Undesirable and Stressful Work Environments: An Exploration of the Reasons for Burnout in the Social Work Profession

Background and Purpose: COVID-19 has amplified stress, burnout, and turnover within the social work profession. While international research has found high levels of stress and moderate levels of burnout among social workers during COVID-19, no research to date has examined experiences of burnout among United States social workers following this pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of this mixed method study was to answer the following research questions within the context of one southeastern state: 1) To what extent are social workers in South Carolina (SC) experiencing burnout? 2) What do SC social workers view as the top reasons for burnout in their field?

Methods: Seventy social workers from SC completed an online survey following their attendance in at least one of the 12 HRSA-funded workforce resiliency trainings offered in Fall 2022. Measures included the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (Kristensen et al., 2005), Professional Quality of Life (ProQoL; Stamm, 2010), demographics, and an open-ended question asking, “In your opinion, what are the top three reasons for burnout in your professional role?” Participants self-identified as female (94%, n = 66) and male (6%, n = 4). Seventy percent of participants self-identified as White (n = 51), 23% as Black or African American (n = 16), and 1% each as Asian, American Indian or Alaskan Native, or More than one race (n = 3). Quantitative data were analyzed in SPSS. Qualitative data were analyzed in MaxQDA using a qualitative content analysis approach.

Results: On average, social workers in this study experienced moderate levels of personal and work-related burnout, and low levels of client-related burnout. Social workers’ ProQoL responses showed high levels of protective factors and low to average levels of risk factors for burnout. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that 83% of social workers in the sample overwhelmingly believed that organizational factors were the top reason for burnout in the profession. Social workers primarily noted excessive workload, salary/compensation, and work climate as some of these organizational reasons. About a third of social workers named individual (36%, n = 25; e.g., emotional exhaustion), systemic (29%, n = 20; e.g., COVID-19, workforce shortages), and interpersonal (27%, n = 19; issues with supervisors, or client-related reasons) reasons. A few social workers identified other more general factors (20% n = 14; lack of support) and family concerns (13%, n = 9; work-life balance) as contributing to burnout in the profession.

Conclusions and Implications: Despite the study limitations, social workers’ experiences and perceived causes of burnout shed light on the important role organizational culture has in contributing to the well-being of the workforce. Implications of this study related to workplace policies and programs and social worker health and well-being will be discussed.

References:

Kristensen, T.S., Borritz, M., Villadsen, E., & Christensen, K. B. (2005). The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: A new tool for the assessment of burnout. Work and Stress, 19(3), 192–207.

Stamm, B.H. (2010). The concise ProQOL manual, 2nd Ed. Pocatello, ID: ProQOL.org