Pros
-The majority of the staff are friendly and everyone acts as a sort of family. Bringing/fixing meals for other staff members, running errands for each other, etc -There's always something interesting going on with the clients -A great experience seeing how it really is working with people in need, particularly domestic violence victims in a residential setting -The position has a lot of responsibility as advocates have to really help their clients navigate through the best resources for them
Cons
-The job can get boring at times when there is nothing to do at the facility and the crisis line isn't ringing that often -Not always the best communication between the staff. One time I showed up on a day that I was scheduled to work, only to find that the place was being fumigated that day and I had to leave. Another day, I showed up and only the skeleton staff was there, so since my supervisor was gone for the week, I pretty much didn't need to be there. -There's a lot of paperwork to do whenever intakes are done or whenever contact is made with clients -Many of the clients were difficult to deal with, either due to mental illnesses, bad attitudes, clients constantly bombarding busy staff with things/issues, clients not getting along, or clients taking advantage of the program who weren't really domestic violence victims -The main boss over the shelter tended to have a bad attitude, and none of the staff really cared for her