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

Yes, it's very stressful, especially if you are conscientious. I spent 12 years in mental health social work and the stress levels were huge. A lack of resources, miniscule budgets, poor management, unsupportive colleagues and too little time were the main factors.

How’s your baseline mental health?

I work in the legal sector but deal with a lot of social workers. Many of them have absolutely dreadful mental health, they are wrecked by the job.

Mine is fine thanks
Usual peri stuff, bereavement hit me fairly hard but otherwise all good. Same for all the social workers I know. How on earth do you know about the mental health of people you presumably only speak to in a professional context?

20 years qualified (to the week!).

I work in a specialist area after doing 7 years in Child Protection.

It’s relentless and emotional. It’s full on,
paperwork heavy, people are sometimes (often) rude to you and you get complaints about stuff out of your control or when you’ve tried your hardest.

But - it’s so interesting, I absolutely love working with people, love going round peoples houses (though do that less now as I’m a manager), talking to people, asking f questions and then thinking about what it all means.

Most of my colleagues are fucking awesome, but you do need to also be aware that SW career does attract some people who really shouldn’t be in the job. So you learn how to be a bit discerning with who you trust and who you become friends with.

I would agree with this. Anyone denying this is not helping.

I know so many SWs who have PTSD type symptoms from work they have done.

In particular CP is at times horrific.

Because that’s the legal issue…

So you represent social workers who have mental health issues as a result of their work? And you extrapolate that to social workers as a whole? Huh?

Straw man argument.

I asked OP what their underlying MH was like, as it is a stressful job that can have a particularly negative impact on mental health.

Obviously yours is fine.

Sorry to be very social work like, but your reaction is quiet strong here and I wonder about that.

I also wonder why you may struggle to understand why your colleagues have mental health issues as a result of being in situations that are horrible, impossible and at times down right dangerous. This impacting your mental health is normal, not something to be criticised or ignored.

The culture of ‘I’m all right Jack’ in social work is toxic.

I’m not a social worker but I work in ASC MH and hold cases - hospital discharge. I love my job but there are times when it’s very stressful and frustrating (resources stretched, a society with a housing crisis, cost of living crisis etc etc. I think it’s more stressful with younger adults

i wouldn’t touch children’s