June 30, 2020 • 21 mins
For those of us fortunate enough to be able to work from home during the pandemic, our new normal finds us juggling the pressures of work, family and health in ways we hadn't previously experienced. Imagine being responsible for 45 elderly folks spread across three bucolic residential homes during all of this? And not just accounting for them, but catering to their every need, honoring their extremely specific food requests, staging an elaborate Easter party and tending to their life and death medical needs in the face of an especially threatening virus.
For Josh Winn, it's not just a labor of love, it's a compassionate calling.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is on the Job. This season, we're speaking with
folks who are finding their professional stride in a tumultuous
job market and learning how to double down on their
skills and their experience to overcome challenges. We'll bring you
inspiring stories of people making themselves essential, an important skill
set in any economy. For a lot of people, working
in nursing homes or elderly care is a calling. It's
(00:28):
a tough job that makes a huge difference to a
population that often feels pushed to the side, and as
the elderly have been put at higher risk with COVID nineteen,
essential workers continue to be by their sides, helping them
live fulfilling lives in old age. This past May, I
met up with Josh Wynn for a socially distanced glass
of wine on his porch after one of his many
(00:50):
twelve hour days. You must be exhausted, right, Yes, the
wine helps. He kind of has a unique position. He
over these three residential care facilities here in Vermont, owned
by the same company, the Scuttny House the Davis Home
in the Brookwood Estate. So my official title is the
general manager, which is a fairly vague title for my position.
(01:14):
To manage three facilities can be complicated. I wake up
earlier than I should and I come home later than
I should. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Right now, I just feel more comfortable being as hands
on as I can. Each of the houses has between
fourteen to sixteen residents, ranging from ages fifty to a
(01:34):
d and the way he describes the residential care facilities
is like something between a nursing home where residents get
seven care and assisted living communities where older folks live
within the gated communities that have amenities but are very independent.
So we're smacked ab in the middle. We are three
old Vermont farmhouses. We function a lot like a bed
(01:55):
and breakfast, except the guests never leave. These are old
Vermont country homes with beauty, full creaky staircases and wide
playing floors. There's a lot of charm and character. They
definitely offer that home vibe, which is I think why
a lot of families gravitate towards us to bring their families,
because they walk in and they feel like they're walking
(02:15):
into a friend's house and not into a facility. Josh
oversees about thirty staff members between the houses, but He's
responsible for making sure that their only running order and
the residents have everything they need. My days never look
the same. In different days, I have different responsibilities. I'm
responsible for placing all of our catering orders for the
(02:38):
week's menus. The houses serve three meals a day and
snacks that Josh collaborates with the house cooks on designing,
so he essentially oversees an entire catering operation. He helps
everyone get their medical supplies like oxygen tanks and certain
narcotic medications and stuff that require hard scripts in hand
upon delivery. I'm responsible for those. He helps ins with
(03:00):
their bills and finances, making sure they don't get behind
on anything. He files all their medical records and speaks
with their doctors, and then I do all of their
transportation Monday through Friday. Anytime they have a doctor's appointment,
I'm driving them home and back. The hospitals he drives
them too, are sometimes an hour away, and each of
the houses are about fifteen minutes away from each other,
(03:21):
and I'm at each house every single day, multiple times
a day. Yeah, that's just kind of a cliffs notes
version of what happens. So basically, your job is to
cater to the unique needs of about forty five individuals. Um, yeah,
it just doesn't seem like there's enough hours in the day.
(03:42):
There isn't. There literally isn't, regardless of the workload. Josh
says that the characters he gets to spend his waking
hours with is something he looks forward to every morning.
Oh for sure. So we've got Dolores, who I called
Miss Long Island, and you know immediately when you meet her,
(04:03):
because she'll never let you forget it, and she commands
that household. And then we have who I call the Princess.
I will not mention her by name. During breakfast time,
she does this thing that drives me up the wall.
She asks for like five different drinks Janet. She's just
the sweetest, most loving smile for days. I mean, she's
(04:23):
a do you know she wants her warm milk which
is in a small cup, not a medium cup, not
a large cup, the extra small cup microwaved for thirty seconds,
not one note, better be thirty. And she will know
Joanne kind hearted but extremely blunt. She will never eat
the breakfast that we have on the menu. She always
asks for something completely different that takes an entire afternoon
(04:45):
to prepare the night before. Joanne will let her get
away with murder because she's Joanne Um, only to not
eat it when we finally serve it, and she walks
up with her walker and waddles off to her room
and sits down and eats a couple of crack in
every single day. And that is the Princess. I'm seeing
a lot of love from how you talk about everyone,
(05:07):
even the Princess. I'm sure it's impossible not to get
really close with everyone. Absolutely, the residents feel like a
second family, you know. I look at a lot of
them like extra sets of grandparents. I could listen to
them all day. I mean, if I didn't have actual
work to do, I could just listen to them tell
me stories all day because I'm just fascinated by them.
(05:28):
I just love them. Long before he spent the entirety
of his days dealing with people, Josh was an introverted
kid growing up in southern California. I was very quiet
and shy and and secure. Not much has changed and
I'm thirty one and I had a very wonderful home life,
but a horrible life at school. I was just bullied
(05:51):
and picked on and just abused at school like crazy,
and I never said anything about it for years for
some reason, and I just ended up being a target.
When Josh was in seventh grade, his family moved across
the country to New Hampshire. He was hoping his new
school life would be different, but he says middle school
was the toughest two years of his life. It wasn't
(06:12):
until he got to high school that he started making
new connections and saw doors open for him. Once high
school started to come to an end, I knew that
the rest of my life was really going to matter,
because I was just extremely optimistic that I would be
a completely different person when I left high school. And
it was exactly that. Josh's life pretty quickly started to
(06:35):
veer in the direction of elderly care. He said the
seeds were kind of planted by his extremely close relationship
with his grandparents. My parents, in some ways are probably
a little jealous that I have such a close relationship
with my grandparents, but they're my closest friends. I was
always told at a young age that I was an
old soul and that I was too mature for my age,
(06:56):
and at the time I thought that was kind of
an insult being a kid. I didn't want to be
older than I was, but it actually worked out for me.
Anyone who knew Josh knew this was a big part
of his personality. So while he took other jobs after
high school, like working in a print shop, people would
just naturally ask him if he was interested in working
(07:16):
with their older family members. They would say something like, oh,
my mother has liver disease and she's living at home,
but we can't afford a nursing facility. Would you be
open to being a caregiver with the right training or whatever?
And it really did happen like that. The first time
it happened, I was nineteen. So he started being a
caregiver on referral, and he was a natural. He got
(07:37):
out of it for a while and started doing wedding
and event planning, which he also loved. They gave him
a chance to get really creative in making experiences for people.
But I still felt that pole even then, that it
wasn't enough. You're getting to know these couples and these
families for a certain amount of time, and then this
event happens and then you never see them again, And
(07:59):
you know, I wanted work to be a little bit
more personal than that. So eventually he and his husband
Ben moved around while Josh went back to working as
a private caregiver. They'd always wanted to live in Vermont,
so when they landed there, Josh connected with the woman
that runs these three residential facilities and it was a
(08:20):
no brainer. Josh has been working at these three houses
for over a year now, and what surprised me talking
to him is how accessible of a job it really is. Yeah. Absolutely,
and that's kind of the best part about it. You know,
we have people that come to us and we are
either their first job. Sometimes we are their job after
(08:41):
a retirement, he says. If you're someone that really wants
to help people, this is work where you don't need
a ton of training to at least get your foot
in the door. And there's lots of different jobs within
these facilities. You could specialize in one on one care.
You could even be a cook for the residents. And
then we have sleepers who do exactly that. They come
and they sleep and they get paid a flat rate
(09:02):
and it's the best job ever sleepers just to be
on call, just to sleep in case of an emergency. Wow,
So maybe besides being a sleeper. The precursor of being
good at this job is just being good. Yeah. Absolutely,
hands down. If we could get good people to apply,
they're hired going into it. There's definitely no sugarcoating that
(09:27):
it's hard work. You have to be able to think
about someone else for the entirety that you're there. You
just have to be compassionate, and these people would be
so grateful to have someone with that capability. I just
look at them like how I would want to see
my family and my grandparents specifically treated if they were
(09:50):
in a facility like that. Josh says that you can
learn tons of invaluable hard skills on the job, but
the first priority is always making sure that everyone feels
deep comfortable in their environment and completely cared for beyond expectations.
That's why I say we function a lot like a
bed and breakfast, because it really does feel that way.
They're living their life as if they were living at
(10:11):
at home. We just happened to feed them. So while
the limit to Josh's task has no real boundaries, he's
taken pride in his ultimate job of creating a safe
place for people to simply be happy in. But In
the wake of COVID nineteen, the job confronted a whole
new set of challenges. Elderly care professionals around the country,
(10:33):
like Josh, began to defend the havens that they've created
for their residence as older people became more at risk
than any other population. Absolutely, they are as high risk
as you can be, and that really got put into
perspective very quick. More on Josh's story after the break.
(10:57):
A strong work ethic takes pride in a job well done,
sweats over the details. This is the kind of person
you need. Express employment professionals can help. Finding the best
people requires more than sorting through applications. You need to
conduct a thorough surge. Express understands what it takes to
(11:19):
hire the right person. It takes real people, real interviews,
discovering the talents you need. We find good people matching
their skills with the right jobs that Express We find
people for jobs and companies of all sizes and industries,
from the production floor to the front office. Sometimes finding
(11:42):
the best new employee really is about who you know.
Express Nose Jobs. Get to know Express. Go to Express
pros dot com to find a location near you. When
COVID nineteen hit Josh and his staff, we're dealing with
a new normal. Just like the US the world complications
and how they operate in their daily lives in an
(12:04):
uncertain atmosphere, but the complications with the residents is a
different world. That I had to educate myself really quick
on how this was all going to pan out, and
I certainly haven't done it alone. The staff have really
gone beyond what we've ever required of them, and it's
kept us that much more kind of vigilant in how
(12:26):
we handle this whole situation. Everyone at the homes Josh
Overseas has medical complications that prevent them from living on
their own. So it's in the job description that Josh
is going to help out with these health issues, but
now it's those issues that make them immunocompromised and most
at risk with this new virus. Many of our residents
are oxygen dependent, so respiratory illness is an understatement, and
(12:48):
a lot of them have existing heart conditions and all
sorts of medical conditions that could easily kill them. Josh
and his staff took tons of precautions. They followed all
the state guidelines as they came out. If a staff
member had so much as a cough, they were sent home,
leaving them perpetually short staff. Residents were quarantined to their rooms,
where the staff catered to them. If someone is quarantined
(13:11):
in the room and you have to serve them lunch,
you have to fully regown face mask, face shield gloves, everything.
Have two people do so, one in the room and
one out of the room to collect the empty tray,
to take any laundry. And you're doing this a dozen
times or more a day. Each time, they'd be throwing
(13:31):
all of this equipment away as a sanitary procedure, and
like many medical facilities, they began to run out. We
couldn't get it fast enough, and we were using it
quicker than we could receive it. We've had some close
calls where we've had residents who presented symptoms of COVID,
and the problem in the beginning was that it was
taking roughly about a week to get results back. We
(13:53):
would go and get them tested and then still have
to quarantine them in the house with the other residents
still present. They took every precaution they possibly could in
isolating everyone. A handful of facilities within a few miles
of them had positive cases between residents and staff. But
when I spoke to Josh three months after they first
(14:13):
started quarantine, his residencies had not had a single case.
When I say that I'm grateful that we have had
zero cases, I can't even describe. The hard work has
paid off. And so it goes to show that if
you follow really simple guidelines and you keep a sanitary environment,
(14:34):
and you really care for these people as if they're
your family, you know, you can really be in goochaped
for sure. Josh's connection with the residents is what makes
him such a good caregiver. He becomes an intimate part
of their lives and they become a part of his.
I know a lot of the residents very personally. A
(14:56):
lot of that is because of the car rides from
their house to a doctor's appointment. You know, you get
to know people pretty intimately in the car ride while
Dolly Parton is playing on the radio. It's so great
and so fun to kind of get to know them
and put the puzzle pieces together and how they got
to where they are. The other side of the job
(15:17):
is that you care a lot for people who are
at the end of their lives. A week before I
spoke to Josh. A resident he was close with named Abbott,
passed away peacefully in a nearby hospital. He was a
Vietnam Vet, and Josh says he never felt more patriotic
than when he was listening to Abbot stories. He reminded
me so much of my own grandfather. He just had
(15:37):
so much pride and being a U. S. Soldier, and
did he embart any words of wisdom that stuck with you. Ironically,
he told me to find a good wife. I told
him I was settled. He told me that coffee ice
cream was the best flavor on the planet, and I
kind of agree. The one thing that he and my
grandfather have probably the most in common, is their sense
(15:58):
of family to otherness, and that was the thing he
promoted the most. You know, since I've been there, I
think I've seen for residents pass away. I thought for
sure it would get harder. It actually has gotten easier.
Knowing how well they're cared for and how much the
(16:21):
staff cares for them. It's um a sense of closure
almost in a lot of ways. Josh's it's especially comforting
knowing that they were in his staff's care because unfortunately,
funding for elderly care facilities is often far more scarce
than it should be, which makes it hard to give
residents all across the country the resources that they need
(16:42):
to be happy. These are people who have had an
entire lifetime full of stories and experiences, and they have
so much to offer, I feel, to society. But because
they can't contribute in other ways to society, people often
write them off, and that's just no way to live.
(17:02):
Do you think part of your desire to care for
people who might not have as many defenses as others
goes back to you not having as many defenses when
you were a kid. That's probably true. I even now
don't defend myself. I don't stick off for myself, and
(17:23):
there is a part of me that I feel definitely
shows up more for other people than I do for myself.
But I I just feel like we live in a
world that already people are in it for themselves, and
when you have people that literally can't fight for themselves,
(17:46):
you need people who can fight for them. And if
someone wants to fight for me, call me. But I'll
fight for other people as long as I can. Well.
Josh knew he wanted to work as a caregiver. When
he moved to Vermont, his long term plan was to
(18:06):
get back into event and wedding planning. It's funny, I
you know, my priorities have changed in a year. The
more that I immersed myself into this job, the more
I want to continue immersing myself into this and expand
it in a lot of ways. He gets to create
those same experiences he's always wanted to within these homes,
(18:27):
going out of his way to do new things for
the residents, like bring musicians in every week to play
for them, do animal therapy where he brings in golden
retrievers and baby goats to hang out with him. One
of the things that we did during Easter, you know,
we had set up in each house a little photo booth,
and I had made all these props for a photo
booth like you would see at a wedding, except it
(18:48):
was all old people wearing bunny ears and fake noses
and holding Easter eggs and daffodils, and they ate it up.
It was so great, and I love that the families
love that and the staff love doing it. I want
to do so much more of that, even though Josh
(19:14):
says there really aren't enough hours in the day to
do everything he'd like. It's a perfect job for those
who want to go above and beyond with the hours
that they have, making life better for people who would
appreciate it more than anyone. It's the most rewarding work
I've ever done. I to this day get emotional thinking
of some of the weddings that I've done over the
(19:34):
years as a professional event planner. I cried at every
single wedding I ever did. And this is that times
a hundred elderly care facilities in America may not be
as appreciated as they should. But the byproduct of that
(19:57):
is a field of work that is right for innovation
and young minds like Josh who want to create truly
special experiences for people that more than deserve them. It's
not only a job that will always be essential. It's
a job where you can work creatively and compassionately while
becoming a huge part of someone's life. And the saying
goes that you know, when you reach older years, it's
(20:22):
like having a second childhood. And it's exactly like that,
and we are the parents and the aunts and uncles
and the cousins who watched over them. How can that
not be rewarding for On the Job. I'm Otus Gray.
(21:00):
Thanks for listening to On the Job, brought to you
by Express Employment Professionals. This season of On the Job
is produced by Audiation and Red Seat Ventures. The episodes
are written and produced by me Otis Gray. Our executive
producer is Sandy Smallens. The show is mixed by Matt
Noble for Audiation Studios at the Loft in Bronxville, New York.
Music by Blue Dost Sessions. Find us on I Heart
(21:22):
Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what you heard,
please consider rating and reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts
or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time. For
more inspiring stories about making yourself essential as you discover
your life's work, audition
This is on the Job. This season, we're speaking with
folks who are finding their professional stride in a tumultuous
job market and learning how to double down on their
skills and their experience to overcome challenges. We'll bring you
inspiring stories of people making themselves essential, an important skill
set in any economy. For a lot of people, working
in nursing homes or elderly care is a calling. It's
(00:28):
a tough job that makes a huge difference to a
population that often feels pushed to the side, and as
the elderly have been put at higher risk with COVID nineteen,
essential workers continue to be by their sides, helping them
live fulfilling lives in old age. This past May, I
met up with Josh Wynn for a socially distanced glass
of wine on his porch after one of his many
(00:50):
twelve hour days. You must be exhausted, right, Yes, the
wine helps. He kind of has a unique position. He
over these three residential care facilities here in Vermont, owned
by the same company, the Scuttny House the Davis Home
in the Brookwood Estate. So my official title is the
general manager, which is a fairly vague title for my position.
(01:14):
To manage three facilities can be complicated. I wake up
earlier than I should and I come home later than
I should. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Right now, I just feel more comfortable being as hands
on as I can. Each of the houses has between
fourteen to sixteen residents, ranging from ages fifty to a
(01:34):
d and the way he describes the residential care facilities
is like something between a nursing home where residents get
seven care and assisted living communities where older folks live
within the gated communities that have amenities but are very independent.
So we're smacked ab in the middle. We are three
old Vermont farmhouses. We function a lot like a bed
(01:55):
and breakfast, except the guests never leave. These are old
Vermont country homes with beauty, full creaky staircases and wide
playing floors. There's a lot of charm and character. They
definitely offer that home vibe, which is I think why
a lot of families gravitate towards us to bring their families,
because they walk in and they feel like they're walking
(02:15):
into a friend's house and not into a facility. Josh
oversees about thirty staff members between the houses, but He's
responsible for making sure that their only running order and
the residents have everything they need. My days never look
the same. In different days, I have different responsibilities. I'm
responsible for placing all of our catering orders for the
(02:38):
week's menus. The houses serve three meals a day and
snacks that Josh collaborates with the house cooks on designing,
so he essentially oversees an entire catering operation. He helps
everyone get their medical supplies like oxygen tanks and certain
narcotic medications and stuff that require hard scripts in hand
upon delivery. I'm responsible for those. He helps ins with
(03:00):
their bills and finances, making sure they don't get behind
on anything. He files all their medical records and speaks
with their doctors, and then I do all of their
transportation Monday through Friday. Anytime they have a doctor's appointment,
I'm driving them home and back. The hospitals he drives
them too, are sometimes an hour away, and each of
the houses are about fifteen minutes away from each other,
(03:21):
and I'm at each house every single day, multiple times
a day. Yeah, that's just kind of a cliffs notes
version of what happens. So basically, your job is to
cater to the unique needs of about forty five individuals. Um, yeah,
it just doesn't seem like there's enough hours in the day.
(03:42):
There isn't. There literally isn't, regardless of the workload. Josh
says that the characters he gets to spend his waking
hours with is something he looks forward to every morning.
Oh for sure. So we've got Dolores, who I called
Miss Long Island, and you know immediately when you meet her,
(04:03):
because she'll never let you forget it, and she commands
that household. And then we have who I call the Princess.
I will not mention her by name. During breakfast time,
she does this thing that drives me up the wall.
She asks for like five different drinks Janet. She's just
the sweetest, most loving smile for days. I mean, she's
(04:23):
a do you know she wants her warm milk which
is in a small cup, not a medium cup, not
a large cup, the extra small cup microwaved for thirty seconds,
not one note, better be thirty. And she will know
Joanne kind hearted but extremely blunt. She will never eat
the breakfast that we have on the menu. She always
asks for something completely different that takes an entire afternoon
(04:45):
to prepare the night before. Joanne will let her get
away with murder because she's Joanne Um, only to not
eat it when we finally serve it, and she walks
up with her walker and waddles off to her room
and sits down and eats a couple of crack in
every single day. And that is the Princess. I'm seeing
a lot of love from how you talk about everyone,
(05:07):
even the Princess. I'm sure it's impossible not to get
really close with everyone. Absolutely, the residents feel like a
second family, you know. I look at a lot of
them like extra sets of grandparents. I could listen to
them all day. I mean, if I didn't have actual
work to do, I could just listen to them tell
me stories all day because I'm just fascinated by them.
(05:28):
I just love them. Long before he spent the entirety
of his days dealing with people, Josh was an introverted
kid growing up in southern California. I was very quiet
and shy and and secure. Not much has changed and
I'm thirty one and I had a very wonderful home life,
but a horrible life at school. I was just bullied
(05:51):
and picked on and just abused at school like crazy,
and I never said anything about it for years for
some reason, and I just ended up being a target.
When Josh was in seventh grade, his family moved across
the country to New Hampshire. He was hoping his new
school life would be different, but he says middle school
was the toughest two years of his life. It wasn't
(06:12):
until he got to high school that he started making
new connections and saw doors open for him. Once high
school started to come to an end, I knew that
the rest of my life was really going to matter,
because I was just extremely optimistic that I would be
a completely different person when I left high school. And
it was exactly that. Josh's life pretty quickly started to
(06:35):
veer in the direction of elderly care. He said the
seeds were kind of planted by his extremely close relationship
with his grandparents. My parents, in some ways are probably
a little jealous that I have such a close relationship
with my grandparents, but they're my closest friends. I was
always told at a young age that I was an
old soul and that I was too mature for my age,
(06:56):
and at the time I thought that was kind of
an insult being a kid. I didn't want to be
older than I was, but it actually worked out for me.
Anyone who knew Josh knew this was a big part
of his personality. So while he took other jobs after
high school, like working in a print shop, people would
just naturally ask him if he was interested in working
(07:16):
with their older family members. They would say something like, oh,
my mother has liver disease and she's living at home,
but we can't afford a nursing facility. Would you be
open to being a caregiver with the right training or whatever?
And it really did happen like that. The first time
it happened, I was nineteen. So he started being a
caregiver on referral, and he was a natural. He got
(07:37):
out of it for a while and started doing wedding
and event planning, which he also loved. They gave him
a chance to get really creative in making experiences for people.
But I still felt that pole even then, that it
wasn't enough. You're getting to know these couples and these
families for a certain amount of time, and then this
event happens and then you never see them again, And
(07:59):
you know, I wanted work to be a little bit
more personal than that. So eventually he and his husband
Ben moved around while Josh went back to working as
a private caregiver. They'd always wanted to live in Vermont,
so when they landed there, Josh connected with the woman
that runs these three residential facilities and it was a
(08:20):
no brainer. Josh has been working at these three houses
for over a year now, and what surprised me talking
to him is how accessible of a job it really is. Yeah. Absolutely,
and that's kind of the best part about it. You know,
we have people that come to us and we are
either their first job. Sometimes we are their job after
(08:41):
a retirement, he says. If you're someone that really wants
to help people, this is work where you don't need
a ton of training to at least get your foot
in the door. And there's lots of different jobs within
these facilities. You could specialize in one on one care.
You could even be a cook for the residents. And
then we have sleepers who do exactly that. They come
and they sleep and they get paid a flat rate
(09:02):
and it's the best job ever sleepers just to be
on call, just to sleep in case of an emergency. Wow,
So maybe besides being a sleeper. The precursor of being
good at this job is just being good. Yeah. Absolutely,
hands down. If we could get good people to apply,
they're hired going into it. There's definitely no sugarcoating that
(09:27):
it's hard work. You have to be able to think
about someone else for the entirety that you're there. You
just have to be compassionate, and these people would be
so grateful to have someone with that capability. I just
look at them like how I would want to see
my family and my grandparents specifically treated if they were
(09:50):
in a facility like that. Josh says that you can
learn tons of invaluable hard skills on the job, but
the first priority is always making sure that everyone feels
deep comfortable in their environment and completely cared for beyond expectations.
That's why I say we function a lot like a
bed and breakfast, because it really does feel that way.
They're living their life as if they were living at
(10:11):
at home. We just happened to feed them. So while
the limit to Josh's task has no real boundaries, he's
taken pride in his ultimate job of creating a safe
place for people to simply be happy in. But In
the wake of COVID nineteen, the job confronted a whole
new set of challenges. Elderly care professionals around the country,
(10:33):
like Josh, began to defend the havens that they've created
for their residence as older people became more at risk
than any other population. Absolutely, they are as high risk
as you can be, and that really got put into
perspective very quick. More on Josh's story after the break.
(10:57):
A strong work ethic takes pride in a job well done,
sweats over the details. This is the kind of person
you need. Express employment professionals can help. Finding the best
people requires more than sorting through applications. You need to
conduct a thorough surge. Express understands what it takes to
(11:19):
hire the right person. It takes real people, real interviews,
discovering the talents you need. We find good people matching
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people for jobs and companies of all sizes and industries,
from the production floor to the front office. Sometimes finding
(11:42):
the best new employee really is about who you know.
Express Nose Jobs. Get to know Express. Go to Express
pros dot com to find a location near you. When
COVID nineteen hit Josh and his staff, we're dealing with
a new normal. Just like the US the world complications
and how they operate in their daily lives in an
(12:04):
uncertain atmosphere, but the complications with the residents is a
different world. That I had to educate myself really quick
on how this was all going to pan out, and
I certainly haven't done it alone. The staff have really
gone beyond what we've ever required of them, and it's
kept us that much more kind of vigilant in how
(12:26):
we handle this whole situation. Everyone at the homes Josh
Overseas has medical complications that prevent them from living on
their own. So it's in the job description that Josh
is going to help out with these health issues, but
now it's those issues that make them immunocompromised and most
at risk with this new virus. Many of our residents
are oxygen dependent, so respiratory illness is an understatement, and
(12:48):
a lot of them have existing heart conditions and all
sorts of medical conditions that could easily kill them. Josh
and his staff took tons of precautions. They followed all
the state guidelines as they came out. If a staff
member had so much as a cough, they were sent home,
leaving them perpetually short staff. Residents were quarantined to their rooms,
where the staff catered to them. If someone is quarantined
(13:11):
in the room and you have to serve them lunch,
you have to fully regown face mask, face shield gloves, everything.
Have two people do so, one in the room and
one out of the room to collect the empty tray,
to take any laundry. And you're doing this a dozen
times or more a day. Each time, they'd be throwing
(13:31):
all of this equipment away as a sanitary procedure, and
like many medical facilities, they began to run out. We
couldn't get it fast enough, and we were using it
quicker than we could receive it. We've had some close
calls where we've had residents who presented symptoms of COVID,
and the problem in the beginning was that it was
taking roughly about a week to get results back. We
(13:53):
would go and get them tested and then still have
to quarantine them in the house with the other residents
still present. They took every precaution they possibly could in
isolating everyone. A handful of facilities within a few miles
of them had positive cases between residents and staff. But
when I spoke to Josh three months after they first
(14:13):
started quarantine, his residencies had not had a single case.
When I say that I'm grateful that we have had
zero cases, I can't even describe. The hard work has
paid off. And so it goes to show that if
you follow really simple guidelines and you keep a sanitary environment,
(14:34):
and you really care for these people as if they're
your family, you know, you can really be in goochaped
for sure. Josh's connection with the residents is what makes
him such a good caregiver. He becomes an intimate part
of their lives and they become a part of his.
I know a lot of the residents very personally. A
(14:56):
lot of that is because of the car rides from
their house to a doctor's appointment. You know, you get
to know people pretty intimately in the car ride while
Dolly Parton is playing on the radio. It's so great
and so fun to kind of get to know them
and put the puzzle pieces together and how they got
to where they are. The other side of the job
(15:17):
is that you care a lot for people who are
at the end of their lives. A week before I
spoke to Josh. A resident he was close with named Abbott,
passed away peacefully in a nearby hospital. He was a
Vietnam Vet, and Josh says he never felt more patriotic
than when he was listening to Abbot stories. He reminded
me so much of my own grandfather. He just had
(15:37):
so much pride and being a U. S. Soldier, and
did he embart any words of wisdom that stuck with you. Ironically,
he told me to find a good wife. I told
him I was settled. He told me that coffee ice
cream was the best flavor on the planet, and I
kind of agree. The one thing that he and my
grandfather have probably the most in common, is their sense
(15:58):
of family to otherness, and that was the thing he
promoted the most. You know, since I've been there, I
think I've seen for residents pass away. I thought for
sure it would get harder. It actually has gotten easier.
Knowing how well they're cared for and how much the
(16:21):
staff cares for them. It's um a sense of closure
almost in a lot of ways. Josh's it's especially comforting
knowing that they were in his staff's care because unfortunately,
funding for elderly care facilities is often far more scarce
than it should be, which makes it hard to give
residents all across the country the resources that they need
(16:42):
to be happy. These are people who have had an
entire lifetime full of stories and experiences, and they have
so much to offer, I feel, to society. But because
they can't contribute in other ways to society, people often
write them off, and that's just no way to live.
(17:02):
Do you think part of your desire to care for
people who might not have as many defenses as others
goes back to you not having as many defenses when
you were a kid. That's probably true. I even now
don't defend myself. I don't stick off for myself, and
(17:23):
there is a part of me that I feel definitely
shows up more for other people than I do for myself.
But I I just feel like we live in a
world that already people are in it for themselves, and
when you have people that literally can't fight for themselves,
(17:46):
you need people who can fight for them. And if
someone wants to fight for me, call me. But I'll
fight for other people as long as I can. Well.
Josh knew he wanted to work as a caregiver. When
he moved to Vermont, his long term plan was to
(18:06):
get back into event and wedding planning. It's funny, I
you know, my priorities have changed in a year. The
more that I immersed myself into this job, the more
I want to continue immersing myself into this and expand
it in a lot of ways. He gets to create
those same experiences he's always wanted to within these homes,
(18:27):
going out of his way to do new things for
the residents, like bring musicians in every week to play
for them, do animal therapy where he brings in golden
retrievers and baby goats to hang out with him. One
of the things that we did during Easter, you know,
we had set up in each house a little photo booth,
and I had made all these props for a photo
booth like you would see at a wedding, except it
(18:48):
was all old people wearing bunny ears and fake noses
and holding Easter eggs and daffodils, and they ate it up.
It was so great, and I love that the families
love that and the staff love doing it. I want
to do so much more of that, even though Josh
(19:14):
says there really aren't enough hours in the day to
do everything he'd like. It's a perfect job for those
who want to go above and beyond with the hours
that they have, making life better for people who would
appreciate it more than anyone. It's the most rewarding work
I've ever done. I to this day get emotional thinking
of some of the weddings that I've done over the
(19:34):
years as a professional event planner. I cried at every
single wedding I ever did. And this is that times
a hundred elderly care facilities in America may not be
as appreciated as they should. But the byproduct of that
(19:57):
is a field of work that is right for innovation
and young minds like Josh who want to create truly
special experiences for people that more than deserve them. It's
not only a job that will always be essential. It's
a job where you can work creatively and compassionately while
becoming a huge part of someone's life. And the saying
goes that you know, when you reach older years, it's
(20:22):
like having a second childhood. And it's exactly like that,
and we are the parents and the aunts and uncles
and the cousins who watched over them. How can that
not be rewarding for On the Job. I'm Otus Gray.
(21:00):
Thanks for listening to On the Job, brought to you
by Express Employment Professionals. This season of On the Job
is produced by Audiation and Red Seat Ventures. The episodes
are written and produced by me Otis Gray. Our executive
producer is Sandy Smallens. The show is mixed by Matt
Noble for Audiation Studios at the Loft in Bronxville, New York.
Music by Blue Dost Sessions. Find us on I Heart
(21:22):
Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what you heard,
please consider rating and reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts
or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time. For
more inspiring stories about making yourself essential as you discover
your life's work, audition
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