Sometimes they don't dress appropriately for the contract jobs we perform. Don't show up on time. They wonder why they must work. They might even sleep on the job. Or perhaps walk away to return to the streets and get high.
We remind the manager that many who come to us never learned to work. Their parents might be addicts who never held jobs. Maybe their only income was from dealing drugs or stealing. Their role models were slackers and addicts who taught them to slide through life the easy way.
We often say that part of our job is raising other peoples' children. Only these children are grown men and women who came to us from years of addiction or stretches in prison.
Those who hang in there and do what we say often turn into good workers. And the positive feelings they get from work turns into positive feelings about other areas of their lives.
When they get to this point they may have a chance to stay in recovery.
And helping them get to this point is what we do.
