Message From the Executive Director

What is so difficult?  To Be a Social Worker Requires a Partnership with the
Employing Program

I was recently reminded of a conversation with a social worker several years ago. She talked of a group work program that she ran for unemployed, addicted homeless men, helping many of them successfully move to sobriety and re-entry into the workforce.

I asked her what was the most challenging thing she faced. She said that the work with her clients is definitely not a problem, as difficult as their lives might be. The most difficult challenge is working within the agency.

I was not surprised by her answer, but what she said had a sting to it. Whenever I hear this from social workers, it is always painful.

This particular social worker shared that she had worked for an administrator who was fabulous to work for; he was supportive of staff and understood their needs. After he left, his replacement was just the opposite. She found the work environment under this second administrator to be so discouraging that she decided to leave and find another job, not at all certain that she would be able to find a comparable situation, or at a similar level of compensation.

Another social worker who graduated with her masters’ degree last spring, recently shared that she felt good about her future in the profession, but she did not feel that the agency that she worked for was itself secure. She said that with tight budgets and threats of additional cuts in funding, it was unclear what would happen to her agency in the future.

With the exception of social workers employed full time in private practice, which probably accounts for no more than 12% to 15% of all social workers, most social work is carried out within organizational settings. In almost every instance, to be a social worker involves a partnership between the practitioner and the employing program.

What this illustrates is that social work is not done in a vacuum. There are the knowledge, values and skill that the professional social worker brings to work with clients, and then there is the context of the organization. Within certain limits, the quality of the work provided can only be as good as the partnership allows it to be.

In the second situation that was highlighted, the agency that the social worker spoke about was under the gun from funders and limited in what it could offer. In many respects the agency was an attractive place to work, but there was little it could do to pay a social worker even close to what her services were worth. What will happen to this agency down the road is a big question; if funding becomes even tighter, will it survive? This should concern all of us.

In the first situation, the social worker was not worried about the funding of the agency as much as the support of the administration. Here the organization went from what was characterized as a very supportive professional environment to one that was its antithesis.

In many respects, both illustrate two fundamental problems experienced in the organizations employing social workers to render sound, professional services.

When the funding is precarious, we are usually witnessing large institutional forces well beyond the capacity of the organization itself to control. The primary sources of funding are the city, state and federal governments. Managed care is also a significant of funding.

Although agencies band together to employ lobbyists to get additional funding, the outcome tends to be somewhat marginal, when they are successful at all. A primary source of the problem is large-scale politics, with there having been an enormously successful conservative movement, dating back to the 1970’s, to cut taxes so that government spending would be squeezed. Social workers, their clients, and the organizations that employ them, feel the impact of this directly.

It is a different type of situation when an organization has, somewhat within its discretion, the opportunity to provide support for professional services but does not optimize what it might provide. Aside from adequate salaries, health benefits and pension, I am referring to such things as adequate training, educationally oriented supervision (as compared to administrative oversight), case conferencing, two-way communication that reflects valuing the input of the professional in direct services, and recognition of professional judgment in making decisions.

It is essential that professional social workers be given this type of support. When the organization does not actively work to support it’s staff in these efforts, it is at bottom undermining it’s very services.

In the literature on effective business management in the last 20 years, there has been an enormous emphasis on support for staff as it relates to productivity. This is for businesses! Many human service organizations are being run in very supportive ways, but we hear too often of the opposite being the case.

As the organization that represents professional social workers, NASW-NYC has taken leadership to address the challenges posed by the squeeze on the work environment. Nevertheless, we need to re-double our efforts. We need to support lobbying efforts to assure adequate funding that ultimately supports professional practice. Also, critically important, we need to hold out expectations that supports be in place to assure that the work can be done in a professional manner.

We would like to hear from you personally. Email us at naswnyc@naswnyc.org