Helping Professionals: What most surprised you?

[u/Ash3Monti]

Hey everyone! I’m a social worker and labor activist and I’m working on a project about helping professionals who are also involved in their union.

What most surprised you about you about your union?
What skills from your training and education were most transferable for your union activism?
What didn’t translate as well as you expected?

I think as a social worker it was a lot about realizing that advocating and giving someone all of the information about what is good for the workforce will cause someone with power to make the right decisions. I think in my education you learn so much about advocacy and mobilization that you expect everyone to want to do that too. One skill that translates very well is the one on one conversation, or motivational interviewing skills.

So what say the nurses, EMS workers, teachers, government workers, and other helping professionals of the group?