The pressure of objectives and reality: Social workers’ perceptions of their occupational complexities in a trade journal in 1958–1999

Abstract

This article studies social workers’ occupational discussions on the complexities of their work in a Finnish social workers’ trade union journal in 1958–1999. The journal illustrates the flip side of social work; the quest for professionalization, the struggle for fair pay, and social workers’ perceptions of their occupational status and job dissatisfaction. We traced the significant turning points in their difficulties and challenges at work and identified the junctures at which the major occupational difficulties came to the surface, transformed and received an established position in the professional mindset. The four junctures identified are: the making of the profession (1958–1968), the politicization of social work and working conditions (1974–1981), a heightened awareness of work pressures (1982–1990), and the social work crisis (1991–1999). Our analysis leads to the conclusion that job complexities at work were related to the transformations in welfare policy and ideology. The historical periodization of the occupational complexities indicates that social workers collectively reasserted the profession of social work and its institutional boundaries into a broader rubric of the demands brought about by changing society and the development of the Nordic welfare state.