[SarahSweden]

Last week I suddenly got to know that my social worker since two years has decided to leave for another workplace. She told me in a meeting and she had both prepared a card on where she wished me good luck and other things and she had also prepared a little "lecture" with things she thought would be usable for me in the future. She said I was her only client who she did this for and she didn´t want to end our contact by mail or just letting me know that I will see another social worker.

I was very touched by all this and cried a lot during this meeting. I told her I really appreciated what she had done and during the meeting she told me, as she will be working as a social worker like one more month or so, that I was allowed to e-mail her if I wanted and also that we could perhaps meet once more if she could fit that into her schedule.

By that I wanted to give something little to her and I bought her a card and a little, cheap, key ring. I wrote that I had appreciated what she had done and as she brought me some book tips, I mentioned a couple of book tips which I thought can be usable for her in her new job. I said I wish she could have stayed my social worker but that I understand the working conditions that made her leave.

At the end of the card I wrote she could e-mail me just a line or so if she wanted just to let her understand that I didn´t see this card as a definitive end or that she shouldn´t contact me anymore or something like that.

I posted this card in a postbox outside the municipal house where she works and a receptionist collects the mail everyday. But I then don´t know how it´s delivered and this postbox is also an "open" one which means someone else could open it and take out the mail in there if they wanted.

I though expect that my social worker got my card and the key ring this Monday and I haven´t heard anything. I know it´s only Wednesday but I begin to think that I won´t hear from her. I of course expected like a thank you or some comment on what I wrote. Nothing big but just a little something that let me know she had got the card.

Perhaps she finds it suddenly inappropriate even if she was the one giving me a card and hugs during our meeting when she told me she was leaving.

If you were in this situation, would you expect an e-mail from her where she thanked for the card or commented something about receiving it?

[Discombobulated]

I don’t think I’d expect a response, I think I’d have to trust she got it and was very likely pleased to receive it but that professional boundaries might mean she wouldn’t personally respond.

[Revenge Tour]

It sounds like you had a great rapport with your social worker and I think that's wonderful. However, I would just be glad knowing that I left a nice note and leave it at that with no expectation of acknowledgement. I would simply have to believe she got it and appreciated the gesture. On the other hand, you may just get a response soon.

[divine1966]

It would be nice to get an acknowledgement but I’d not per se expect it. I doubt someone else took stuff. What would be the use?

[Molinit]

I wouldn’t expect a response.

[SarahSweden]

Thanks.

I agree she might think like that but she has already broken boundaries as she wrote me a card and she held a meeting specifically to tell me that she will leave which she doesn´t normally do with clients. We have already had a lots of e-mail contact around different matters so sending me an e-mail now to thank me for the card I sent or to comment something upon what I wrote to her wouldn´t be boundary violation as I see it.

Originally Posted by Discombobulated

I don’t think I’d expect a response, I think I’d have to trust she got it and was very likely pleased to receive it but that professional boundaries might mean she wouldn’t personally respond.

[SarahSweden]

Thanks. Yes, as you say I might get a response during this week but if she hasn´t got back to me then I won´t expect her to.

Originally Posted by Revenge Tour

It sounds like you had a great rapport with your social worker and I think that's wonderful. However, I would just be glad knowing that I left a nice note and leave it at that with no expectation of acknowledgement. I would simply have to believe she got it and appreciated the gesture. On the other hand, you may just get a response soon.

[SarahSweden]

Thanks. The postbox I used is used by all kinds of people who apply for welfare and such so people leave documents in this postbox with their social security numbers on and so on. By that, even if the risk is low, someone could try to get hold of such information and therefore just take the post from this postbox to search for information to use. As they wouldn´t have any intererest in the card I sent they would probably just throw it away.

Originally Posted by divine1966

It would be nice to get an acknowledgement but I’d not per se expect it. I doubt someone else took stuff. What would be the use?