Every family we work with was the ‘general public’ before we entered their lives. We need them to be open to working with us, to trust us to support them appropriately. This is more difficult when they have seen social workers on the soaps removing children without due process. We know how ridiculous and inaccurate the screen portrayals are, but they don’t. When soaps are doing a particular storyline whey speak about working closely with whatever the charity, such is their need to offer accuracy and information. Why not with social work. I don’t need to be liked or valued in order to do my job effectively, however, to have a little bit of a head start would be nice.

This is an uninformed the comment. Anybody who knows anything about social workers realises that we don’t get out of bed because we are too busy sacrificing our wellbeing to go to bed, ever. Facts matter.

Well if a social worker regards themself as a lone and a virtuous individual rather than part of a team then they will be patronised, ignored and perhaps even laughed at. The alleged incompetents ruse to become managers because they understand how organisations work and more pertinently identify where power is within and use it to join the pack. The hyper individual social worker in a permanent state of angst, often cooked and stoked in their own imaginations, on the other hand cannot decide if choosing to isolate themself by working from home is another consequence of how horrid their employer is or secretly rejoices in not being held to account by the compromises necessary for effective ream working. 20% of any social workers dailt thinking, this one included, is woe is me. Some though recognise it for what it is and rarely allow the despondency to linger long. For some every late report, every court humiliation, every rejected assessment, every incomplete case note, every intended or inadvertent slight is a confirmation of how awful being a social worker is. Never ever remetely anything to do with how they do their job. Burn out has real consequences but never is just about a single tangible employer specific source. Some of us are disorganised and work to less than optimum standards because of it, we do let families down when we are late for or don’t keep appointments, some are fragile souls who can only function by endless and daily affirmation of their exceptionality or head nodding to how awful they are treated. When was the last time social workers had a discussion that didn’t demand unquestioning acceptane of how dreadful being a social worker is these days? Given that permanent state of acute hyper sensitivity and anxiety there hardly likely to be respectful conversations between the competing whose worse off attention seekers is there. Personally I’ve long given up on rationality and settled to close my ears and eyes to this. A good laugh with the guy who makes me an Earl Grey tea, shoukd I caveat that by riffing on if I can squeeze it in to my very very busy day for appearances sake?, is the best antidote actually. I love being a social worker inspite of most of the self indulgences tolerated by being reframed as ‘professional pressures’. As for listening to social workers, where would you stop is the real question. The ingenuity that we have honed to almost become magicians to justify when and what we get wrong is patience sapping. That’s my social work and on the whole that is what tires me out. Realism and Imagined Monsters would be a social work book I’d spend pennies from my meagre wages I was too lazy to vote in the pay claim ballot on for a rise.

We didn’t then we worked to rule which meant we returned our laptops at 5.00. Apart from the usual suspects who can never take any action in their own interests because they are so “committed” to their ‘families” we stuck with it for 3 months. We were bullied and threatened and guilt tripped but our bosses eventually abandoned ‘hot desking” and “standing work stations”.Nobody gave us anything we took it for ourselves. Perhaps that explains the divide in opinion better.Now I could be facetious and say ” you have the privilege of home working” but I’ll just let it hang there. We support our admin staff, we don’t belittle them. We also value team working and Microsoft Teams is something we resist. There’s nothing mysterious about wanting and securing good working conditions with proper support. It just requires a bit of effort and some discomfort and none of the martyr complex beloved of the “over worked and under appreciated” self indulgers. We can have a nuanced and considered and respectful conversation about this but that requires not starting it with “wow”.

Wow. You have an office. You have admin. You have admin that field calls even. You have meetings. I have a laptop, a mobile and a notebook. And my kitchen table and Microsoft teams. Maybe this is why such a divide in opinions.

Sounds like my workplace. Only those shut up and put up and stick to the false narratives rise to the management positions. Meanwhile we cannot retain staff. Anyone who stands up for either their own rights or the rights of service users are shut down. Respectful conversation? I have loads of those, they are very patronising, and they go nowhere. Overwork? No that’s me not being organised. No pay rise? No I do this for the children I don’t need the money. Burnout? No I’m just not resilient enough. Sad about the children? No that’s lack of self care and inability to switch off. Think a child should be in care? No I haven’t done enough yet to change the family, i haven’t worked hard enough. If anyone has read a serious case review, time and time again it highlights how burned out social workers who are not listened to are part of the problem. But hey let’s just carry on ticking the boxes and pretending we are creating social justice.