Social Work. Ah yes.
How could this blog not have a page about my profession?
I love this job. Really. Although there are really many sucky times, there are also many million dollar moments. 
It’s a job that really forces me to think about life, about myself, about this world, about God, about finances, about meaning, about suffering, about goodness, about everything.
For those of you guys who don’t know yet, social work is NOT:
1) Psychology
2) Sociology
3) Volunteer work
4) NKF
even though we are very related I must say. Not to NKF.
We are professionals, and we go through training. I’ve heard some people say after they hear that we had to do a degree course to be a social worker: ‘Oh. really must get training wan arh.’
Yeap. If you want some proof, ask any social worker to tell you something you didn’t already know about human beings. You’d probably be surprised at the stuff they’d be able to share with you.
And so yes, we do draw a salary, we do have office hours, we do have boundaries for ourselves. No, we are not volunteers, we may not necessarily be patient people, we are not angels, and we are not on call 24/7.
____________________________________________
So you know you’re a social worker when……..
1. You think earning $3,000 a month is ‘really making it’.
2. You don’t know what it’s like to work with men.
3. You know all the latest lingo for inhalant abuse, tattoos and gangs.
4. You’ve often start a sentence with ‘So what I hear you saying is…’
5. You’ve had 2 or more jobs at one time just to pay the bills.
6. You tell people what you do and they say ‘that’s so noble’, ‘you must be very patient..’
7. You have had to explain to people that social workers are not volunteers.
8. You use the words ‘validate,’ ‘assess’ and ‘intervention’ daily.
9. You spend more than half your day documenting and doing paperwork. (In other words, you spend 1 hr doing work and 3 hrs proving to the authorities you did it)
10. You think nothing of discussing child abuse or sexual violence over dinner.
11. People have said to you ‘I don’t know how you do what you do’.
12. You’ve never been on a business trip or had an expense account.
13. You know a lot of other social workers who have left the profession for another, mostly in less than 2 years of being in the profession.
14. You’re very familiar with the concept of “conflict resolution”, “intake assessment” and “financial assistance”.
15. Staying at a job for 2 years is ‘a long time’.
16. Your phone number is unlisted for a good reason.
17. Your professional newsletters always have articles about raising salaries…but you still haven’t seen it.
18. You’re very VERY familiar with the term ‘save cost’, ‘cut cost’.
19. You can’t imagine working at a bank or crunching numbers all day.
20. You’ve had clients who liked you just a little too much.
21. Having dinner in office is common on many days.
22. You’ve been cursed at or threatened…and it doesn’t bother you.
23. Your job orientation has included self defense.
24. You have the best stories at any class reunion gathering or during Chinese New Year.
25. Your parents don’t know half of the stuff that you’ve dealt with at your job.. but they always think they’ve seen more than you…
plice
December 4, 2009
hey liren! your list needs the heading ‘so you know you are a social worker when…’ i think it got lost during your transition to wordpress!! -fxk
z
January 15, 2010
hello liren! nice blog u have here! i also need to keep mine going! it shall be one of my focus this new year too!
cheers!
Z
Vin
May 9, 2010
Hi Liren! I chance upon your blog after your posting of “Sensitivity, please”. You write very well, insightful and interesting, with a pinch of humour. I enjoyed reading your blog! Looking forward to read more! I’m a social worker too, and can certainly relate to the 25points above! Haha.
tayliren
May 9, 2010
Hi Alvin! Certainly very nice to see your comment. Thanks for the affirmation. I think I write okay; but my ‘style’ of writing is quite fixed. Would love to learn other ways of writing better though.
Btw, social workers are just awesome. Which agency are you at?
Elaine
February 23, 2011
Nice one Liren, just chanced upon your website
Keep it up!
Lawrence
November 23, 2011
Thanks for the entertaining and very true thoughts. Oh, maybe you forgot to mention too: Social Work is not Counselling. Counselling and Social Work is two separate distinct and different field, look at the Social Service sector in UK, US, Hong Kong etc, and one will get the idea. In Singapore we tend to associate social work and counselling together.