Convictions

Blind from birth, Susan was the epitome of a great CILO counselor:  holding an MA in counseling and certificates in adaptive technology, she was an impressive young lady.  She was my first introduction to CILO, where I was later to serve on the Board, and she was a delight with her 26 year old sunny attitude in the face of constant struggle.

Boyfriends were always an issue (able bodied vs. disabled—neither ever seemed to work out), transportation (the city disabled trans system left her waiting for her pick-up from work for an average of 1½ hours, with another hour transit time to her home), her direct supervisor was clearly jealous of her accomplishments and frequently assigned her tasks inappropriate to her job, her apartment manager thought she should not live alone and constantly harassed her, sometimes with a sexual overtone, and on and on.

Her life was not too easy.

All should have gone well for Susan in her job, but like many other paths in life, she had her issues:  her “downfall” was that jealous supervisor.  The supervisor was about 50 years old, in a wheelchair, with a speech impediment and other serious disability problems.  Susan felt that this woman was not the right person to answer the CILO phone for new, incoming callers as she could not be understood on the telephone.

Rather than protecting her job, which she had fought hard to get, and needed to keep (who else would employ her?), she went to bat for what she thought was right for the consumer/client base of the agency.  She wanted someone on that phone who could relate immediately to whoever was calling.  There were several "challenging" meetings about the issue.

The day came when the executive director was away, and the supervisor was in charge of the office. She decided to take incoming calls herself.   An emergency call came in, and Susan could hear her supervisor unable to communicate with the caller, who was clearly in some stage of distress. 

Susan asked if she could help.  The response from her supervisor was hostile.  The call continued.  Susan picked up on the line and discovered that the caller was suicidal.  Susan intervened.  She took the call, and initiated a “three way conversation” so that the caller could actually speak with someone who could make herself understood.

Susan lost her job for this action.  Susan did not give up.  She contacted the regional CILO officials, and filed a complaint when the executive director backed up her supervisor upon return.  The complaint was denied.

Susan looked to be losing everything she had worked so hard for, and was terrified that she could not find another job.  She was given a week to clear her office.

She continued to work with her remaining clients, including the suicidal client who had called that fateful day.  The client, it turned out, had a father who was a senior City official.

When informed that Susan had stood up for her convictions and helped, possibly, to save his son’s life, he was influential in assisting Susan gain employment as a senior worker in a city agency dealing with disabled clients—an agency that had never before hired a disabled employee!

What I learned from Susan’s experience was that standing up for her convictions, at personal cost, can be much more important than security.  She wanted to help more than she cared about her own needs.  That is a very rare quality.