Welcome to Social Work Life
Here we go...
“So, what do you do for work?” The question inevitably comes as I stand among the nervous parents and carers of our little people preparing to start their schooling journey in kindergarten. The kids have been left behind to get to know each other and the teacher for their first orientation session. Some are happily waving their caregivers off as if to say, “you can go now, I’ve got this!” Others, like mine, stop themselves from reaching out to mum for a cuddle because they remember they’re “big kids” now and don’t really need us there (except of course they do!).
As the adults gather together after walking away from our babies, our minds are in a million different places. “I’m a social worker” I respond in my standard sweeping answer. I always have a little internal giggle at people’s reaction when met with this answer. Most commonly, the response is a look of, maybe, shock or concern, and its generally accompanied with a slight head tilt and a comment along the lines of “oh that must be very challenging/rewarding”. What happens next is usually telling for me as to what life experiences the other person has had and generally what their values and even political views are. I have become quite good at reading people efficiently over the course of my career and I can often get a sense of whether I am going to “click” with someone or not based on their response. Although, even with the work and life experiences I have behind me, I remain an eternal optimist and generally want to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I do still get a bum steer from time to time!
I’ve had a million repetitions of some version of this interaction over the past 2 decades, since the time I could officially call myself a social worker, having graduated from my degree and jumping into the world of child protection and Out of Home Care (OOHC) in Sydney. I’m the first to admit that I have not “seen it all” in this time, and I do concede that the world of social work is so much more far reaching than that of the NSW OOHC sector. However, I’d be concerned if I wasn’t able to say that, after 20 years, I hadn’t learned a thing or two in my travels.
What has brought me here is both my experience as a frontline worker in this field, and how, as I have moved through different life stages, my approach and experiences have evolved and continue to change with every day, week, month, and year. Becoming a parent has hugely impacted on my approach to the work and it has made me appreciate more deeply the lived experience of our clients. It has also made me question and consider with more nuance how the work impacts us personally.
I see far too often in the social work field young people, good hearted people, and let’s face it, mostly women, with the best of intentions, starting out with so much enthusiasm, care and compassion, only to be broken down far too quickly by the everyday, real-life challenges that come with the job. I don’t claim to have all the answers, in fact I don’t know that I have any answers at all, sorry if that’s what you were hoping for! But I do think that, if I am still here 20 years since my first “real” social work gig, then maybe I’ve got something I could share with others.
I aim to use this space as an opportunity for reflection, mostly for myself, if I’m honest. And if I can help others in this field to feel less alone in their experiences, perhaps this will help to increase the longevity of careers for these people who mostly come into this field of work wanting to do good for their communities.
I won’t always write about social work though. Sometimes I just have thoughts in my head about things that are going on in the world and as people in this Substack community understand, writing about it helps to process and make sense of it.
If you have ideas that you would like me to discuss here, please reach out!
Let’s see where this takes us!