Social workers: do you love or hate your job?

[Roxietrees]

I’m strongly considering doing a masters in social work. I’m especially interested in working with children and adults with mental health issues. However I’ve got a few friends my age (late 30s) who have been social workers for 15 or so years and are completely burnt out and desperate to change careers. Is it as stressful as everyone says it is? Do you really feel like you make a difference to people’s lives or is there too much red tape in the way? Do you have to be extremely emotionally resilient? I’d be looking to work part-time for the first few years after qualifying as I’m a single parent with young children. Would this be possible or would it seriously limit my job opportunities? Anyone who studied social work later in life - what’s the best course to do to prepare you/make you the most employable? A masters at a university or one of the more vocational courses?
What’s your favourite and least favourite thing about the job? Any further advice appreciated too! Thanks

I’m 11 years in.

I do still love the job itself, the kids I work with regularly make my day, and I know I make a difference to them.

i am, however, quite burnt out and in poor personal health due, I believe, to the job. Insomnia is my companion these days. The constant criticism and public attacks are tough, the bureaucracy is worse, and the pressure. Senior management have been the biggest issue wherever I’ve gone, to be honest. In my current job, nothing ever feels good enough, even though we are all stretched thin.

Part time would be tricky as newly qualified, but not entirely impossible. You might find it tougher to get a foot on the ladder though. What relevant other experience do you have?

You do need resilience and to be realistic, and not come into it thinking you can help everyone in fluffy lovely social work world. And have good personal boundaries and assertiveness.

I did a uni degree but I think either route is valid. You get really stuck into the real learning when you start work, to be honest. And you never really stop learning.

I would do it all again, but I think I’m a bit loopy.

A friend of mine has just done the adult mental health social worker qualification route which is a paid training route. I may be wrong but I think you become one or the other I.e. CAMHS or adults?

I met an adult social worker who worked in a prison - working with offenders/perpetrators of DV/SA. I honestly don't know how she did the job but she said you learn to switch off/be objective/apply frameworks, that was the impression I got anyway. I think there was a recognition that it's entirely possible for someone to 'reform' if they do what is required, but in many cases they don't and they will go back to offend. She said you don't let them know how you personally feel and they can tell if you are judgemental.

12 years in and I still enjoy it but now part time and I know if I was full time I’d be fully burnt out. It’s hard to balance children and work.

I do love it yes. I've worked in child protection for 11 years and no plans to leave. It can be stressful of course, but it's an amazing job. It's more than a job really.

A vocational route is probably the safer bet. My local University offers it as an undergrad and postgraduate degree and churns out many more graduates than there are graduate level roles within (our local) local authorities. Obviously mamy of the skills are transferable but if you really want to do statutory work rather than, for example, the 3rd sector, this is worth considering.

I’d recommend looking for a social work assistant role in your local authority and then once you are in they may put you forward for step up to social work training on the job. I think that is the best way to get real experience of the job, the work load and the local team etc and more likely to be able to negotiate part time if you are already in there and they know you.

I’m 14 years in and love it.
I work for an Independent Fostering Agency though and not a local authority, which will be a significant reason I’m not burnt out or stressed.
When I speak to colleagues in the LA I honestly don’t know how they keep going.

I’ve had a long career mainly in mental health social work. It’s a great job, very rewarding and never boring but it is stressful and at times very traumatic. There are loads of local authority jobs where I am and part time working would absolutely not be a problem. Post graduate masters is the best route imo.

11 years in and I love my job (most of the time). You have to learn coping stratfegies particularly in the first year or you won’t survive it is my experience. At times it can be very stressful but you need a role that isn’t constantly high stress or you will burn out.
Worst parts are the paperwork type aspects and increasingly the cuts that effect our day to day work and the best parts are knowing that you’ve made a positive difference to people’s lives - not everyday but overall I do feel I am.
As with any job you need to find a supportive manager and team; I nearly burnt out when I had neither but moved to another job and thrived

Also I honestly am never bored and I can’t imagine doing something else even when it’s hard

Love being a social worker ❤️❤️

18 years in and I am generally on the side of loving it. I think the key is to find your niche. Unfortunately I do think that you may find it hard to go in as a newly qualified practitioner seeking part time roles; most roles will ask for a level of statutory experience which don't always accommodate part time roles unless your very lucky. More usual could be a 9 day fortnight if that would fit with you, but does mean longer days.

I’ve been child protection, children looked after and CAMHS. Loving CAMHS the most due to work life balance and the fact I’ve retrained as a therapist. It’s a different context completely and it’s great. Child protection made me very unwell, it wasn’t for me long term and doesn’t fit my way of being.

I second the idea of working in an assistant sw role or perhaps Early Help? You get an understanding of how the systems work without full responsibility of say - child protection

I've been in social work (children's) for 11 years now (did the MA) and I am very passionate about the value of it and I do love it (most of the time). I'm in a more senior management role now. Not all local authorities are born equal though, my current local authority that I've been with for 3 years is pretty good in terms of support for practitioners, for example we have an offer of 9 day fortnight which is helpful in terms of work life balance and have a real eye on ensuring on workloads are manageable (well as manageable as they can be in the world of social work!) - you also want to make sure they have a properly robust and effective ASYE programme.

I’m several years in, stayed on duty team assessments, love it. All the paperwork is incredibly time consuming. You need to be incredibly resilient to be on a duty team, you don’t know what’s coming up next, same with CP. very hard to do with young children without family support, sometimes I’m out working very late. Try to get onto Step Up (you don’t already have to be working for an LA) or Frontline then you don’t pay and earn a wage. Very difficult p/time in a front line team as your work will need to be picked up by someone else if something like court statement needs to be written in sn emergency. I’m sure there’s roles within social work which lend themselves better to p/t.

I'm also a social worker in CAMHS and enjoying it. I've done various therapy training and the job is very varied and interesting. You are at the mercy somewhat of whether you have supportive management or not as that can make or break whether it is an enjoyable job or not, and I've had both. Unsupportive management led to massive caseloads and burnout but thankfully there has been a culture change in management in my service, now we have good supportive managers who actually care about staff wellbeing which makes a massive difference.
The actual job is great. The young people and families I work with are great, and are dealing with some very challenging difficulties. The cases we get are very complex, usually with complexities such as social care involvement, parental mental health problems, neurodiversity, trauma and suicide risk so it can be demanding and not easy to make therapeutic progress, but it is always amazing to see the positive change that can happen. It's always varied and interesting and I am always learning still, after twenty years in the job. I recommend CAMHS as a place to work but do your homework on the individual team and service you apply to, as some are very badly managed with poor staff morale. Some are great though. Good luck

I left social work after about 20 years. I left because I could not stand the bureaucracy which basically tied my hands from doing the right things and meant I was forever filling in forms

Oh yes, the paperwork/computer processes etc are incredibly time consuming and draining. I spend more time dealing with meetings and piles of admin and computer records etc than I do doing face to face work. Be prepared for that.

My daughter is 5 years in and still happy and fulfilled but it is extremely stressful. She's good at self care though and very well supported at work and at home. Most of her colleagues are happy too, some after almost 20 years in the job. I do think she has a particularly good team round her though.

I’m a senior social worker in adults. It can be relentless but I love my job!

I’m a social worker - 15 years in. Just returned to frontline CP work after a long break doing another social work role. I’m full time and have DC but at the moment it’s working. I went back because my previous role wasn’t stretching me and I was unfulfilled, plus I couldn’t afford to be part time anymore. It’s bloody hard but I’m proud to do my job.

Did it for 17 years (adults) and don't regret it but I needed a change and do something else now.

It depends what suits you. I love that my job now is not reactive and I can plan out what I'm doing. Also that I have a manageable work load.

Thank you for all the helpful replies. I know I don’t want to work in child protection but would be very interested in working for CAMHS. I do worry though about how stressful and full-on the role could be. I have young (early primary) DC and am a single parent with very little family support close-by. The job wouldn’t be my only source of income so I could financially survive doing part-time but it sounds like part-time roles (especially for newly qualified) would be very hard to come by? There’s just no way I could cope with F/T with my current family situation, when DC are older definitely but not for a few years unfortunately

We have part time staff in our teams but they all started all full time and then negotiated part time. Nothing to stop someone negotiating from the start.
As @Dirrimocommented, management and the specific CAMHS team makes a difference. I’m in a specialist team which is very well managed in terms of caseload so great balance. Lots of complexity but lots of time for learning and inter team working/meetings/cpd.