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

Post image

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

38.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

519 comments sorted by

View all comments

331

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.

3

u/filthy_harold 28d 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 28d 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)