Integrity may mean resisting authority (Lesson 11)

I am ashamed.

I bowed under pressure to do something I believed was wrong. During the NH floods, three different caseworkers opened three different 901s (intake form for each client family) for the same person, an elderly man of about 80 years and his wife. He was inadvertently given "food for two" three times. This screw up was remarkable even during the absurd chaos that was present in chapter because of its lack of preparation. There were many screw-ups, but this one (as well as a couple of others) was a major league blunder.

My supervisor gave me the task to clean up the mistake. I won't bore you with why this is difficult. Believe me, it is. We cannot enter three different cases into the official CAS system for the same person. Reconciling this mess is not easy.

There was some debate among us as to whether the man was being deceptive. As I read the case files, I saw an elderly man filled with grief who was confused. This problem was not his fault. Now how do we deal with it? My feeling was, write it off as a lesson learned and walk away. The multiple payments were about $75 x 3. If it was clothes, we couldn’t ignore the amount of money.

My supervisor told me to go to the man’s home and retrieve the multiple forms we left with him for food. I thought doing this was wrong. I felt sick at the prospect of going to him to get money back. One of the young caseworkers who saw him last went with me. She felt righteous. I felt horrible.

On arrival at what had been the man’s residence, I saw what had once been a beautiful home in a wonderful location along the river. The house looked structurally ok but the interior was completely gutted. His sons were there helping to haul out material. We talked for a while. His wife had left to live with one of his sons and was refusing to return in the future. He wanted to repair the home he had built. He was devastated.

I told him about our mistake and that I was there to retrieve the multiple forms for food. He went to his car and brought back one set without any protest. I thanked him and we left. I refused to push him in any way to retrieve the second set. As I got back into the car, I told the young woman, “I will never again agree to do something I believe is wrong. NEVER again.” We debated the ethics of what happened. I argued that what we did was correct but wrong. We had the right to do what we did. But the cost of time (a supervisor and caseworker travel to his home) and the possible loss good will was not worth the benefit of retrieving about $150. I would have paid this amount from my own pocket to avoid doing what I did.

I pray that someone above me will never put me into this position again. If I am, I will refuse to do what my supervisor tells me to do. That might cause him or her to send me home and, at least, write a negative evaluation of my work. As a new supervisor in my first out-of-state disaster, I felt intimidated by the chain of command. I won’t make this mistake again. In a previous post, I mentioned refusing to put my caseworkers into a hot and stuffy room to enter data. This confrontation occurred after my trip to retrieve the money.

What do you think?