I love what I do, but I get a kick out of learning things on the fly that would have been so much more useful before that moment. Here’s my first attempt at listing some of these trends that you never knew we didn’t know. Feel free to comment and add your own 🙂
1) You can’t save everyone– I don’t mean this to be cynical or a reason to not continue to do what we do, but so many people still have the “save the world” mentality. Social work is a broad field and a lot of this is also what it is you’re doing with your degree. The truth, is much more likely that things won’t be filled with the “aha” moment. People will continue on their merry way, filled with bad habits, and your efforts will often go by the way-side even with your best efforts. What makes it all worthwhile is those few and far between wins. In a sense, social workers operate much like addicts, just waiting for the next hit.
**For this reason, and many more, don’t forget the importance of supervision. If you’re not getting it where you are, get it somewhere else. We need to continue to grow and learn in order to be effective social workers.
2) You should be grateful- We all know social workers get into the field for money and power….No? Damn, I must have misheard them at the college fair. OK, so we all know that social workers are often underpaid, overworked, etc. What we’re not told is that we’re expected to keep it like that. After all, we’re lucky to have jobs. This is the kind of thinking that hurts us. Put an unfair burden, take away benefits, raises, help, and other disciplines would storm out. Social workers are not only expected to make it work, we are looked down upon if we complain about it. It doesn’t matter that our expected salary is a joke, the student loans are equitable with those of much higher grossing professions.
3) It’s not the place to meet guys- This one might sound flippant, and it was never a reason why I chose the profession, but Holy mother of lady parts Batman is it a female dominated field. Now this gives a really interesting experience, but it lacks the diversity and different viewpoints in order to question and expand the field. It also ensures hilarity every time a male social worker joins the group. We instantly turn into the seagulls of Finding Nemo whispering “Boy? Boy?” But one thing that is still vastly apparent is that despite the ratio, a huge majority of management positions are still held by men.
4) Get off the couch- Social workers are less constrained to be clinicians than our counterparts in the mental health field, and we should take advantage of it more. Within a short time you’ll realize that social workers will be used interchangeably with: therapist, case worker, case manager, CPS worker, social services, and child stealer. Don’t worry about the last one, but the differentiation must be made that social workers can encompass a little bit of all of these jobs and more. Don’t get bogged down to a label.
5) We’re not all saints- You would think that everyone in the helping profession would be…well, helpful. The fact remains, just like all other populations or groups, you will have some good, some bad, some in-between. Everyone is drawn into their profession for their own reasons, and just as we ask ourselves what the client is bringing baggage wise, we have to remember that we all carry baggage as well.
Written by Courtny Kidd, LCSW
SJS Staff Writer
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LOVED THIS! Forwarding to all my fellow Wichita State MSW students. Go Shocks!
I love this article. I once worked for an agency that promoted choice. Interestingly, one of the “motto’s” was you can’t save people from themselves and people have the right to fail.
I was blown away with this, aren’t we as social workers (or soon to be SW in spring 2014)suppose to write a plan, set a goal, empower, why should we accept failure? This troubled me for some time, until I had that Aha moment, failure happened, and it was the best thing that could of happened for that client. Growth happened when failure occurred. AHA!
remember the client’s right to self determination
I was actually told all of these. Thanks to the staff at Ferris State University especially Joanie Hazelton.
I just want to say I simply LOVED this article. I just wanted to add ONE more thing.
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF- As budding and current social workers, we have the tendency not to only immerse ourselves in our work, but also to forget to focus on our physical and mental health after work. For some people, conducting social work activities can be difficult (especially when working with intense caseloads). We are taught throughout our studies to understand ourselves, other people, and to de-sensitize ourselves from anything we are presented with. It can be hard. It can be rough. We may even face situations where we have never (and may not) live through but, at the end of the day, don’t forget to take care of yourself. We are only human.
Every prospective “superhero” needs their day off too lol.
Thank you again for this article and take care,
Christina M. Graham
My contribution…
You WILL screw up. You will accidentally (or on purpose for the benefit of your client) break an agency policy, or miss an important court date becaue you simply got overwhelmed and tripple booked yourself, you will make a baf choice (though it was a good one at thr time based on the information you had at the time). But it’s okay. It happens. There may be repercussions, but you will move on and grow because of it. This is another reason supervision is so important!
Also, don’t expect gratitude from your clients, especially if you work for an agency where the services aren’t voluntary. I’ve always worked in voluntary service agencies (I’ve dedicated my 7 years out of collge – Central Michigan University, FIRE UP CHIPS! – to serving survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault at 3 different agencies) and even then the lack of gratitude sometimes gets to me, but I just have to remind myself that they don’t know ALL of the stuff I’m dealing with (both personal and at work) on top of helping them.
Lastly, you will likely never be anywhere longer than 10 years. High employer turn over is expected in social work. It shows you know when to move on due to burn out or better opportunities for yourself/your family. I’ve worked for 3 agencies already and have another interview for a 4th tomorrow. Each one for me has been for more money/better hours, etc but I’ve been lucky enough that they have also come on the verge of burn out.
wonderful column- right on. I’ve been a social worker for for 32 yrs. When I began my current position 28 yrs ago, the staff was nearly all men( only 1 woman). Now the situation is reversed, with myself and only 1 other male social worker). Feels like I have multiple wives … OY ! ( LOL). And yes, when complaining about the unreasonably low salary, and lack of respect for the social work profession, I frequently get the response “you’re lucky to be employed.” I believe that a major problem remains the continued lack of understanding and acceptance of the complexities of our jobs. I think a prominent belief persists that it doesn’t take much training to do social work. And the misconception that caseworkers and social workers are one in the same. I also believe the greatest threat to the social work profession is Managed Care ( No SH_T !) .this absurd fallacy that effective social work can be done telephonically.
Two words. Right on!
Don’t forget that you have to be your own advocate as well as your client’s. You have to be willing to stand up for yourself and ask for what you need to be successful. Unfortunately, supervisors and managers are often carrying their own case overload as well as trying to manage yours and others. They often don’t have time or energy to care about what you need so you have to stick up for yourself.
Thanks for sharing what many of us have wanted to say ourselves! Also, for the “good” social workers, please call yourself a social worker. We need to let people know who we are.
Hi. My communications professor forwarded this to me since she knows I am pursuing social work as my major and also because I sat down with her the other day and explained how bad a caseworker at the county indigent office made me feel when I was renewing my indigent coverage. My point in talking to her about was for guidance on a letter I am writing to the woman’s supervisor as I want to word it correctly. The caseworker accused me of manipulating the system and said it was insulting to her that I wrote the word exempt on some of the forms I filled out. I am 59, a senior with 100 hours and have a lot to offer. I could be a poster child for social work if you knew all of the things I have experienced, my late husband experienced,etc. I am interested in social work because I know personally how hard it was for me to obtain services when I was very ill, “wasting away” as the doctor told me with a 55 pound weight loss in six months. I didn’t know it was hyperthyroidism and had no insurance, not because I didn’t try, so I immediately thought about people that aren’t educated and don’t know about services, etc. Hopefully there is no backlash from my letter as I still need the health coverage. If you would like to see the letter when I am done with it I will send you a copy.
Nicely said! Will share in Alberta, Canada.
They told us there would be paperwork but not to the degree that we have paperwork. The assessment is now 10 pages, the progress note at least 2 pages and every 90 days, we have to add a quarterly to sum up progress that we are doing every time with progress notes. Electronic files means that we have to print off the note and put it in a physical chart too. The motto of the day is “it didn’t happen if it isn’t documented.
This article is so spot on. I have been the only male in my office for years and although one would think this would be cool being a man surrounded by caring, beautiful women, the dynamic is such that it often feels like I am in a constantly changing “weather pattern.” And dating these women is a fantasy. I am very much in the “friend zone”. I do get a kick out of how competitive women can be though.
Compassion fatigue is real. There is only so much one can do as a Social Worker especially under heavy constraints which can defiantly feel like egg shells have been strewn on the floor. It may be honorable to enter the profession wanting to “save lives” but burn out usually ends up being the end result. I struggle more with agency beaurocracy than I do working with clients.
And yes, there is a certain level of expectation regarding our plite to be underpaid and overworked.
-great article, in the way of both it’s lightheartedness, so good medicine; but also your eye on the profession, it’s context, our need to keep thinking/advancing practice, ie: your example of us having room to move in the categories of care/intervention, so thanks for that.
-and then our comments, thanks for the collective, sigh.
Great article!