Monday 22 August 2016

The Mediocre Social Worker

Hi Dear Readers,

Today I want to talk about a dirty little secret in the social work profession.  Not all of us are die hards - not all of us strive to give our best to our agency and our clients.

It's sad to see a social worker only put in the barest amount of effort required, or even worse, fall short of displaying completely competent practice.  I am talking about the social workers where you have to help pick up their slack, but which the quality of their work is not quite negligible.  These are the in-betweeners who on the one hand are not likely to be fired and on the other hand are not going to be up for any employee of the year awards.

It can be frustrating for several reasons to have such a social worker in your office.  Here is my list of why:

  1. Clients may ask you for assistance before their own worker because they are sure you will be able to help them
  2. Since the social worker is less committed to their work, they do not feel the same weight of responsibility that the rest of us do
  3. The social worker is paid the same as their co-workers, even though they do not provide high quality work
  4. The mistakes they make get reflected on the whole agency and it is often up to the other social workers to rectify them 
Now I want to go into the reasons why a social worker might be mediocre:

  • They are in the wrong profession
  • They are in the right field but the position itself is a bad fit
  • They are experiencing ongoing personal issues which are impacting their performance
  • They were not given proper training when they started their job
  • They are not being provided with regular, adequate supervision

It's inevitable that each of us will make a mistake or have an off-day.  However, that does not make us mediocre social workers.  It's displaying sub-par work everyday that makes a social worker one. 

If you are experiencing this issue in your office, I recommend going to management with your concerns as they might not be aware of the dissension it's causing.  Or, if they have already noticed, then this will be a not so subtle reminder that it still needs to be addressed.

And if in reading this post, you recognize yourself as a mediocre social worker, I highly recommend you delve into the reasons why this is so.  It may take some deep soul searching and the support of your co-workers, management or a professional to help you but it will be worth rectifying it.  You'll likely feel happier and have better professional relationships with your co-workers and clients as a result. 

As Always,

Patti