Social Workers' Collective Strategies to Mitigate the Impact of Organizational Constraints on Occupational Wellbeing

Summary In Québec, social workers face numerous psychosocial risk factors affecting their psychological health, owing to staff shortages, work overload, and lack of recognition within the context of ongoing organizational restructuring. This study uses a systemic framework of individual and collective strategies to analyze those that enable social workers to manage the psychosocial risk factors they face and stay at work. In a qualitative exploratory study conducted between 2020 and 2022, 11 semistructured interviews were conducted with social workers (8 women and 3 men) from different intervention sectors in Québec. Results The results reveal that social workers feel unrecognized in interdisciplinary teams. They are overburdened by the clerical nature of the tasks imposed, which distort their profession and affect their clinical judgment. Individual levers and strategies favored include love of the job and adaptability, self-control, prioritizing emergencies, and working overtime. Collective strategies, involving colleagues, seem to encourage social workers to stay at work. Yet the organization of work, based on a standardized vision of social practice, threatens this work collective. Applications It is important to consider the work collective as a resource that can promote wellbeing at work and retention of social workers. Establishing conditions at interpersonal and organizational levels would help prevent obstacles to the deployment of strategies that mobilize the collective. Ultimately, a systemic approach to social workers’ health protection strategies would ensure the sustainability of interventions aimed at promoting the psychological health of social workers.