Job Control

 

I was in a workshop this week for my Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) and the focus was self-care, resilience, and wellbeing. These are topics that are discussed a lot in Social Work practice, especially resilience.

One of the questions that was asked was what in your job do you have control over? My initial gut reaction was not a right lot. Until we discussed it further as a group. I found that actually we have a lot more control than I realised. When I had initially thought about it, I automatically thought about control over what happens, how long something takes or how a process is done. We definitely do not have control over those, but we do have control over the smaller level day to day things. It was mentioned about managing our own diaries, this is something I am so used to doing in different roles I have worked that I didn’t realise until I thought about it afterwards. For the Local Authority I work for that includes start and finish times because we work flexibly. If I have an appointment or somewhere I need to be I can start later or finish earlier. This is something I have definitely not had in previous roles. We also have control over our diary in a different way, I book in my visits and training courses. I can work these around what is already booked in or if something comes up that takes priority, I can move things around when appropriate to make sure nobody is left at risk.

We have control over our case load, at least in my team. We let management know when we can pick a new case up, when we feel we have capacity. At the moment being in my ASYE me and my manager also discuss the cases before they are allocated to make sure it is something either at a level, I am currently capable of or something that I would need some support with. I am never given something that is obviously out of my depth, I am giving learning opportunities and the chance to co work something more complex, but it is not forced upon me. We control when we go on our lunch break, nobody decides that we have to go at a specific time. This means that one day if I am in the middle of something and want to finish it before I go to eat I can or if I am hungry earlier, I can go eat.

I am glad that I was at this session and having these conversations because it made me appreciate that although we can’t control when people come back to us, answer the phone, or complete a task we do have some choices.

I have worked in previous roles where I work set hours which I know is pretty standard most places. I was told when I could have my breaks or lunch because I had to work around other people. My day was decided for me because of the needs of the place. In that particular role that worked and was the way it had to be, but I think that in Social Work by giving us that little bit more freedom it makes us better practitioners.

It allows me to finish that bit earlier because I am exhausted and know that anything I produce will not be up to standard or start earlier in the morning because I was already awake and might as well. This is something I had not appreciated until I was involved in this discussion and I am really glad that I was.