| Abstract [eng] |
Social relevance of the topic. The speed of the globalisation process, the pace of work and the constant competitive environment are increasingly forcing to discuss about stress, stress at work and its impact on a person. Work-related stress is an important problem for all workers. Psychosocial risk that is associated with stress at work includes workers‘ safety and health problems. In any work, stress causes not only health problems, but also burnout, which affects the quality, productivity and efficiency of work. The greatest emotional burden at work lies with social workers working with the elderly and people with disabilities. In 2019, the number of services provided by social workers to people with disabilities increased from 3072 to 4420 (increase of 43.9%) compared to 2018. Although social workers help clients overcome various difficulties, they make customer assessments of their health status, social environment, autonomy. However, only a small percentage of workers take care of their health. Scientific sources describe the concept of stress differently: threat, challenge or collision with very unpleasant situations, and events that make it difficult for a person to come to terms with or accept them, which worsens his quality of life. All such irritants are called stressors, which are different for each person, because everyone reacts differently to the situation and accepts it differently – subjectively. However, the effect of stressors on a person is also different: it motivates ones, and the others are demotivated. However, there is less discussion on the stress of social work. Social work is multifaceted, and social workers often work with different heterogeneous groups, which requires more not only knowledge, time costs, but also able to reorient the current situation, constantly to changing working conditions and policies. A social worker who does not always work in an environment that is favourable to him, his work is subject to high requirements, sometimes unfavorable attitudes of customers and his environment and so on. All this causes unpleasant experiences, and some stress. Social work is emotionally debilitating, putting social workers at high risk not only of stress but also of burnout. It is also one of the consequences of stress at social work. Social work is tedious and responsible, the workloads are high, there are various stressful situations. Stressful situations cause burnout syndrome. The choice of the social worker's working group affects his job satisfaction. The work is done qualitatively and less stress is experienced. However, working with vulnerable groups is emotionally difficult, especially, for people with disabilities and the elderly. |
