Am I being too sensitive?

[lifesteeth]

I joined a course for lone parents which gives you work placements so that you can gain experience hence making you more "employable". I expressed an interest in NHS Admin as it was the closest thing they had to what I want to do career wise (social worker) and so alongside my nhs admin placement I am also studying with the OU for social work qualifications.

Anyway I do like the placement and its made me more determined to follow this kind of career but certain comments sometimes put me on a complete low. For instance they never have much for me to do so I always feel like I'm giving THEM extra work finding me something to do, when I got there this morning, the woman I work for told me to sit at the desk (she was on the phone) and when she'd finished she looked at me and said "right, erm..." and looked around the room obviously at a loss to what she could get me to do and everyone else in the office started laughing, I know its more work for her me being there and it makes me uncomfortable.

I'm being shared between 2 different places and today the woman I am supposed to be working with tomorow came in and said she had to go to a meeting tomorow so could the other place "Look after" me, the other women looked a bit put out (but remained very nice) and agreed but I could tell she was thinking "oh great, what am I going to do with her tomorow".

Whenever anyone asks someone to introduce me to them I'm referred to as "One of those job centre trainees" or "on work experience" which makes me feel like a little kid.

They're all very nice to me and they do try but I feel like a spare part constantly in the way, I don't know if its just me being sensitive as I love the kind of work they do and I suppose when they talk like this it reminds me that I don't have a real job and it brings me back to reality.

Am I being too sensitive about it all? I love going but when something like this is said it makes me feel quite down and like I'm never going to get anywhere.

You will get somewhere, of course you will. And when you're there because you're employed to be, there'll be plenty of work for you to do.

You do seem to appreciate that from their point of view it's difficult to deploy people on placement. They're often there short-term and/or/ part-time, have no responsibilities of their own, etc etc.

You just need to stick it out, knowing that it will pay off in the end.

When you're there do you ever look at somthing and think: "I could do that"? Perhaps you could volunteer to do something that you can see other people are putting off (I'm thinking boring stuff like filing, etc). Showing initiative might lead to you being given a bit of responsibility.

I hope that doesn't come across as totally patronising - I'm just waffling in case anything helps.

I attend many placements and know exactly what your saying. Your not being too sensitive its the circumstances unfortunately and your placement people being insensitive.
Speaking from experience you get some bad placements and good ones, the good ones are were your needs are thought of and days organised. The bad ones are were they don't know what to do with you and thats their issue not yours.
Are you able to ask for a timeplan? so you know what your going to be doing.
If they are not prepared to do this I would speak to the placement organiser about this and see what they suggest or see about changing placements. At the end of the day your meant to be gaining something positive from this placement and if your not then something needs to be done. Your time is precious!

Don't be disheartened though...put this down to experience and remember how not to treat people like yourself when you receive students as a fully qualified social worker. All the best!