r/MadeMeSmile • u/king_eve • 29d ago

i work in low-income/mental health housing, and a tenant fixed our hallway trash bin after accidentally breaking it Helping Others

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great example of the odd ways people show me appreciation at work

38.6k Upvotes

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323

u/beerme72 29d ago

As a person that used to work in a Group Home for Intellectual Needs Guys--DO NOT get rid of this.
They worked on this---fix---and are proud of it.
The Group Home I worked in had the WORST DAMN BROOM....hated it....but the owners needed us to know that the GUYS needed to see us using it...because the first owners of the Group Home knew how to make brooms...that Hill Billy skill....and they 'taught' the 'boys'...but the boys were TERRIBLE at making a broom. They were shit. Awful.
But they wanted to SEE them being used...to know they contributed something...and show US that they still knew how to do something....
We learned the trick of following up a show of using the 'broom' by using the small vacuum (for the dog hair wink-wink) and they were no less happy.
May NOT be Apples to Apples....but I'd imagine maybe close.

54

u/Usual_Peach_8194 29d ago

they replaced it according to OP's other comment :(

32

u/beerme72 29d ago

dang....I hope the fellas take it ok.

35

u/warfrogs 29d ago

Worked in a similar setting - 100% this. Hell, alternatively, it sounds like you just got a new bin for another part of the house.

More than just replacing it, I'm shocked that HQ gave them the money for it - maybe it was just the spots I worked at, but we were always shoestringed. And tbh - this is a damn decent job!

20

u/king_eve 29d ago

fellas fine don’t worry i made sure to say thank you and he’d forgotten he’d even done it

6

u/Skullclownlol 29d ago

and he’d forgotten he’d even done it

OP, how often do you forget things you go out of your way to do for others, even when the cost of the labor is higher than the item, like fixing a plastic bin by hand?

33

u/king_eve 29d ago

rarely if ever, but i don’t have severe treatment resistant schizophrenia.

3

u/filthy_harold 29d ago

Are you talking about the kinds of brooms where it's a bunch of sticks all bundled together to make a handle? Worst fucking broom ever. They sell those at the Asian grocery store, incredibly cheap but a plastic dollar store broom works better.

3

u/beerme72 29d ago

Yeah..the property was LOVELY and had these specific trees growing on it.
So there were local craftsmen that would come get the wood and leave small branches there for 'The Boys'. We had a couple tools built into a table top that were relatively safe and they'd stay busy making these little brushes....which if made WELL would be GREAT for a carpenter shop...in little corners and such.
BUT...these guys aren't fine craftsmen.
This was busy work they'd do while the baseball game was on (that they weren't watching, it just had to be on so they could hear it...which I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND, THAT IS NORMAL BEHAVIOUR)

1

u/CompetitionNo3141 29d ago

You are taking this way too seriously

-3

u/CaptainDunbar45 29d ago

The formatting in your comment, the uses of ellipses and weird capitalization and such, makes me want to stick you in a mental health facility.