Support

[cosmolinguist]

I was an hour late for the away day, thanks to a combination of my own doofusness and regular transport hell. And this was so stressful for me because I knew an hour in that I was gonna be involved in the agenda item.

But of course it turned out not to matter because nothing ever gets done on an away day. I mostly think I'm pretty extroverted and neurotypical in this regard but since covid I'm like "...does any of this justify the increased chances of contracting a deadly and disabling illness?" and of course few things are.

One thing that would feel worth it for me is to have someone here to rub my feet. I just got back to my hotel room after wandering around, sometimes with my colleagues, finding food and trying to be normal enough.

The planned afternoon session couldn't happen and so we just carried on with more of my topic from the morning. It was hard work and stressful, and I'm not sure if much good came out of it.

I don't want to sound miserable; I did have a nice evening because I spent it with my favorite team member K, her support worker who's great company and who's also very kindly willing to help me out if I tag along with the two of them, and her friend W who I hadn't met in person before.

I kinda wish I had a support worker, not for every day but for trips like this. But I don't know anyone feasible and I don't want to deal with Access to Work so. This is the lesser evil. But it is nice to be able to borrow K's support worker on team events. And I met W's support worker today too who's also great.

Comments

[otter]

While it may not be worth the battle for you to get a support worker, you certainly deserve someone in that role.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah I do. Thanks, it helps to hear this.

[angelofthenorth]

Commiserations.

[barakta]

I wish your org wasn't as obsessed with pointless away days that don't even run properly.

I wish AtW wasn't such a bin fire that getting some hours a month of assistant support was such a nightmare to coordinate.

Yay for K and decent support worker who supports you too.

[silveradept]

Getting the support that works best for you would be a fantastic thing. It's nice that you have others who are willing to help you when you're in proximity.

But yeah, that whole "is this something that just absolutely has to happen in person and us written the increased risk of disease?" question is a salient I've, especially for an org that deals with disabilities.