I work for a charity that sits alongside a social services department.
I like to be seen as "one of the guys" but I'm clear about my independent role. It isn't easy sometimes. Social workers often have massive workloads and morale is low. Staff are signed off with stress on a regular basis.
Resources are tight. Inevitable tensions arise between the two organisations but we work hard to get around them.
Take the work night out. What better way to break the ice and get down and dirty with your colleagues than to go out on the lash? Gulp! Secretly, the idea had always filled me with dread. But recently I bit the bullet - in the name of teamwork - because a colleague was leaving. This was an even newer experience for me - the social workers' night on the tiles.
The evening began well, people were friendly and keen to shake off their workaday image. I made small talk - funny how people still blather about work when they're propping up the bar. I needed to be careful - drinks in, wits out, as they say. I didn't want to be the topic of conversation on Monday morning: "Charity worker found in gutter with bum in air and head down drain."
By eight o'clock, the evening was in full swing. One woman, usually quiet and fastidious in her work, was everyone's best mate. She kept flinging her arms round the nearest poor bugger while yelling "I looooove you!" I tried to sneak past but got caught in her grasp. "Yer me mate,"' she slurred.
Out came the string foam in a tin - hurrah! It got everywhere, particularly over the head of the guy who was leaving. Followed by the spray-on green hair dye. His smile tightened as it dripped all over his white shirt.
Then the disco started and the dancefloor (and several suddenly half-exposed bosoms) heaved to Eric Prydz. Judging by the gyrating, several fostering workers had been practising to that video.
And that was just the blokes.
It was a great night - a good bit of team bonding took place. Everyone needs to let off steam sometimes. We're doing it again next Friday. Now, where's that leotard? Let me scorch those floorboards. "Call on meee!"
