You’re having that wonderful dream again. The one where you’re being cheered on the red carpet at the Oscars, an oh-so-hot-to-trot A-Lister is winking at you and . . . Ring, Ring! Ring, Ring!
It’s 2am and a friend is phoning to chat about their ex and how it all went wrong.
If your immediate reaction is to hang up, stop reading now.
If, however, you default into listening mode, you’re already proving why you’re perfect to become a support worker.
Making a genuine difference to people’s lives is never easy, quick or simple – and often it doesn’t recognise the office hours of nine to five.
That’s precisely why the world of social services needs people like you.
Offering practical, psychological and emotional support to those who are reaching out for help – or quite often in desperate need but unable to ask – is more a vocation based on your caring personality as it is a logical career choice.
So what’s it all about?
Well, there’s no one single answer to this question. Essentially you will be offering advice and assistance, but one glance at the wide variety of social care and support worker roles currently on s1jobs will reveal this covers a huge range of different target areas.
You could find yourself helping people who have chronic illness or mental health problems.
Or perhaps you will be assisting people to meet the daily challenges of living with disability, addiction or learning difficulties.
So what is the number one quality you’ll need in all of these positions? The ability to be a good listener.
Mostly it will be experience and patience that teaches us to become better listeners, but there are ways to help.
The first thing is to learn to be in the moment. There’s nothing to be gained in sitting for an hour if, as the crucial breakthrough point is being made, we’ve drifted off into checking the Christmas shopping list.
Paying attention means practising a strong and maintained focus on what’s being said.
This means, too, that we should never assume we know ‘where this is going’.
Every person is different and the complexity of their situation means support workers are constantly surprised by what they hear.
If someone is having difficulty opening up, share chores during talk time.
Often the distraction of tasks such as washing up allows a person to feel less under scrutiny and able to talk more freely.
Finally, here’s a great piece of advice from an ancient thinker by the name of Epictetus: “Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.” Nuff said!
For a range of support worker roles visit s1jobs