For Jawaher Omer, being an attentive listener is crucial to empowering and supporting vulnerable women who are on their path of recovery. Being a Helpline Support Worker is intense, but despite the challenges she always finds there is something new to learn. Here is how her day on the MWN Helpline begins and ends. 

In all my personal relationships I place importance on the simple things like being a listening ear. Now I listen to powerful women who are healing and growing, providing them with either a space to offload or the confidence to take the next steps (or both!).  No two days are the same on the Helpline, as a Helpline Support Worker and it may sound cliché to say, but it is fantastic. There is always something to do and always something new to learn. Whether that be any new immigration policy changes or another organisation working fantastically hard for us to add to our signposting collection.

My day begins with my first decision; I flip past several abayas before settling on one. How lucky I am to be able to wear an abaya to work. I fix myself breakfast and eat it alone; my mom has finally accepted that she has no reason to be pottering about at 6am and that there is in fact no one to now wake up for school, college, and uni, so I eat alone now.

I feel ready to take on the day so I walk halfway to work to get my steps in before catching the bus the rest of the way.  I like to find joy in small things – having the chance to be able to walk in the fresh air is something I have decided to be grateful for today.  Sometimes, cases at work can be intense and heavy, so it is important to ground yourself and be reminded the world can be a nice place if you let it. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it!  I hear chatter and feel comfort as I walk into the office and set myself up at the desk. I am ready for the day and I am ready to do my best to help. It is 9:15am now but I know very soon it will be 4:30pm and before I know it, I’ll be scrambling to finish the last of my case notes on time for shutdown procedures at 4:45pm.

A day on the helpline can absolutely fly by – no laborious grinding through and watching the minutes tick by.  Instinctively, I log onto emails and scan my allocations while cross-referencing it across our system’s dashboard where the cases reside. The gentle lull before 10am hits and the lines open is my chance to catch up on safeguarding cases, read my case actions allocated and skim through any new emails and cases.

Some days, I prefer to make all my calls as soon as the lines open leaving me the rest of the day to dedicate to incoming calls and generally keeping an eye on the inbox or textphone, and some days I like to let myself marinate and warm up; writing some replies before I begin to take any calls. This freedom to complete my allocations whichever way I prefer and the initiative to work through my own caseload really stimulates my energy throughout the day while giving me the chance to enjoy what I am working on.

Once, I’ve decided I’ve done enough work to warrant a break from the screen (my toxic trait) I grab my yogurt pots and do some scrolling on twitter and TikTok. Surprisingly, unlike working on my cases, my break time does not fly by as fast. Some days I split it into two mini breaks so I have some TikTok time to look forward to, if a case is particularly intense. 

I enjoy answering calls and engaging with the service users. Everyone’s panic and worry is valid, so I make sure to always give them that validation for seeking help. As usual, the day reaches 4:45pm much too fast. Some days you can feel you have not got through a lot of cases or ticked off a worthy amount of actions off the dashboard, but I try to remind myself that answering a call or replying to an email is not something you can quickly wrap up and push off the conveyor belt. A day as a Helpline Support Worker is ever-changing, so it is crucial to pace yourself, to being alert and most importantly, being the attentive listener to the service user, as it may well just be the weight they needed off their shoulders. You realise that you are their person, their advocate and for some, you may be the only person they can turn to for help. 

I twist once in the opposite direction and finally clang shut the awkward metal filling cabinet. I slot my notes from the day into the confidential bin and say my goodbyes to my lovely colleagues. I enjoy my days at work that much more because of their lovely faces and encouraging smiles.

Till tomorrow when I get to do it all over again.