I’m trying to give someone advice on choosing a career that will suit them better than the one they’re in and hate. I wanted to get together a list of good questions for them to ask themselves so they can use the answers to compare options like “do you prefer to work sitting or moving around,” “do you want to not work weekends” etc.
What social services is supposed to be would’ve been a dream come true. What it actually is these days is the opposite, an utter nightmare. I took a good look at their atrocities and gave it a hard pass.
“Social services” is painting with a broad fucking brush, my man. There are tons of orgs doing fantastic work in social services, it’s not all bad.
Edit: What follows here is straight-up aneurysm posting. In conclusion, “social services are like diplomats, except instead of being international, they’re top-down.” Direct quote lmao
I work in social services and think it’s great, and the people around me do great work, whether that was in homeless outreach or hospitals.
I am speaking of the American variety, specifically from the perspective of District 7. It’s so rare to go somewhere where they aren’t abusing power, for the very reason they’ve been made susceptible to that, that a generalized stance can be made and we can say there is a “grain” even if there are people who go against this grain. This is in fact historically established by design, Bill Clinton was said to be the US president the modern manifestation of social services began with, a part of his legacy he considers one of his whoopsadoodles. So it’s not just some random series of broad remarks.
I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I’m a social worker in the US, and there are a ton of jobs available to me, whether that’s federal, state, or local government, healthcare, schools, nonprofits, and more. The character of the job depends heavily on the agency and specific department within which you work, and there’s an incredibly wide variety. Pay is bad at some jobs and really good at others.
What is “District 7?” And who exactly is abusing their power?
If you don’t know the nine districts, that’s enough to suggest you aren’t a social worker in the same sense.
I’m sorry dude I’ve worked in social services in hospitals and local government for well over a decade now and have no idea what you’re talking about, “the nine districts.” You’re a social worker if you have a social work license and work as a social worker, not if you work at one of “the nine districts,” as you cryptically refer to what I can only assume is some portion of the federal government.
To not know would be like working in a company and not knowing your bases of operation, or like being a lawyer without having been to law school, so the assertions inspire either inexperience or skepticism. The actual social work institution (not just “working for society”) has its management divided across the US into subregions that typically encompass a few states, and they encompass your jurisdiction. If you were a CPS agent (which is a social services subunit), for example, the absolute limit in which one could relocate children without needing to consult another level of power would be the edge of a district. Each district also varies in their expression of authority, and thus experiences with people are different in each, but generally this institution known for addressing issues of abuse and handling insurance changes is corrupt in America as well as nations unfortunate enough to have modeled their equivalent after the American system, the CPS in particular has thousands of examples of footage of them breaking into homes to take children who haven’t even experienced abuse. If you consider yourself a social worker, I’d seriously suggest you look into who you’re working for.
Are you a troll? There’s not a shred of reality in anything you just wrote. The federal government has no role whatsoever in any CPS function, it’s entirely a state-based system. This is also just completely made up:
The social work profession doesn’t have a singular “management,” there are state licensing boards the same way there are for doctors and nurses. Licensed social workers work for literally thousands of different agencies and there are no “sub regions that typically encompass a few states.” Even better, almost none of the CPS caseworkers in my state are social workers. Social work has basically nothing to do with CPS. Where did you learn any of this?! Try to learn it again
I never said anything about the federal government, but the districts do exist as described. The CPS not being connected to the realm of social services is the most misguided claim there. Doubt intensifies
Same with healthcare. I am a paramedic by trade, was the youngest in my class, youngest commander, went to work around the world, from the European Alps to the African jungle to Australian outback.
It was quite a journey.
But sadly I had to recognise that I am not cut out of the wood that is required to survive in today’s healthcare systems in industrial nations. It made me profoundly hate humans and even more sick humans. I dread every single day I still have to work with patients. Especially awake patients. I can’t handle them anymore. Don’t get me wrong. I am still giving 100%, sometimes more - and I don’t judge,like some other colleagues do over the years. I don’t care if you are a frequent flyer, a drunk or a murderer - I will give everything and be very nice to you. But inside me? I burn out.
It’s not that I can’t work with the misery,with things I’ve seen. It’s just that I can’t work with people and the system they are part of anymore.I am now lucky enough to mostly be “off the road” in a cushy,self employed, desk job. But still, I can’t fully leave healthcare,as I invested to much. And so I will torture myself again.
In less than 5 hours my alarm clock is going off for another shift. And I am dreading the moment it will.
Fuck.
So is it better in non-industrialised nations? I have a few guesses as to why that could be, but I don’t know which if any are right.