What can Tamara do to avoid job burnout, given the conditions in which she is working? How might she respond to her husband’s comment “Jaci and I need you here tonight”?

Question

Tamara Simms, a 32-year-old school social worker, had worked in a rural community called The Ridge for more than six years, since 1997. She was assigned a case which caught her off balance. There was something going on in the Anderson home that she couldn’t quite grasp. She had concluded from a home visit that the father was neglecting the children. The home had unsanitary conditions. Sarah Jane, a third grader, had the worst case of head lice Tamara had ever encountered and her lips were severely blistered, a condition that hadn’t healed despite treatment. Furthermore, Tamara sensed that there was something more serious going on in the Anderson home. She suspected that Mr. Anderson was involved in internet pornography and she feared he may have involved his children in some way. In spite of her “hunches” she had no clear evidence to report to Child Protective Services. As seasoned as she was, Tamara still “brought her work home” with her. Although her own family needed her, she could not stop worrying about Sarah Jane and her two siblings. Written for a bachelor’s- level capstone or integrative seminar in social work, the case may also be useful for courses in macro- or micro-level practice, diversity, or international social work. The case situation may be useful for discussion of multiple topics such as social work ethics, policy issues (including policy related to crime victims and to undocumented clients), diversity, language, agency settings, crime victimization, and professional use of self. The case also may be appropriate for MSW foundation courses dealing with these topics.

Answer 1

Tamara seems to be struggling to deal with her anxieties and to balance work and family life. One of the risks of being a social worker is the emotional drain on the helping person.
Johnny’s remarks at the beginning of the case indicate that Tamara may have been “bringing her work” home with her emotionally, if not literally in her briefcase. Johnny hints that she doesn’t really know how to “turn it off” and he indicates that he and their daughter Jaci need her to attend to her own family when she arrives home. Social workers may draw upon time-tested stress relief mechanisms to avoid burnout and to learn to leave work issues outside family life. As a mother who also works with children, she may sometimes see her own child in contrast to the children who live in The Ridge. She needs to explore what her husband may be trying to convey about his feelings that her work intrudes on their family life.
Social workers must be vigilant about safeguarding the boundaries between home life and work. Many workers have employed self-care techniques to prevent burnout and preserve their emotional and physical health. Tamara and Johnny might attend a stress management workshop together to learn new techniques for communicating about and handling her work-related stress.
At work, Tamara can utilize the supervisory process or a consultation with her social work colleagues to “talk out” her issues before she leaves her workplace. However, in this case it seems she drove straight from The Ridge to her home. Arriving home without a chance to process the case with her colleagues increases the chances that she may not be able to “turn it off” or that she might accidentally disclose something to Johnny that should be confidential.