I need to vent...
I received a call from one of my clients today. She is a disabled woman who has no income. She cannot maintain employment due to the nature of her disability. But she has been struggling for years to get approved for Social Security Disability because, despite the perception that you can claim disability for anything and everything under the sun, she cannot get the Social Security Administration to accept that she has a disability that is severe enough to negatively affect her ability to obtain gainful employment.
In the meantime, her only income is a monthly EBT card (i.e., food stamps), which only pays for food. She asked for a one-time annual voucher from the county to pay for toiletries and was approved for a small amount of money (more than $10 and less that $50). She took the voucher to one of the box stores in the Iowa City/Coralville area to redeem.
And now she is in tears. And this is why...
The cashier could not figure out how to redeem the voucher. I don't blame her for that. She likely does not receive those forms of paper vouchers very often. So she called the manager to help out.
The manager then LOUDLY and VERY PUBLICLY shamed my client. "The state gave you this. That's my money. Why did they give this to you? What did you do to deserve money?" It was loud enough that another customer actually came forward and got after the manager for making a scene at my client's expense.
Keep in mind that this is a voucher made out directly to the business. It's not some cash reward that my client could use to purchase drugs or booze or whatever. And she used it to buy tampons and toilet paper.
But she needed a very public lecture about using a voucher from the county to purchase tampons.
Keep in mind that she has applied for employment twice at this store, but has been rejected both times because she has poor credit. Because poor people cannot be trusted to hold down the very jobs needed to rebuild their credit.
I personally shop regularly at this box store. Now I really don't ever want to return because of the way that this manager treated my client.
I really hate poverty-shaming.
I received a call from one of my clients today. She is a disabled woman who has no income. She cannot maintain employment due to the nature of her disability. But she has been struggling for years to get approved for Social Security Disability because, despite the perception that you can claim disability for anything and everything under the sun, she cannot get the Social Security Administration to accept that she has a disability that is severe enough to negatively affect her ability to obtain gainful employment.
In the meantime, her only income is a monthly EBT card (i.e., food stamps), which only pays for food. She asked for a one-time annual voucher from the county to pay for toiletries and was approved for a small amount of money (more than $10 and less that $50). She took the voucher to one of the box stores in the Iowa City/Coralville area to redeem.
And now she is in tears. And this is why...
The cashier could not figure out how to redeem the voucher. I don't blame her for that. She likely does not receive those forms of paper vouchers very often. So she called the manager to help out.
The manager then LOUDLY and VERY PUBLICLY shamed my client. "The state gave you this. That's my money. Why did they give this to you? What did you do to deserve money?" It was loud enough that another customer actually came forward and got after the manager for making a scene at my client's expense.
Keep in mind that this is a voucher made out directly to the business. It's not some cash reward that my client could use to purchase drugs or booze or whatever. And she used it to buy tampons and toilet paper.
But she needed a very public lecture about using a voucher from the county to purchase tampons.
Keep in mind that she has applied for employment twice at this store, but has been rejected both times because she has poor credit. Because poor people cannot be trusted to hold down the very jobs needed to rebuild their credit.
I personally shop regularly at this box store. Now I really don't ever want to return because of the way that this manager treated my client.
I really hate poverty-shaming.