Probation Officer

Quenten: An average day, I usually see around about five to six offenders a day. Giving them support is probably the number one thing from our point of view. And it's motivating them to do the right thing. Give them tools and kind of ways that we can help them to rehabilitate themselves. And once I've seen them and we've gone through what needs to be done, it usually turns to a bit of paperwork.

Case noting what we do with our offenders, doing some reports as well for court or even for the parole board. It takes a bit of our time up, but it's one of the things that has to be done. But it's one of those things that also betters your practice as well. You kind of learn from your case noting. And it gets better and better every time you do it.

You need to be focused. You also need to have good time management. That's probably one of the main priorities is having good time management. Being able to squeeze everything in. But we come down to the point where if we're running behind, we kind of just head down, bum up, and just get it done.

I expected the offenders...one of my first contacts was obviously...to be quite aggressive and always trying to get one over on you. But it was actually the absolute opposite. They were quite friendly, open. I mean, you get your offender that has a bad day, and they throw their toys. But I mean, it's very rare that it happens.

I think the biggest challenges of the job is patience. Your patience is definitely going to get tested if they walk into a room and just sit there. And they won't talk to you, they won't even look at you. They will just, they're playing the game. And you could sit there for 15 minutes and just look at each other. It's hard to see someone go through that. And then they end up coming back through the system again. And for some people, it might take five or six times until they're actually – "I'm sick of this, I really want to do something."

I think you need a positive attitude. I think you need an attitude that, you know, can-do. I think the main attitude is you need to come into the job knowing that you can't save everybody. But it's the ones that you do that count. Yeah.

I think the camaraderie, especially in my own office, we're very tight. It's something you actually need in a probation office. In terms of privacy, we can't really go home and just let it all out at home. It's something that you've kind of got to talk to your workmates. And we're quite open. And I think that's what makes us quite a good office is we're quite open with each other.

It's something that I hold quite dear to my heart is changing people's lives. It's not going to happen in a day or two. It's a journey that you go along with your offenders. And it's a journey that I enjoy. I think the change is the big thing for me – being able to have an impact on someone's life in some way or another. It's what gets me up in the morning. Yeah.