I've heard it many times. Countless times over the years as I chose the field of work I would study at university and again and again after I entered that field of work and again and again as I continued studying it at university.
"Why would you want to be a social worker, they're horrible"
"Why do you want to work with youth, they're rude and disrespectful?"
"Why do would want to work in social services, they all hate their jobs?"
And I get why you think that, I thought that myself for a time, and after years in social services I realize that it is our fault you think that way. Well, sort of. Not really. You see, people think that social workers, youth workers, etc., are horrible people who hate their jobs because they have to deal with horrible people who are horrible to them because they're lead to believe it's true. But the truth is, social workers, youth workers, etc., are broken people who have a broken job and work with broken people who challenge them because we live in a broken world.
Albeit within social services, workers work with difficult people that have the power to bring out the worst in their workers, but that's just part of the job. I for one, know I am guilty in creating the stereotype the world has come to believe of social services workers. And the truth is we do it, because after a hard day, it's the easiest thing to do.
You hear us complain. You hear us talk out our ill frustrations towards the people we work with. You hear our anger. You hear our resentment. And it makes sense why you think we hate our job. Because the truth is, we do. We hate that our jobs exist. We hate that there is a job for us to go to everyday. We work because our world is broken. And so, you hear us talk about the things that are easy. Because not only is it easier for us to talk about, it's easier for you to understand.
Because looking at the swollen bruises of a young man's face, bruises that caused his eyes to be closed and bloodshot, bruises that were placed there by the young man's father, simply because he had no love for his son, aren't easy things to talk about.
Because we don't want to relive the conversation we had with the young girl who told us that a member of her family sits her down on the couch every morning and makes her watch him masturbate.
Because we want to pretend we didn't just cry for an hour with a girl, merely a child herself, who had just lost her unborn child and begged us to explain to her why god doesn't love her.
Because we don't have an explanation for the young boy who can't understand why his mom chose her abusive boyfriend over her only child.
Because no matter how many cries we pray, we still see the people we love chose drugs over salvation and watch them slowly recede before our very eyes as they turn into people we can't even recognize and we have to realize that our love isn't enough for them.
Because we love the young men who beat and abuse the women in their lives because that is the only "love" they have ever know.
Because when you hear sad stories, you think 'what a shame', and you move on. When we hear sad stories, we see faces, and we go to work and we meet with them.
Because when you hear sad stories, you think 'what a shame', and you move on. When we hear sad stories, we see faces, and we go to work and we meet with them.
So you may believe that we hate our jobs, and there are countless days we do. But sometimes the thing we hate most about our job, is how much we love it.
-m.o
-m.o