Ahhhhhh is it really worth it... Thank god it is Friday.
Rant...begins..When we take into account the cost of paying for our quals. In my instance approx 28k to become registered to practice. The emotional strain and damage to our own health and the massive risks of working in a very, very pressurised environment where serious decisions are made about (In my instance Children and Families) and considering the affect of wrong decisions on our own lives and futures if things go wrong.....Why are we paid such crap salleries. There are those who say but we do it for the love.....to those id say...give me your salary if the money does not matter you ego maniacs. I have worked my private parts off for the 12 months (like most of my colleagues) had to make aweful but necessary decisions for familes... and when I think its ok, I ll get my incremental scale increase soon as I have been in ost for the year and think I deserve a pay rise...the inland revenue W****** reduce my tax code and the pay rise I should have had is now lost...........so I have to wait untill April 2012 to claim it back...
Even flippin worse.....Housing Officers appear to get paid more than Social Workers....what's that all about...or does this show the underpinning message of true capitalist intention, the real value is property and not people? How can the risks faced by housing officers outweigh those experienced by Social Workers.... This is madnessssssssssss
Seriously I do love my job and work with very dedicated people who are supportive and I dont want to leave. I know its not ALL about money but bloody hell...would someone in government / or a position of Authority recognise this and pay up instead of placating social workers with lip service.
Rant ends....
1978 revisited. We had been campaigning politely for regrading for ten years without success, and finally pushed our trade unions to ballot for strike action. Three days before the ballot, the council I worked for had the crass stupidity to regrade housing officers several grades above us, leaving us and librarians on the bottom of the professional scale. (I've nothing against librarians, but showing old ladies where to find the latest racy blockbuster does not quite compare with deciding if a child needs to be removed from their family.) At that time, there was no way a basic grade social worker could afford to buy a house in London, and most people either sought promotion or moved away within two years of qualifying.
So we ended up going on strike for six months. It was a bit of a nightmare (well, OK, some of it was quite fun in a bizarre kind of way, 24 hour picketing around braziers in the snow, cutting off the town hall's supplies of heating oil and computer paper when we were able to persuade lorry drivers not to cross our picket line.) We got limited support from the Unions (apart from strike pay, which I guess made up for everything else) and none at all from BASW, who implied that we were being unprofessional (hence I never joined, and never have, and would advise everyone to think twice about their idea of a "union.")
So, maybe that isn't the way to go again. But there comes a time when individuals being caring and dedicated means that overall the profession suffers, when people leave their jobs so the turnover is way too high for stability, and those left become overstressed and frustrated with being under-valued, so they get sick... And so it goes on.