not sufficient for me to tell them in advance that I won’t be available to work on a particular day

-          I have to have a printer with a copier and scanner and pay for it and the supplies myself (I recently purchased a toner cartridge for $90 and printer paper for $5)

-          I have to have a home computer for work so that I can check my work e-mails

-          I have to have high speed internet and pay for it myself

-          I am not allowed to have work email on my phone because of privacy concerns but I am expected to check my work e-mail twice a day on my own time

-          We get our schedules by e-mail on a daily basis, not a week or two ahead of time

-          I am expected to call clients and confirm appointments the night before but I don’t get home from work until about 9:30 or 10, no coming in the door and putting my feet up and relaxing

 

-      I have to use either google maps or bing maps or mapquest and print off driving directions for the next day's clients on my own time

-          The nurses are allowed company e-mail and are in fact each given an IPad for their use from the company (why the discrepancy?), this right here is a respect issue

-          I have to write reports on clients and e-mail them to everyone on my own time and on the same day, so again at 9:30 or 10 at night, they have to come from the work e-mail so can only be done from our home computers

-          I have to initial and sign off on every client appointment and scan and e-mail them weekly to payroll every Sunday on my own time, as well as check the mileage numbers which are often wrong

-          I can barely pay my rent and utilities on what I make given all the other expenses that go with this job, let alone food or other necessities

-          So now, let’s be realistic, after  adding up all these things I have to buy out of pocket and all my time getting  to appointments and other things I do on my own time, what is my real hourly pay?   I can tell you it is nowhere near $14/hour.  I am definitely one of the working poor

-          Let’s not even talk about the duties I have to perform for this wage or some of the expectations, we’ll save that for the next blog!