Professional burnout of social work experts under the conditions of the marital law

Abstract

The article examines one of the acute problems in the activities of social work specialists - the syndrome of professional burnout. Attention is focused on determining its negative consequences for the personality of the specialist, organization and clients of social work. The increase in the manifestations of burnout under the influence of a complex of external factors is substantiated (a large flow of new obligations, information and action algorithms that change, an increase in the number of clients, work under constant stress and fear for one's own life and the lives of loved ones, etc.). Based on the analysis of the results of the empirical research (structured interviews conducted with heads of social services, public organizations and charitable foundations within the scientific topic of the Department of Sociology of Management and Social Work of Kharkiv National University named after V. N. Karazin «Actual directions of management of social services»), the characteristics of the manifestations of the syndrome of professional burnout of social workers during the period of martial law in Ukraine are determined: 1) increased workload on employees, 2) psychological overload, 3) increased stress due to military actions, 4) decreased motivation. The authors of the article consider the methods and programs of prevention and overcoming the negative consequences of the syndrome of professional burnout of specialists as a component of the organization's management and the manager's managerial task. Common practices for preventing emotional burnout in organizations are analyzed: supervision, self-management skills, stress resistance and recovery after psychological shocks, etc. By applying the method of content analysis of the materials of the public organizations sites, programs and projects aimed at providing assistance to specialists in social work were characterized.
The article concludes about the need to develop own special programs in organizations and use external resources to provide the necessary support, training and preservation of the health and emotional balance of specialists, which should remain a priority task for the manager.