Stress and occupational burnout of social workers as a challenge of education for social work

Abstract

Stress and burnout are one of the main risks in the workplace. It is a serious problem not only for the individuals affected, but also for organizations and society as a whole, and in the case of social workers also for relations with beneficiaries. Every third social worker in Poland employed in a social welfare institution shows all symptoms of occupational burnout and every third moderate level of occupational burnout. The phenomenon of burnout is one of the greatest threats that professionally active people have to face in the 21st century, it is gaining strength like a virus, spreading faster, the more disappointment, alienation and even anger accompany an employee, so it seems important to look at resistance to stress and coping from the perspective of minimizing the impact of stress and counteracting burnout. The proposed article is a theoretical reflection on stress and burnout, with particular emphasis on the importance of coping when performing the profession of a social worker. At the same time, it points to the need to include “coping with stress” in the set of basic skills and the obligation to educate within this scope at the level of acquiring qualifications and training.