Possibly duped into a bad setting.

Post Reply New Topic

I just ended my first week at vocational rehabilitation, and already I'm getting bad vibes. For this week, we were disassembling tampons, a task which shall continue into next week, even as the fiscal year ends. I felt tired of the monotony of it, so I asked if I could move over to something more creative, like dolls. I immediately regretted that choice. It turns out that kids at voc rehab that make dolls are paid hourly by quantity, so if you put an hour of work into one doll, expect yourself to get chewed out by the staff on the floor. That's what happened to me. I was mentally exhausted, and the woman asked me:

"What you do if you were mentally exhausted and had to work at Wal-Mart?"

Instantly, she had me pulled into her office. My counsellor and the woman told me I wasn't trying, and more or less implied that I was in sweatshop mode now. Later, one of my new friends, who was injured by an IED in Iraq, said that my counsellor sabotaged his file so that he would work in areas that could potentially endanger his health-- he has an artificial arm, back problems, and a painful leg.

Have I been duped?

That doesn't sound too good. Is this place where you've been assigned to associated with a certain thrift store? If so just be glad they don't stick you in the computer room doing mindless data entry for $0. The part about taking tampons apart is a little strange, don't see much productivity in that.

Piecework is beneficial to everyone except the laborer; if you work too slow you'll not earn much and be harassed, work too fast and you'll end up with downtime and they won't pay any extra or let you go home early

All I can contribute is to say finish out your term and document, document, document. If you end up resorting to Social Security or something this will all be in your file and can help your case there