Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers in the VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. The VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic in Social Work
1.2. Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers
Job Demands-Resources Theory
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Aims, Hypothesis and Research Questions
2.2. Data Collection Method
2.3. The Research Instrument
2.4. Participants
2.5. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. The Social Workers’ Level of Perceived Job Stress and Burnout during the Pandemic
3.2. The VUCA Characteristics Reflected in the Social Work Environment
- Restrictions imposed by an organisation and the legislation (mask, equipment, and social distance);
- Beneficiaries (do not know how to use the technology or do not have it);
- Managers (lack of support for their employees, incoherence of decisions);
- The environment/way of carrying out the activity (from home, online, at the door, and etc.);
- Collaboration with other institutions/organisations.
3.3. Lesson for the Social Work System and Professionals
- Social policy: to revisit existing social policy in our country, and elaborate strategies for the development of social services based on the current reality;
- Status of the social work profession: increased recognition of the value and contribution of social work (“the social worker is a very important actor in the development of the community and its protection”; “more intense promotion of social work services”);
- Management: visionary, competent, devoted managers, prepared to act in extreme situations; clear procedures; bottom-up approach, not just top-down; working with the complete staff scheme; hiring only professional social workers, “invested in people, invested in professional training”; moral support;
- Emergency Commission: “to establish a functional commission and be prepared for emergency situations”;
- Connectivity: developing more solid connections between communities and social services, statutory and private services;
- Budgeting: allocation of substantial funds in the social field; resources for prompt and efficient interventions in crisis situations; granting risk bonuses;
- Technologisation and digitisation: teleworking; increased use of technology, databases, online instruments (“Digitisation and computerisation of work procedures are the most wonderful things that have happened”);
- Simplicity and flexibility: to simplify procedures (e.g., “to issue certificates for those who are incurable on a permanent basis. It is overwhelming for parents whose children have incurable diseases to come with their child every year for evaluation”).
- Social work mission: “even in the absence of a pandemic, they are the people on the front line”;” the work as a social worker is very important in times of crisis and must remain connected in the middle of the action, put fears aside and act for others”;
- Resilience: capacity to adapt rapidly to changes and learn to live with uncertainty (“uncertainty can characterise anything”); positive attitude (“nothing is unsolvable”);
- Accepting human limits: “to learn first of all that we are human”; “we are human beings and we cannot help everyone; we do what we can”;
- Self-care: “to take greater care of their health”; “to take care of their souls so that they can continue their work in social work”; managing one’s own emotions and fears;
- Teamwork: to support each other, to share ideas and methods, to come together to find the best solutions;
- Ongoing training on topics such as: stress management, time management, teambuilding; methods of working remotely/on platforms with beneficiaries, electronic recording and transmission of data;
- Personal development courses;
- Supervision and peer-support (individual and group formats).
4. Discussion
4.1. Implications for Social Work Policy and Management
- Be visionary: it is not about forecasting the future, which is quite unpredictable in these times, but about creating future through action, identifying the key priorities that matter most, installing habits and routines at individual, group, or organisational levels, which can lead to ripple-like change [31,79], and identifying and keeping values to foster a sense of stability. The results of this study pointed to the competent, devoted, and bottom-up informed decision-making process: investment in human resources and a complete staff scheme to reduce workload; employees only with a social work degree proved to provide higher quality services than those with other degrees [74]; ongoing training programmes (work with trauma/collective trauma, social work during crises, stress/burnout management techniques, IT skills and platforms, time management, and team-building); the establishment of an emergency commission; and increased connectivity with other institutions and between the public and private sector.
- Be understanding: it requires openness, accountability, and willingness to tackle tough issues, listening and relationship skills, regular communication, mirroring the behaviour one wants to see, and giving trust to others [31]. Results of this study and literature showed the key role played by adequate, constant supervision and support [43,46,75,76,77]. Emotional support by both supervisors and co-workers is associated with lower levels of burnout, job stress, and mental health problems [37]. Ongoing staff support groups, physical or online—supervision [77], peer-support, and emotional support–are highly needed and recommended [14].
- Be clear: it is about direction, accountability to people, process accountability, discipline, and integrity [31]; it requires clear expectations and objectives and greater flexibility, both of them being among the issues mentioned by social workers. Less bureaucracy, simplified procedures within the statutory system, and increased digitalisation would decrease workload.
- Be agile: it is about withstanding difficulties by changing in a flexible and swift manner; agile leaders adapt quickly, are open and flexible to new approaches, and are learning and developing constantly from cause-effect analysis instead of being blocked by planned strategies.
4.2. Implications for Social Work Practitioners
5. Conclusions
6. Limitations and Further Research
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Category | Count | Percent | |
---|---|---|---|
Gender | Female | 77 | 92.8% |
Male | 6 | 7.2% | |
System type | Public | 59 | 72% |
Private | 23 | 28% | |
n.r. | 1 | ||
Age | 20–30 years old | 21 | 25.3% |
31–45 years old | 45 | 54.2% | |
over 45 years old | 16 | 19.3% | |
n.r | 1 | 1.2 | |
Children under 18 years old | They have | 41 | 49.4% |
They do not have | 42 | 50.6% | |
Current Relationship Status | Never married Married Partnered Divorced | 13 52 12 6 | 15.7% 62.7% 14.5% 7.2% |
Experience as social worker | Under 10 years | 47 | 56.6% |
Over 10 years | 35 | 42.2% | |
n.r | 1 | 1.2% | |
Highest Academic Degree | Bachelor’s Master’s Doctorate Professional Degree No specialised training | 31 38 3 8 3 | 37.3% 45.8% 3.6% 9.6% 3.6% |
Stage of competence | Without a certificate of free practice Debutant Practitioner Specialist Principal Nr. | 18 7 16 7 34 1 | 21.7% 8.4% 9.3% 8.4% 41% 1.2% |
Professional position | With leadership position No leadership position n.r. | 10 71 2 | 12% 85.5% 2.4% |
Degree in social work | Yes | 67 | 80.7% |
No | 16 | 19.3% | |
Domain 1 | Addictions | 6 | 7.3% |
Adolescents | 21 | 26.8% | |
the elderly | 35 | 42.7% | |
child/family protection | 41 | 51.2% | |
community development | 14 | 17.1% | |
criminal justice | 7 | 8.5% | |
adults with disabilities | 30 | 37.8% | |
homeless/displaced people | 9 | 11% | |
providing social assistance benefits | 15 | 19.5% | |
Health | 7 | 9.8% | |
mental health | 5 | 6.1% | |
social assistance in school | 3 | 3.7% | |
social economy | 2 | 2.4% | |
Minorities | 19 | 24.4% | |
trafficked persons | 6 | 7.3% | |
Migrants | 2 | 2.4% | |
drug and alcohol users. | 10 | 12.2% |
N | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | SD | Cronbach’s Alpha | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Personal burnout (PB) | 83 | 0 | 100 | 55.9 | 19.2 | 0.87 |
Work-related burnout (WB) | 83 | 0 | 100 | 52.5 | 20.6 | 0.82 |
Client-related burnout (CB) | 83 | 0 | 100 | 38.4 | 23.2 | 0.88 |
N | Percent | Interval Values | |
---|---|---|---|
None to low level of burnout | 12 | 14.5% | [0;25] |
Low to medium level of burnout | 23 | 27.7% | [25;50] |
Medium to high level of burnout | 35 | 44.2% | [50;75] |
High to very high level of burnout | 13 | 15.7% | [75;100] |
VUCA Framework | What Is it? | Quotes from Social Workers |
---|---|---|
Volatility | A volatile situation is one characterised by instability and unpredictability. Volatility is the closest general definition of: “relatively unstable change”. | ”During the state of emergency, the social service within the foundation where I work was suspended. Then I went into technical unemployment, which triggered a state of disquiet, both for me and for the beneficiaries we work with. After two and a half months of unemployment, I returned to reduced 4/5 working hours, and the activity was very intense.” |
”My activity as a social worker has undergone many changes during this period: the category of beneficiaries (I had not worked with children, only with the elderly), social service (as the service for children suspended its activity), and social needs (the elderly needed more security, and as a social worker I offered telecare kits)” | ||
”… There have been many changes in the way social services are provided.” | ||
”Chaos in the institution: I received tasks that would change in 5 min, only to change again after another 10 min.” | ||
Uncertainty | Uncertainty is a term used to describe a situation characterised by a lack of information/knowledge. Uncertainty makes it difficult to use the past as a predictor for the future, making predictions is extremely difficult, and making decisions is a challenge. | ”I discovered that amid the panic created, people with decision-making power made erroneous or absurd decisions, and others withdrew "at home" and did not take any action in terms of community interventions.” |
”… at the beginning of the pandemic, better top-down communication and maybe more time to make certain decisions would have been needed.” | ||
“The college of social workers doesn’t even put us in touch with each other, not to mention solutions or representation, I have no one to turn to in order to ask questions, to ask for clear methodological norms or an opinion; the leadership does not know much, but it claims that we know the laws very well.” | ||
“During this period, we faced the inconsistency of decisions…” | ||
“Fear, chaos, uncertainty, change, and rigidity.” | ||
Complexity | A complex situation is characterised by the existence of several interconnected parts/elements/factors. | ”I dare say this period made it very difficult to carry out our activities, we encountered multiple obstacles and blockages, everything is much more difficult than before, I cannot consider that there are aspects to determine me, to make me work easier during this period, on the contrary.” |
”At the moment, social distance makes it difficult for us to work with children, we keep 1-m distance, we wear a mask, we don’t touch each other, we can’t hug them, and the children miss this closeness.” | ||
“Technology where those we work with did not have basic knowledge.” | ||
“The fight against bureaucracy, the need to identify immediate solutions for a person at risk”. “Homeless person with lower limb amputation without a permanent home in the city, rejected by all social institutions in the county; the solution was the acceptance in another county located 500 km distant, after all possible centres in the county were contacted.” | ||
Ambiguity | Ambiguity has been defined as a lack of clarity that surrounds an event and its meaning, or the causes behind the things happening which are unclear and difficult to understand. | ”The lack of a procedure to guide us in our daily work, the fear of interacting with potential beneficiaries at first, when there was no protective equipment, and the lack of relevant information about this virus.” |
”… and ambiguous overnight laws to be applied urgently.” | ||
”inconsistency of decisions or information transmitted from official sources that directly affect the social worker ‘activity.” | ||
”… a system of giving hot meal vouchers by electronic vouchers to vulnerable people has been devised without clearly specifying how they can get in their possession, what categories should be included, which leaves much room for interpretation; |
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Dima, G.; Meseșan Schmitz, L.; Șimon, M.-C. Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers in the VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7109. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137109
Dima G, Meseșan Schmitz L, Șimon M-C. Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers in the VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability. 2021; 13(13):7109. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137109
Chicago/Turabian StyleDima, Gabriela, Luiza Meseșan Schmitz, and Marinela-Cristina Șimon. 2021. "Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers in the VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic" Sustainability 13, no. 13: 7109. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137109
APA StyleDima, G., Meseșan Schmitz, L., & Șimon, M.-C. (2021). Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers in the VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability, 13(13), 7109. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137109