Back from the Ashes of Communism: The Rebirth of the Social Work Profession in Romania

Abstract

The profession of social work in Romania was re-established in the early 1990s after being completely abolished for three decades during the communist period. This article reports findings from the first national survey of Romanian social workers, which studied characteristics of social workers and their roles, tasks and types of services provided. In addition, it explores how burnout, income and efficacy were associated with social workers’ plans for leaving the profession or country. This study used a seventy-three-item online survey tool to collect data from 1,057 social workers from across Romania using a quota sampling strategy. Romanian social workers skewed young, female and from the Romanian ethnic group. Whilst Romania has a large rural population, social workers primarily practiced in urban areas. Social workers had fairly high levels of job satisfaction and feelings of self-efficacy, and were most likely to be working in child and family protection using direct practice methods. Over one-fifth of social workers indicated they were considering leaving the field in the next two years. Those with higher incomes had lower odds that they planned to leave the field within two years, whilst those with burnout had over twice the odds they planned to leave the field.

Predictors of Burnout in Social Workers: The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Scenario for Analysis

“…Other studies show that burnout mainly affects those social work professionals with more limited work experience and public sector workers [ 38 ]. Moreover, EE is a significant factor in the decision to continue or not to pursue the profession and can, on the one hand, be a cause of the abandonment of social work, while, on the other, of high rates of job satisfaction and feelings of self-efficacy [ 39 ]. Therefore, considering previous research, it can be observed that the labor context is a determining factor in burnout [ 40 ], and it is mainly conditioned by: (a) the group with which they work, (b) work experience, and (c) labor organization.…”

Job Stress and Burnout among Social Workers in the VUCA World of COVID-19 Pandemic

“…However, 24.1% of social workers considered resignation and 33.7% professional reorientation, an aspect confirmed in the literature. A Romanian study found workplace stress was among the top reasons for considering leaving, raising awareness on the aspect of migration of qualified social workers [10]. A high turnover rate is one of the most prevalent consequences of burnout in relation to social workers [37,46,73].…”

“…The only national study on the profession of social work in Romania raised several key areas of concern, notably the low levels of pay and benefits, the lack of social workers in the heavily populated rural areas, and the high levels of burnout. Qualified Romanian social workers who are experiencing low wages and high stress have little incentive to remain practising in Romania and are amongst the largest nationalities of transnational social workers, often moving to western European nations such as the UK [10].…”

Work-Personal Life Balance among Social Workers

“…The first nationally representative research among social workers in Romania (Lazăr, Dégi, and Iovu, 2016) outlined that a large part of them consider that work keeps them away from their family for too long; however, they still manage to maintain a balance and work problems do not affect their family life so much.…”