This case study covers: Issues for former trainees – Moving out of the GROW traineeship and into a support worker post
Spencer started in a Thames Reach supported housing team after being successfully recruited through an internal competitive recruitment process. He came directly to the team from a traineeship and experienced anxiety due to not wanting to fail in his first ‘proper’ job for a long time.
Spencer had worked several years ago before becoming a service user. He had had a very negative experience of work as his former boss had been a ‘domineering bully’ and regularly humiliated Spencer. As a result, Spencer left his job feeling useless.
Coming into the new team, Spencer said he also felt under pressure to succeed as he had been one of the first GROW trainees to get a paid job. He felt he was a standard bearer and others’ success depended on his success.
However, he also felt positive about the job and knew his strengths to be his group work, presentations and public speaking skills. He also brought a great sense of sense of humour and willingness to learn.
Issues
During Spencer’s transition from trainee to worker, a number of issues arose. He had a history of alcohol problems and dyslexia that affected his ability to learn new things, manage large amounts of information and produce a good standard of written work. There were also issues around how Spencer managed his anxiety about his feelings of ‘not fitting into the team’.
Sometimes Spencer would revert to learned behaviour in times of stress by attempting to manipulate systems or people. For example, he would circumvent the line management structure and go to the GROW manager, whom he believed would be ‘more motherly’ and possibly sort out the problems.
As the first few months in his new job passed, Spencer found himself excited and eager about the work. He found it hard to keep up with all the tasks and to challenge clients on issues such as rent arrears. As he continued to struggle, Spencer attempted to conceal his failures which in turn began to make him look unreliable as he would report work done when it hadn’t been.
Spencer also started to forget appointments because he was not using his Outlook diary or other time-management tools and was slow to use his own initiative. Spencer seemed to need to check things several times before acting, which led to frustration on his line manager’s part.
These and other issues appeared to lead to a breakdown in trust from his line manager, and Spencer strongly felt that he had been let down by his induction into the new team. He thought that his manager and co-workers' expectiations of him were too high, and that there was inconsistency on the part of his managers.
Outcomes
During his new job, Spencer relapsed three times. He was offered support from his line manager, including an Occupational Health assessment, although the manager felt that Spencer did not fully acknowledge the problem. Spencer also gave a commitment to seek help, but it was unclear to all what this meant.
The Occupational Health assessment led to a full dyslexia assessment. This recommended that Spencer work with a dyslexia tutor and undertake stress awareness, relapse prevention and time management training. It was also suggested that Spencer attend assertiveness, stress management and listening skills training. Unfortunately, however, he did not attend.
The dyslexia assessment also led to a number of adjustments in his workplace which lead to an improvement in Spencer’s confidence and written work.
Supervision sessions with his line-manager became more focused and Spencer’s probationary period was also extended so that his competence could be fairly judged. His line manager looked at ways of working with Spencer to minimise his stress, organise his work by writing out calendars and making monthly plans.
This focused support led to an improvement in Spencer’s written work and confidence. He was doing more of his allocated tasks on time and became more confident in being able to acknowledge and address his underlying emotional and alcohol issues.
However, a year into the job, following a serious incident in the project, Spencer decided the job was too stressful for him. He was disappointed in the lack of time he had to spend with clients as there was so much paperwork, and subsequently resigned.
