“Work is essential…it is the glue that binds us to society.”-Bob Harvey, Founding Director of Independence Center
Great quote right, but what in the world does it mean?
I had no idea who Bob was or what
that quote meant. But, perhaps you’ll read this just long enough to start
to understand what I came to believe he was talking about.
My name is Mark and I’ve been a
member since November of 2009. I wouldn’t exactly consider me the “Poster
Child” for the Independence Center; but, I hold a special place in my heart for
the place. For those of you that know me, I tend to tell it like it is
and I will do my best not to disappoint the reader.
I didn’t come to the Independence
Center on a winning streak. I was broke, homeless, and just out of one of
my many hospitalizations for mental health issues and suicide attempts.
Like a lot of people with mental illness, I had been struggling to get well for
a very long time after many failed attempts at a correct diagnosis and correct medication.
All I wanted from the Clubhouse was to use the computer and find a job. During
my periods of homelessness, it was a warm place during the day to hang
out. As far as doing anything for anybody else, forget about it – that
was the mind set at the time. Sadly, this mindset would persist for
5 or so years and it was painful…for everyone. I mean everyone!
During those five years of wandering
in my morass of self-pity, I went on SSDI and lived in an RCF. If that
had not happened; I would be dead. I worked very little and attended the
Independence Center with more regularity. But something was still
missing. Once the disability kicked in there was relief for a
while. However, I kept telling myself this is only temporary. The
truth was I didn’t know how long I would be on disability and I was
frightened. I had a few starts and stops at part-time jobs I found on my
own and T.E. jobs.
Somewhere around mid to late 2014 I
was attended by Dr. Charles Conway at Midwest. He correctly diagnosed my
illness and put me on a medication regimen which has afforded me an excellent
quality of life. Additionally, he also prescribed other actions to take that
were non-negotiable. One of those actions was daily attendance at the Clubhouse
and to get involved in the Work Ordered Day. He said you’re never going
to fully recover if you don’t get off the bench, get in the game, and get
busy. If you don’t, you can expect your life to be a cycle of
hospitalizations, more medication, and a premature death.
I went back to my unit, the Street
Level, and attend the morning meeting – thought I was going to hurl orange.
It was so disorganized. There was an agenda; but, by the time you got past the
side conversations and cross talking it was time to hand out chores. I would
take the bathrooms to hide out but Sam, Alex, or Pete, or Tim would find
me. That used to piss me off. Come to find out, isolation kills a
lot of us with mental illness. If you are serious about getting well,
clean the bathrooms. Scraping a surprise off the floor from the night
before with Sam or taking a selfie of the stopped up stall before sending off
to Pat or Tom entitled “Wish You Were Here!”, that my friends is real team work
and relationship building. As time went on, I became part of the
unit. I was the cross talker and the disorganization at the
meeting. Oddly, things started to make sense; there really was order and
purpose to the Work Ordered Day. The days turned into weeks, weeks into
months, and months into years. I started giving tours and found out there
was quite a bit the Clubhouse had to offer. Before I started working, I got
involved with Colleague training.
In the fall of 2017, a T.E. was
opening up at one of our partners, Equifax in Earth City. I had been
attending the employment meetings on Wednesday since I wanted a job. I
approached Missy and Kristen to see how I went about applying and they
explained the process. It took a little while to get on as the company
has a lengthy background check. The position Independence Center has at
Equifax is called Independence Center – Intern. Never at 55 years old did
I think I would be an intern; however, it worked for Robert De Niro in “The Intern”.
What we do here is help our client’s with their human resource functions.
The job that the T.E. person does is to channel all the misdirected
documentation to the appropriate representative. All documents are time
sensitive and confidential. In addition to these duties, I was able to
acquire additional skills by asking for more work in my down time. They
taught me how to do wage audits. I learned how to APEX claims (this is
the very beginning of how documents start to process in our systems.) The
company also offers online trainings and classes you can take if your work is
caught up. I was able to earn my Yellow Belt in 6 Sigma Lean processes.
So if you’re interested, there really is more to do than just forward
emails. All you have to do is ask how can I be of service?
I wanted to get off of disability
but wasn’t quite sure how to do it. I’d stabilized quite a bit from the train
wreck poor Teri Portello had to deal with. Chris Brannaman had the
pleasure of working with me. The truth is there had been others that had gotten
off disability; some successfully, some not. And, I had supporters and I
had others. After I was 3 or 4 months into my T.E. job, my boss and I had a
talk one day. She said so how do you like the job? I said I like it
and I almost think I understand what we do here. She laughed. She
then connected to dots better. Even now I still have questions and so
does everyone else as we are constantly innovating to meet our client’s and consumer’s
needs. Our tag line is “Powering the World with Knowledge”. I
explained my plans for getting off of disability and wanted full-time
employment. She asked if I would consider looking at Equifax. I said
of course and that I had looked at the job openings. I further explained that
even though I had a degree and it didn’t look like I had the qualifications to
do the work or experience. She smiled and said, no one knows how to do
what we do until we train you. I’d like to pause the job stuff here to talk
about the SSDI stuff going on you need to know about.
It would be in your best interest to
contact the Social Security office and request information on the Ticket to
Work program. There is a clock and it is time and dollar sensitive.
It is extremely important that you pay attention to the details and the rules
Social Security provides. I hate to say this; but, it felt at times that
the system, namely Medicaid, was actually working against me getting out of the
system. Your community support person or plan coordinator can help you.
Your case will be different from everyone else’s, trust me! I can also tell you
the Social Security office on Watson Rd. was very helpful. When I finally
submitted my paystubs that would show that I in fact earned too much to get
SSDI, it was a little scary. At the same time, it felt liberating.
I felt like I was earning my own way. I had gotten to a point in my recovery
where I knew I was well enough to work. Therefore, I didn’t need the
disability any longer. I needed disability without question as I was sick
and could not work. By the Grace of God and a lot of help from the Independence
Center,
some friends outside of the center, and Equifax I was able to achieve my dream
of independence.
As the T.E. position was ending, my
supervisor at Equifax started coaching me on interviewing at the company.
It had been a long time since I interviewed for a professional job. We
did mock interviews and rehearsed. And gratefully I was able to secure
full-time employment. My first position was Unemployment Insurance
Specialist and I did that for about 6 months until the company changed
directions and re-tasked my team. I am now called a Client Service Representative
– Senior. My department now supports our Work Opportunity Tax Credit
department and we also provide information to all state agents on unemployment
claims. I have had to learn a multitude of Equifax systems and
protocols. Even though I wasn’t
full-time when I started November 6, 2017 in the T.E. position, the company
considered me to have one year of service as of that date last year. Why
was that significant? As a full-time employee, you are required to
contribute 5% of your salary to the 401K and you start right away. At
your one-year anniversary, you are vested and the company will match your
contribution up to 7% this year. In my past
employment, it usually takes a few years to get vested; meaning if you leave
the organization, you can not only take your money you can take their
money. The company is saying they trust you to stay with them even after
a year if you catch my drift.
Today I have a compass and I have
direction. Because of Independence Center, Dr. Conway, Laura, Alex,
Chris, Alex, Pete, Paul, Teri, Michael, Sam, Tim, Kara, Alison, Joe, Pat, Tom,
Andrea, Missy, Kristen, and I’m running out of time and space; I could not have
made it. I was wandering; I was unglued like Bob Harvey was talking
about. Not that work is everything; you are not your job. But when I walk
away from work at night and I get to fight traffic on I-70; if feels awesome.
Believe it or not I feel wanted, needed, and accepted here at Equifax.
Thanks,
Mark Brodz
