7-5-2014 Some thoughts about what I did REALLY WELL at GOC and how I'm affected NOW:

THE SHORT VERSION:

I posted this on the AVVO website a little while go.
I was made aware of this situation appx 3 hours ago.

"Unprovoked physical injurious attack on tenant & another outside person by tenant's landlord on landlord's property.

This is regarding a friend "Lyn". 

Tenant Lyn had been living there 4 months. Incident occurred when she did not close her room door after leaving room. Landlord "Tim" verbally & physically attacked Lyn due to this, also attacked man "Bub" whom Lyn called to be picked up. Injuries include severe contusions on Lyn and Bub; severe contusions around Lyn's eye area indicates possible head injury. Severe lacerations (not requiring suture) present on Bub's neck and leg. Landlord smashed tenant's cell phone & said, "NOW you CAN'T call the police!" Police & 911 called to home of Bub, BUT Lyn did NOT want to go to hospital. Neither injured parties went despite urging. Police subsequently arrested Tim. Current charges not known.
Poss. exists incident was in LA Co. by Orange Co."

I also emailed a lawyer acquaintance with these basics, below:

Do you know of a lawyer, contingency-based (and THIS case could easily run into some bucks, contingency-wise!) who does criminal law for:

Landlord liability re: tenant abuse:

Landlord physically and verbally abusing tenant, mental and harassment included:

Landlord physically and verbally abusing person who went to pick up tenant:

Landlord destruction of tenant property:

Tenant fearful of everything now!:

Tenant has NOWHERE to go.

and THAT'S just for starters!!!

We're (ok, I'M) doing a blow-by-blow (oh shit, sorry, bad joke) of who-what-where-when-why with notes, pictures and audio, but I REALLY FEEL there shouild be a lawyer in the mix. 

The lady in question is handicapped, in shock right now, didn't want to go to the hospital because she couldn't afford it (I pointed out to the person who's doing the recording with my recorder that she SHOULD go to the hospital because since the attack happened when she was a tenant, the landlord's property insurance must pay!!) 

It just happened this morning.

I don't have her phone number which is not helpful anyway because the property he destroyed was her cell phone.

There's another handicapped lady living there too & she's afraid to open her mouth. He verbally abuses her too.

The point I'm making here regarding my position at Goodwill is that I was always called upon to do some basic/preliminary legal research for something.

I usually really researched it and then gave a synopsis with references as to what I had found out, thereby letting the requesting party know the basics and they could decide to go from there without sounding like they didn't know anything.

I JUST NOW realized that my basic talent is to research and find out what people DON'T KNOW, so they can know a little bit about what they request and KNOW THE RIGHT QUESTIONS TO ASK.

Example:

Someone is taking a medication, has heard that a different but similar medication might work better, they ask me to find out about it.

I go into research mode by:

1. Finding out what they're on now, for what, dosage, etc.:
2. Why they're on it:
3. How long they've been on it, and
4. Does the medication researched do that also? What differences or similarities does this medication have with the other one? What are the contraindications (like, what side effects) are there for each medication?

So in effect, I gave the requestor the information they need to determine WHAT QUESTIONS THEY WANT OR NEED TO ASK their doctor?

Information is key: information allows you to be on top of what you NEED to be, without taking others' word for it.

I'm basically not a distrustful person per se, BUT I like to know whatinthehell someone's talking about so I can figure out why they're talking about it and the affects. But I've always like to learn things, because even if something I learn doesn't affect me or mine now, it could point me into a direction that I need to go for something else. And THAT'S why I feel my research skills are SO important for others!

YES, OF COURSE I always protect myself with caveats, like 'Information I'm providing is not necessarily provided by a professional, this information is just for general use and doesn't mean it applies specifically to you, blah blah blah".

Does this make sense???

Yesterday was 'Ask the computer whiz Lynne about Outlook and about SSDI lawyers'! 

I received TWO phone calls for these topics, and you know what? ONE OF THEM I COULDN'T ANSWER!!! 

I do NOT have a fear of saying 'I don't know', sometimes people are SO SURPRISED that I don't know an answer, but I think personally it's great because I can really find out and learn about something vs. doing pure research.

ANOTHER thing that helps my research is knowing the nomenclature (i.e. words) to use to maximize the correct results.

Example:

To research the tenant/landlord thing above, I decided that first I wanted some sort of a LIST to go by i.e. questions to ask, what is needed from the injured party re: their thoughts, feelings, why they don't want to go to the hospital (because you KNOW if it goes to court, THAT'LL be brought up! "Miss Simpson, if you and others felt you were injured and you were informally told that you possibly had a head injury, WHY THEN DIDN'T YOU GO TO THE HOSPITAL?". 

I NEVER create anything or reinvent the wheel if I can find the 'wheel' online, so I Google'd 'physical attack': 'landlord attacks tenant': all sorts of stuff.

Didn't get a list at ALL, not even anything CLOSE to a list!!

But I DID get

Stuff he could be charged with:

Stuff she could do NOW:

Stuff that should be paid for:

7-1-2014 Thoughts on not only being let go from Goodwill but a few updates.

I feel overwhelmed.

Checking with the school's financial aid to get a grant, doing paperwork that MUST be done ASAP before the Fall semester, going to the DOR for assistance with my disabilities in finding a job and doing school, dealing with the EDD to find a job or at least keep looking and putting in my resumes anywhere that even SEEMS to be what I can do, to hopefully get a job...

Plus Barry's away until Sunday. I feel lost, like I don't want to leave the house unless I HAVE to.

Usually when I have to save money I'll have my color & cut done professionally, then 6 weeks later I'll do the roots and color, cut my bangs and the sides of my hair myself.

I TOTALLY screwed it up. TOTALLY. I didn't count the number of minutes I was supposed to leave the color on in just one place, I put the color on all over my whole head, then left it on for LESS than half of the time it was supposed to be on! 

You've heard the term 'dirty blond'? How about 'Blah Blonde' or 'Muddy Blonde'?

Now, about GOC:

A LOT of people have left/been let go/fired/whatever since December 2013. 

Remember, a couple of posts ago I had counted appx 30 people gone?

It's gone up again. 

It's sad really-I feel for those who are still left, who are now left looking over their shoulders for the next zinger. When people leave, it not only affects the person leaving but the coworkers they leave behind, with a lot of shaking of heads and wondering whatinthehell is going on. Of COURSE there's no notice, all of a sudden people disappear into some HR black hole. 

I know there's a lot of reshuffling going on, but reshuffling to the tune of giving those few who are still there, giving them more work to cover from the people who were let go.

You've heard the phrase, 'Root, hog, or die' meaning hog, you gots ta dig up your dinner or else you not gettin' any dinner?! If I may paraphrase that, at Goodwill, with all the tasks and responsibilities being shuffled around, it'd be "Time Management, hog, or be gone".

The count of people gone, no matter how, is now

9 people from ETES: Job Placement/Vets 4: HR 4: Finance 3: A/P 3: 6 people from MarCom/Development: and Trans 2.

There are a couple of odd ones here and there, but those are the ones that come to mind NOW. 

In ETES, one person who I counted that had to leave is actually working in Human Services, so I took them off my count.

There weren't that many people in MarCom/Development to BEGIN with! Of course, two of those who left were high-falutin' creative people who left because they got other jobs, but still...

Data Processing lost 5 right off the bat.

A couple of people gone from satellite facilities, several gone from other internal departments, HR people left/were let go, it's unbelievable.

Why do I bother doing this, this counting, shaking my head, wondering why? Because I do, I can't explain it.

There were some really GOOD people, EXCELLENT people who left. 

It reminds me of some stories I'd heard of Nazi Germany, when the Nazis were on the warpath against all sorts of people & not just the Jews. A LOT of people who left Germany just before war broke out were doctors and scientists, so basically Nazi Germany drove out or imprisoned some of their best talent. (I'm still looking for proof of that theory, but it sounds logical so I'll use it)

Comparing GOC with the Red 'Witch' hunts/McCarthyism and with Nazi Germany, I'm really rolling along here! It's a bummer because up until about a year ago, I'd tell people I worked at the second happiest place on earth.