December 4, 2017, five years ago, Matt Everson experienced a career correction, when he walked into the Building “A” Roads Office. His position, Office Assistant, had been customized to meet Matt’s needs as well as the business needs of King County Roads.
Matt’s day to day schedule and responsibilities were set and Matt was successful. Then a big whammo, Covid-19 started to spread throughout the area. Just like most work locations, the Roads office closed. Matt’s job paused for months. Big bummer!
Matt wanted to try telecommuting. He wrote an email to his supervisor with the ask. The message simply stated “I want to work!” At that time, his supervisor sent Matt’s computer and equipment from the Roads Office to Matt’s apartment and telecommuting started with the support of Trillium staff.
Today Matt continues to telecommute. Often he hears his managers say, “Matt, you’re doing great”, “Matt, you mean so much to the Roads Department”, along with, “Thank you, Matt, for all that you do”.
Way to advocate for yourself, Matt!
Matt’s Job coach, Bria, also wanted to share how much she has learned from Matt:
“Matt is also teaching his colleagues, his manager Julie, his mom Pat, and myself to get out of his way when it comes to his own learning. When Matt was first learning how to scan documents and save them on a computer, Julie and I met beforehand to plan out how to teach Matt to use the scanner. We used every inch of a MASSIVE 10’x12’ white board that Julie had in her office to plan out steps for scanning and what Matt should do if something happened. I think we had it broken down to something like 30 steps.
When the scanner and printer arrived at Matt’s apartment, I went there to teach Matt how to use them. Matt took those 30 steps and simplified the task himself down to four steps just by scanning and printing documents independently.
It was a great lesson for me, Matt, and Julie to always have a common destination, and to have Matt lead in figuring out what that destination is and how to get there.”
What a great lesson learned. Thank you, Matt and Bria for sharing your stories of learning and self advocacy.