and reach thousands of daily visitors
1 MARCH 2010
NO 1548
Job satisfaction
Workers enter the field of Child and Youth Care with a variety of motivations. For the most part they are dedicated, concerned persons who wish to offer themselves and their resources to assist children in their development and rehabilitation. Dedication, concern, and idealism are essential for all caring work. In fact, these qualities may be a source of the motivation and energy needed for difficult caring tasks (VanderVen, 1979). Concerned Child and Youth Care workers support the growth of each child from their own resources and talents. However, there is an inescapable stress-producing conflict between the worker's commitment to give and the reality that frequently one cannot give enough. Each person's emotional resources are limited. The refreshment provided by family, friends, colleagues, and personal interests are often insufficient. This conflict is a particular hazard for the beginning worker but one with which all caring persons struggle throughout their careers.
The idealism and dedication characterizing the decision to engage in caring work are severely challenged by numerous physical and psychological assaults on well-being and self-esteem. Upon entering the field, workers usually perceive themselves as concerned and helpful persons whom clients and society will value. By way of contrast, workers are often confronted by assaultive youth, messy and aggressive children, and ungrateful families. The nobility of caring work turns out to be a myth. Successful workers develop a personal durability as they integrate the idealistic view of caring for children with the everyday realities. However, no matter how skilled and sophisticated the worker, a kick in the shins, broken glasses, an insult or a child's lack of progress are all assaults on self-esteem that threaten workers' perceptions of their helping ability.
Experiences that enhance workers' sense of effectiveness are quite random and inconsistent. In many instances they cannot remain involved with a child for a sufficient period to see productive growth and the resolution of major difficulties. The limitations imposed by agency structure or funding sources, special client needs, and changes in family circumstances or attitudes may result in termination of the worker-client relationship. Perhaps a seed has been planted that will bear fruit in the future, but perhaps not. The worker has been interrupted in the middle of something and is denied the rewards of experiencing a job well done.
Many Child and Youth Care workers still lack the professional knowledge that would allow them to assess the effectiveness of their everyday practice. Supervision is frequently rendered by persons neither skilled in Child and Youth Care nor readily available. Much supervision, if it exists at all, is almost exclusively problem- or deficit-focused. Colleagues may also be unable or unwilling to provide feedback on the quality of work. This problem is likely to be especially severe for supervisors and service administrators. Thus workers are commonly left without a realistic evaluation of the quality of their work.
MARTHA A. MATTINGLEY
Mattingley, M.A. (2006).
Managing occupational stress for group care personnel. In Fulcher, L.C.
and Ainsworth, F. (Eds.). Group Care Practice with Children and
Young People Revisited. New York, London. The Haworth Press. pp.
214-215.
REFERENCE
VanderVen, K. (1979). Developmental characteristics of
child care workers and design of training programs. Child Care
Quarterly, 8, 2. pp. 100-112.
