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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that social work is...

154 replies

lepricon · 22/04/2023 19:08

A calling? I am a newly qualified social worker. I have had soooo many people trying to scare me off it.

My first placement (third sector) I loved every minute. Thought it was a fluke and wait till I do statutory.

Did my second placement (statutory) absolutely fucking LOVED it! Feel so fulfilled, thrived from the stress. Thought it was a fluke and wait till I'm qualified.

Qualified for a year (statutory) and still loving it.

Have spoken to sooo many social workers that have left after qualifying as they hated it and it was so stressful.

Don't get me wrong, it's stressful but I'd be so bored if it wasn't and the work I get to do, the clients I get to build relationships with as well as professionals, I honestly love it.

AIBU to think that social work is either something you can do or something you can't? Love or hate? There doesn't seem to be an in between.

OP posts:
boomoohoo · 22/04/2023 19:34

I think the 'calling' stuff is a useful rhetoric for organisations and universities, to get you to put up with bad work conditions and shit pay. Its not a calling its a job. I'm curious you only seem to be positive about it and wonder what you aren't seeing / facing about it?

MichelleScarn · 22/04/2023 19:35

Iminthemoneylife · 22/04/2023 19:10

I would say you come across as at best naive at worst arrogant and you should see what you think 10 years down the line.

Yep

catinthesunshine · 22/04/2023 19:36

You’re not coming across very well in your replies.

I’m wondering what area of social work you actually work in? One of my very first office jobs was doing admin for a child protection team, including answering calls repeating safeguarding issues. I’ve also volunteered as a support worker in early intervention.

It’s at best very naive that you seem to think social workers are either driven and dedicated to a cause, or disillusioned and stressed. Your enthusiasm is great! But you do sound very naive.

Original poster
lepricon · 22/04/2023 19:37

Trust me, I know the system is fucking fucked and how frustrating it is. For example, working with a service user who clearly has no capacity whatsoever (spent time with her on a weekly basis) and told by a psychiatrist that she has met TWICE has no financial capacity but plenty welfare capacity. If anything it is the exact opposite.

I pull my hair out daily. And I would never think that I'm better or more qualified than any other social worker. I wasn't even speaking about that, I don't think I'm immune to making mistakes.

I simply said that I fucking love the job so far and have love the placements. What's so fucking wrong with that?

OP posts:
onepieceoflollipop · 22/04/2023 19:38

@lepricon
I’ll try and say it a bit nicer. I don’t want you to fail or burn out but you seem to lack a bit of self awareness.

you are fairly newly qualified, positive, animated and full of energy which is great and how it should be at this stage.

Many of us who have worked in health and social care for many years started out like this. I did and I was a bit arrogant if I’m honest. I didn’t really believe in burnout and I secretly judged those who struggled.

Then we found (in my case anyway) some or all of the following which led to stress, burnout and our health being affected:
Finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a good work/life balance.
Especially if we have our own children or domestic issues to juggle.
Taking traumatic cases ‘home’ as these massively affect you emotionally - such as the death of a patient or a child. (Try going home and cooking fish fingers and wrangling your own dc when you are traumatised)
Having to attend Coroner’s Court or being interviewed as part of a SCR
Dealing with staffing/team dynamics anything from always being short staffed, avoidant colleagues, new managers who don’t support you.

Enjoy being new and young and fresh, enjoy making a difference to people (because we absolutely do) but if you’re in for the long haul then look after yourself and be a bit mindful that there is a lot you don’t know. There’s a lot I still don’t know and I’ve been qualified in healthcare for 30 years…

ChiefFireOfficerBoyce · 22/04/2023 19:40

OP, I initially felt like you, that I enjoyed the job, I liked not sitting in the office all day, always having something different. These are still things I enjoy about social work, but as you get more experience your case load gets more complex, things get more difficult to juggle and everything creeps up on you. About 5 years into a stat CP team I felt like I was managing fine but having lots of health problems including persistent headaches. I was outraged when the GP suggested it was stress- I'd been doing the job for 5 years and felt like I was managing well. I changed role to something less full on to pursue my interests and (surprise, surprise!) the headaches stopped. I also realised how much I had gone into myself, how much 'doing stuff' at the weekend had become a chore and how much stress and anxiety I felt after any time off about what I was going to come back to. It's great you are enjoying the role- we need new people to bring the enthusiasm - but within all this please look after yourself and maintain healthy work life boundaries (which aren't normalised in social work). Please treat it as what it is- just a job.

Username2101 · 22/04/2023 19:40

I am also a Newly Qualified Social Worker in an adults team. It’s bloody hard.
Constant never ending pressure, I’ve been with my team for 6 months and in that time I’ve seen many experienced workers leave. We should have 30 people in my team if it were fully staffed, we currently have 19.
Im very aware that as an ASYE I have a reduced caseload, but I’m worried that once this ends I’m not going to be able to cope without snapping.

God knows how those in childrens services in my city cope, where whole teams have walked out at once.

Original poster
lepricon · 22/04/2023 19:41

onepieceoflollipop · 22/04/2023 19:38

@lepricon
I’ll try and say it a bit nicer. I don’t want you to fail or burn out but you seem to lack a bit of self awareness.

you are fairly newly qualified, positive, animated and full of energy which is great and how it should be at this stage.

Many of us who have worked in health and social care for many years started out like this. I did and I was a bit arrogant if I’m honest. I didn’t really believe in burnout and I secretly judged those who struggled.

Then we found (in my case anyway) some or all of the following which led to stress, burnout and our health being affected:
Finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a good work/life balance.
Especially if we have our own children or domestic issues to juggle.
Taking traumatic cases ‘home’ as these massively affect you emotionally - such as the death of a patient or a child. (Try going home and cooking fish fingers and wrangling your own dc when you are traumatised)
Having to attend Coroner’s Court or being interviewed as part of a SCR
Dealing with staffing/team dynamics anything from always being short staffed, avoidant colleagues, new managers who don’t support you.

Enjoy being new and young and fresh, enjoy making a difference to people (because we absolutely do) but if you’re in for the long haul then look after yourself and be a bit mindful that there is a lot you don’t know. There’s a lot I still don’t know and I’ve been qualified in healthcare for 30 years…

Well exactly. I'm excited, I'm animated, how it should be at this stage. A stage I assume you went through yourself. So why be so fucking miserable and make me feel bad about myself for being enthusiastic about my career at the start. Bitterness is all it is.

OP posts:
onepieceoflollipop · 22/04/2023 19:43

Oh and just to add I don’t think (in answer to the original question ) that it is a calling, the same way nursing is not a vocation.

Offensiveapprently · 22/04/2023 19:44

OP my husband has been a SW for 27 years and although it's hard he loved it so.much. I work in children's social care, it is a calling, you have to love it and its perfectly possible to be fulfilled by it. I think it's extremely stressful but hope you have a long and fulfilling career.

Original poster
lepricon · 22/04/2023 19:44

onepieceoflollipop · 22/04/2023 19:43

Oh and just to add I don’t think (in answer to the original question ) that it is a calling, the same way nursing is not a vocation.

What do you mean nursing isn't a vocation? 😂

OP posts:
Original poster
lepricon · 22/04/2023 19:45

Offensiveapprently · 22/04/2023 19:44

OP my husband has been a SW for 27 years and although it's hard he loved it so.much. I work in children's social care, it is a calling, you have to love it and its perfectly possible to be fulfilled by it. I think it's extremely stressful but hope you have a long and fulfilling career.

Thank you so much

OP posts:
SideBob · 22/04/2023 19:45

@lepricon why are you being rude to PP, she's absolutely right? I don't think anyone is bitter about you being a social worker, it's a very challenging job in many ways, having worked alongside SW.

onepieceoflollipop · 22/04/2023 19:46

@lepricon
that’s not a very pleasant thing to accuse me of being ‘so fucking miserable’ -
like others on the thread I took the time to answer you and there’s a lot of ‘attitude’ in your replies.
I have re-read my reply and can’t see anything in it that would lead someone to conclude that I am bitter, am ‘fucking miserable’ or wish you to ‘feel bad about yourself.’
I wish you well.

Nottamug · 22/04/2023 19:52

@lepricon …ignore all the negative replies! IT’s people like you that SW needs. Absolutely nothing wrong with being enthusiastic and feeling positive about your career ! I work with social workers like you and it’s amazing how a positive mind set makes a huge difference to how effective they are !
I am a registered nurse and still love my job thirty years after qualifying…carry on how you are ,be realistic when the job is hard and stand up to anyone who is asking for you to achieve unrealistic goals .X

SlippySarah · 22/04/2023 19:53

I'm not a social worker but I work in a public sector profession that is similar in terms if the type of cases we are exposed to, the responsibility and the huge workload. I don't think it's a "calling" as such but it's definitely something that suits some people and personalities more than others.

midsomermurderess · 22/04/2023 19:55

You are setting your self up for terribly bad pay and conditions if you don’t regard yourself as a highly-trained professional.

IhateMondaymornings · 22/04/2023 19:58

Of course it is a calling of sorts. It has to be. You have to be the kind of person who stands up for what they believe is right in the most trying and dangerous of circumstances. It's such a hard career you wouldn't do it if you didn't believe in the very importance of it. Having been a social worker, I know that without those values and having the strength to stand up to violent and disordered people and advocate for the vulnerable it wouldn't be possible to do. I think front line social work is so pressured you can only do it for so long and you certainly need to have some life experience behind you to do it well not only for your own well-being but for the people you advocate for. Good luck and hold onto those feelings but without them you will find it impossible. It's a rewarding career, however, it's emotionally exhausting and it will take its toll no doubt.

Stardust31 · 22/04/2023 19:59

I admire your enthusiasm @lepricon. It’s refreshing to see someone enjoying their job and it’s a shame that people are misreading that as you being arrogant.

Three close family members are social workers in different fields. Yes, the find the job stressful however they find it rewarding and interesting

Nottamug · 22/04/2023 19:59

@lepricon ..have just read your reply to @onepieceoflollipop ! That definitely was rude and not helping your cause . My reply to you was sympathetic but you do need to calm down a bit ,unless you just want to argue with people !
Hope your reply to me is a bit more reasonable!

Hazey19 · 22/04/2023 20:02

I’m a social worker of 14 years. I wish I had gone down a different path in all honesty BUT my colleagues are all amazing and it can be rewarding sometimes. Good luck!

Xjshdvf · 22/04/2023 20:04

I’m 9 years in and I’d say that it’s a lot more complex than that.
Before I had DC for example it was much easier to manage as I could work extra, I wasn’t juggling so much at home and I had good stress managing techniques in place.
However There is an element of either you learn to manage the emotional impact or you don’t; I credit my first manager for teaching me that and without her I’m not sure if i would have managed. I also thought i was so resilient until I was in a team whete management were awful, case loads were huge and they all imploded at the same time.
Howevet I still love my job and can’t imagine doing anything else.

AtrociousCircumstance · 22/04/2023 20:05

Your enthusiasm is brilliant and long may it continue OP. We need as many of you as we can get.

However. The issue with your opening post is the end part where you say maybe some can do it and some can’t - which effectively judges every single social worker who has struggled/is struggling/feels burnt out. So posters are setting you straight about that. Not trying to dampen your positivity for the sake of it.

(I am not a social worker btw! But that part jumped out).

BertyMyrtle · 22/04/2023 20:09

I echo everything said here. I was you OP 14 years ago, loved my placements and loved my jobs. Loved it for the first 3 years until bad management got intolerable, I then moved on to other teams, still thoroughly enjoying what I was doing, until the grind of regularly working well over my hours and the lack of support just completely killed my ability to be responsive to my families (and my own family too). For the last 5 years, I haven’t worked with any social workers who lasted longer than being 5 years qualified.

I left 6 months ago and haven’t regretted it. Now have a new career where I’m much better supported and have been enabled to regain my passion.

Xjshdvf · 22/04/2023 20:10

I would say though that I really enjoy working with newly qualified social workers like you who are enthusiastic and full of energy for the role; it enthuses me and reminds me of why I went into it even though I’ve got very cynical