A Day in the Life of A Modern American Worker series starts today!

A day in the Life of a Modern AmericanWorker

Paige, Homeless Shelter Intern/Shift Supervisor

Paige works at the St. Elizabeth Shelter, a 28 bed homeless shelter for men, women and children in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Paige is the type of worker we all hope to hire  – she does the job that needs to be done and says that a written job description could never encompass everything she does. 

When asked whether she feels happy to get up and go to work in the morning, Paige answers:

Absolutely.  It is a super fun job, and at least during my shift, the shelter is filled with lots of laughter and shenanigans.  This is because I lucky enough to have the ability to enforce rules and policies while keeping it fun for the guests! 

Here’s how Paige describes her typical day at the homeless shelter:

I work eight hour shifts, usually 7am to 3pm or 3pm to 11pm.  As a benefit of my intern status, I live in a semi-secret apartment above the shelter making my commute roughly 30 seconds.  The day shift mostly involves the restocking and cleaning of the shelter, supervising community service workers and volunteers, and handling the needs of homeless folks that drop in looking for services. 

The evening shift involves checking the guests in for the night (breathalyzing them, searching their belongings, etc.), doing new intakes, making sure dinner gets served on time and chores are completed, and generally handling any issues that inevitably arise (a fight, the power going out, a drunk and rowdy person showing up at the door, someone having stinky feet, etc.).  

Homeless folks knock on our door 24/7, so a large chunk of time is spent helping them (giving out blankets, mail, toiletries, etc.).

I generally work my shifts alone, sometimes with the aid of a volunteer.  This means that I am often the only employee in the building, and the lives and safety of all of our guests rests in my hands! 

Our guests are in crisis, and usually suffer from mental illness, histories of violence, and have various health problems and substance abuse histories, so this is a very exciting group to manage and you never know what could happen. 

Every now and then I do need back up, so I keep the police and paramedics on speed dial. 

In my next post about Paige, you’ll find out what she eats for lunch at the homeless shelter (hint:  from homemade church casseroles to chocolate covered strawberries!) and why she feels in solidarity with some American workers.