Social workers have one of the highest risk jobs for chronic stress and burnout among healthcare professionals, especially when workloads are high and they don’t feel valued. Signs of burnout in social work include mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion, a loss of meaning and purpose, increased negativity and cynicism, and decreased productivity.1
What Is Social Worker Burnout?
Burnout is a state of chronic stress and exhaustion that social workers may experience due to the demanding nature of their job. Social workers are at risk for burnout because they are exposed to the effects of trauma, poverty, and social and racial inequality on a daily basis.
They spend a lot of time and energy thinking about, attuning to, and caring for their clients’ needs. When social workers are not able to turn this off, take a break, and care for themselves, stress becomes chronic resulting in burnout. Social workers may also experience a decrease in productivity and begin to dread or avoid their work.2
Compassion Fatigue Social Work
Compassion fatigue occurs when social workers internalize their concern for their clients to the point that they feel helpless and ineffective, ultimately losing their ability to feel compassion and empathy. Social workers may feel distant, detached, even indifferent to their clients’ struggles. This disconnection is one of the hallmark signs of burnout. Strong emotional boundaries and self-care can help decrease the risk of compassion fatigue.
Social Worker Burnout Symptoms
A social worker experiencing burnout may notice that they have lost their energy and passion. They may start dreading work, feeling more cynical, negative, or detached, canceling client appointments or chronically running late. They may feel exhausted or helpless to change the situation, be less effective in their work or start daydreaming about leaving the field.
Some signs and symptoms of social work burnout include:3
- Physical and emotional exhaustion or burnout
- Feeling ineffective as a social worker
- Lack of patience and focus
- Loss of enthusiasm about the work
- Heightened irritability
- Feeling emotionally drained
- Sleep issues/fatigue
- Loss of inspiration
- Feeling distracted or unable to focus
- Increased cynicism or negativity
- Depression
- Anxiety
Causes of Social Worker Burnout
High caseloads, high client acuity, and low pay are well-known causes of social worker burnout, and this has become even more significant during the pandemic. A recent study found that following the start of COVID-19, 26.21% of social workers met the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 16.22% reported severe grief, 63.71% reported burnout, and 49.59% reported secondary trauma.4
Potential causes of social worker burnout include:
- Increased client needs
- High caseloads
- Low wages
- Limited resources
- Organizational structures and stressors
- Ethical dilemmas
- Workplace conflict
- Funding concerns
- Unsafe situations
- Inability to detach from clients’ issues or taking on their problems
- Secondary trauma
- Exposure to abuse, poverty, and social and racial inequities
- Financial stress
- Funding requirements
- Deadlines
- Ethical imperative to respond to social justice concerns Culture of overwork
Social Work Burnout & COVID-19
Since the start of the pandemic, social workers have faced unprecedented workplace stress as front-line, essential workers. In addition to health and safety concerns about the virus itself, social workers have faced social and political stressors, racial inequality, unemployment, poverty, lack of access to healthcare, trauma, educational stressors, and grief.5
One interesting facet of the pandemic is that social workers are in the role of helping others through all of their stress while also going through the same experiences themselves. Social workers face the same fears, insecurities, doubts, workplace challenges, childcare uncertainties, grief, and loss as their clients, yet they are expected to have the answers.
How to Prevent Social Worker Burnout: 15 Self Care Tips
Fortunately, there are ways to prevent or manage this type of stress, including caring for one’s mental and physical health, setting limits and boundaries, and seeking out professional support and consultation. Social workers can reduce their burnout and deal with feeling overwhelmed by prioritizing self-care, support, and stress management in their personal lives.
Ways to prevent social worker burnout include:
1. Practice Physical & Emotional Self-Care
Social workers have all heard the saying, “You can’t pour from an empty cup” but this is more than a cliche. It is critical to recharge (or refill) physically and emotionally in order to be able to stay healthy and continue to help others.
2. Leave Work at Work
It can help social workers to have rituals when they transition from work time to personal time. This can be especially important when working from home. For example, social workers can get to a stopping point with current tasks and write down a list of all of the things that need to be taken care of the next morning.
If commuting, it might help to identify a boundary like a river or highway, and think about leaving work on the other side once that boundary is crossed.
3. Take Advantage of Resources Provided by Your Employer
Employers may have several resources available including supervision, EAP counselors, coaching, and other support services. Social workers are encouraged to find out about and take advantage of these resources.
4. Keep an Open Dialogue With Your Boss
Oftentimes, employers will say that they are blindsided when they find out an employee was struggling with burnout, and they had no idea. It is a good idea for social workers to talk to their employers about their concerns before burnout becomes more serious.
5. Ask For What You Need
Social workers tend to put their own needs last. To avoid burnout, social workers need to be able to identify their own needs, and communicate them clearly and directly.
6. Eat Healthy
Physical and mental health are directly related. Eating healthy food will give social workers more energy and vitality to face the challenges of the day. Since social workers are often booked up or on the run, it’s a good idea to pack healthy nutritious snacks and lunches.
7. Set Realistic Goals
Social workers can burn themselves out by setting too many goals at once, seeking perfection or simply being unrealistic about what can be accomplished in a day. There may be times when social workers need to lighten their to-do list and set reasonable goals and expectations.
8. Take a Vacation
Nothing beats a true vacation for unplugging, recharging, and leaving stressors behind. It’s helpful for social workers to have a trusted colleague cover their phone and emails so they can leave the office with confidence. Everyone needs to be able to unplug sometimes, and social workers are no exception (though plan wisely to avoid the post-vacation blues).
9. Build Self-Care Into Your Day
Social workers can build self-care micro-strategies into their busy day so they don’t have to wait for their next day off or vacation to take care of themselves. Ideas to get started include keeping a full water bottle handy all day, starting the day with a 2-minute meditation, standing up to stretch or move between clients, or listening to music.
10. Connect With Family & Friends & Tap Into Their Support
Like everyone else, social workers need support from people who care about them. Since they are often the ones doing the helping, it can be a struggle to ask for support. Try scheduling a regular date with a friend or family member to help you stay connected.
11. Observe How You React to Client’s Traumas & Make Changes as Needed
Social workers are at risk for secondary trauma due regular exposure to their clients’ traumatic experiences, pain, and struggles. Signs of secondary trauma including intrusive thoughts or images, increased startle response, and avoidance of places or people that remind them of the patients’ traumatic events.
12. Meditate
Meditation helps many people feel more calm, grounded, and present. Formal meditation is setting a time and sitting for a specified period of time, and informal meditation is noticing the present moment through the senses. Both types have excellent mental and emotional benefits and are good additions to the daily routine.
13. Exercise
The link between exercise, improved mood, and reduced workplace stress is supported in research. 30-60 minutes per day, five days per week is generally regarded as a great place to start.6
14. Laugh
Finding ways to laugh, be silly,and have fun is a great way to de-stress. Laughter releases endorphins, the feel-good chemical that helps people feel happy and content.
15. Seek Out Peer Support & Consultation
Social work can be isolating because it is hard for those not in the field to understand the struggles. Confidentiality restrictions also prevent social workers from talking about their work. Peer and consultation groups can be a great way to process work stress with others who understand and still protect confidentiality.
When to Seek Professional Help
Social worker burnout can require additional help to overcome. Telltale signs of this are insomnia or sleeping too much, changes to appetite or weight, severe anxiety, and thoughts of death or suicide. Other signs that a social worker should seek professional help are being easily startled, having intrusive thoughts/memories/dreams, and avoidance of triggers.
There are many modalities of therapy that can help with stress and burnout management, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), internal family systems therapy (IFS), and mindfulness. Eye movement desensitization reprocessing therapy (EMDR) is also helpful for vicarious trauma. For help finding a therapist, start your search through a free online online therapist directory.
Final Thoughts On Social Work Burnout
Social workers tend to put the needs of others before their own, taking on their clients’ stress and putting them at risk for burnout. It’s critical to practice self care in social work so that you can more effectively provide great care for others, as well as enjoy your own work and personal life. With self-care in place, social work can be an incredibly rewarding, purpose-driven and fun job!
For Further Reading
- Mental Health America
- National Alliance on Mental Health
- MentalHealth.gov
- National Association of Social Workers
- American Counseling Organization
- American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT)
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or Live Online Chat
- Mental Health Foundation
- The Insight Timer
- Best Books on Burnout
Social Worker Burnout Infographics
