Soft skills, attendance, host business policies, conduct, relationships, and sexuality
Resistant Parents and Intern
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Posts:
12/5/2022
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We have an intern who has been constantly late to the program in the mornings. They take the public transit system. We advocated to get a taxi set up for them so they could get here on time but that did not work. Our skills trainers looked at the bus schedule and noticed that there was a bus an hour earlier on the same route that this intern could take to get to the program on time. We received an email from the parents saying to stop suggesting alternate routes, that we are causing their child harm, and that we should adjust our program times or contact the transit company to advocate for their daughter. The parents cc'd the intern on the email and since then, the intern has been extremely resistant to us in every aspect of the program. This is not the first time we have brought up an issue and had extreme pushback from these parents. Does anyone have any experience with a situation similar to this? What are some suggestions to handling parents who refuse to back up and/or give pushback to Project SEARCH staff?
edited by ctrevors@projectsearchpei.com on 12/5/2022
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David Bridges Posts: 1
12/6/2022
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Hi, Its incredibly tricky! My advice would be keep the parents on side at all costs! Hard discussions are often best had in the employment planning meetings where you get the opportunity to frame the issues really well and help manage the response from the parent directly. Always draw on the requirements of the workplace and the outcome you desire ( i.e employment) Once a parent has gone negative it is very hard to pull it back in my oppinion.
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+1
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12/6/2022
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Thankfully, we are holding this interns employment planning meeting on Friday. We are going to approach these issues with the utmost care but we also have to get our point across that this is an employment focused program that is meant to be treated as if it is a real job. We are worried that if the parents do not realize this, their child will struggle greatly to find employment. Hopefully we can get them on the same page so together, we can all support this intern to grow and develop their skills.
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Erin Fogarty Posts: 18
12/7/2022
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Hi,
Sorry you are in a tricky situation right now! I think there are a couple things to consider, the fact that they are able to independently transport themselves is a plus because you know they are capable of doing it which is a big step. Are they showing up late at the same time every day? (8:30 vs 8:00 etc, 30 mins late every day) because if they are coming late, but arriving consistently at the same time and working well at their internship the rest of the day, that is something to work with. Maybe work with the parents to say ok if this is the route they are taking that is fine for this year and then plan with the interns team and job developer that when they look for employment it will need to find shifts that start in the afternoon if morning bus routes and transportation are too early, or whatever their reasoning is for not taking the earlier route.
I just suggest this because if they are going to be pushing back so much on the transport, that may be a battle you can't win, so maybe focus on other areas where the intern does well to build them up and maybe that will help the family soften a little.
Hope that helps and good luck with the employment meeting!
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+3
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