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Good Morning, rest of my life...

This morning I made my first student loan payment in a very long time.  I had been paying back after my first masters, and then I went back for a second so the payment went away for a while.  So here we are again, and honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I know that I am lucky to have had the opportunity to access funds to get to go to school.  I would also appreciate at the opportunity to have my loans reduced based on the work that I do.

For someone with my level of education and work experience I feel comfortable saying I am under-compensated.  This is not simply the organization I work for, it's the industry standard.  Unfortunately social services and the non-profit sector have bought into the idea that we should be so lucky to do this work and do it for less than say, hospitals or the government.  In doing so, we have created an environment that is often rife with burnout, frustration and struggling to survive workers.  The same workers that are charged with the helping the clients to seek their own empowerment and change in their lives.  I have been saying for years, we need to overhaul the thinking of the non-profit sector and educate the community so that these incredibly important services, provided by incredibly talented individuals can continue and not just burn out....

Anyway, yay for having a job that I actually enjoy the work I get to do.  Yay for having the financial resources to pay towards my educational loans.  And yay for trying to explore the how we can gain access to education and pay for it in a way that does not leave those dedicated to services, needing services themselves.

Comments

  1. cora dMay 23, 2012 at 10:29 AM

    Preach it. My dream is to start a foundation that funds only operating expenses with a focus on increasing the salaries of employees.

    One trend that has helped perpetuate this sorry state - calculating how much of each dollar spent goes to "actual" services (vs admin) - as though programs can run themselves without electricity or a work space. Grrrr...

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMay 23, 2012 at 10:52 AM

    A-fucking-men. Striking the balance between acknowledging privilege and venting some justified anger.

    ReplyDelete

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