Fried Social Worker® Blog

Happy Bosses Day to all the social work supervisors out there in Fried Social Worker land! One of the nice things about having a web site is corresponding with other social workers around the globe. I get to hear the neat things they doing, but I also learn about the burdens they carry and the conditions under which they work. The biggest complaint I’ve heard through the years is unsupportive management, sometimes to the point of being abusive. Too much paperwork and unrelenting workloads are a close second. But difficult or ineffective managment is by far the biggest problem shared by other social workers whom I’ve met online.

“She’s a social worker, she shouldn’t act like that!” I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard a social worker use these or similar terms to describe their immediate supervisor. What is it that causes so many supervisors to check their ethics at the door when they receive a promotion? I wish I knew the answer to that.

So, on behalf of all the social workers who’ve shared their trials and tribulations with me over the past few years, I’d like to ask all social work managers this question: Do you treat your social work staff with the same respect and dignity you expect of them in their interactions with clients? If the answer is no, then why not?! Doesn’t the NASW Code of Ethics suggest that you should? Oh I know, some of you are going to object and say that the code isn’t prescriptive but is instead aspirational. Even so, should you disregard it when it comes to managing other social workers?

I’ll have more to say about this in another article. So stay tuned, and if you haven’t read your Code of Ethics in a while, why not spend a few moments reading it and contemplating the ways in which you can put it into action?