Feelings of professional isolation emerge, as well as the decreased ability to contribute meaningfully to the organization. Many of our work days suffer from reduced productivity caused by the need to jump through internal or inter-agency hoops that are of little value for the care of our clients. This certainly occurs in all professions. Management sometimes compounds the our feelings of being unappreciated with last-minute schedule changes, denial of employee benefits, staff reductions, etc. Personal Risk Frequently social workers are expected to perform effectively in hazardous situations without adequate protective measures for our health and safety.
Dangerous situations are common for psych social workers and child protective workers.
Medical and prison social workers often face patients with an airborne-communicable diseases such as TB without being informed of the risk and without adequate protective masks. Social workers frequently must interact with clients on a crisis basis without security staff or basic safety precautions. In our opinion, nothing else more clearly communicates an employer's lack of appreciation and respect than to jeopardize social workers in this way during the course of our work day. Burnout Articles Links to articles and other sites. Burnout Books Our reading recommendations.