Managing intense work demands: how child protection workers navigate their professional and personal lives

ABSTRACT

Child protection workers remain understudied in research on ‘frontline’ workers, even though they are often exposed to the traumatic circumstances of their clients’ lives on top of their intense workload, tight deadlines and day-to-day crisis management. Extensive evidence has shown that both clients’ needs and work demands combine to diminish child protection workers’ well-being, leading them to experience immense stress, burnout and decreased morale, ultimately compelling them to leave their jobs. Our qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews of child protection workers (N = 15) in Australia examines how child protection workers navigate their daily work and non-work lives. Analysis of the interviews revealed unique contextual characteristics about child protection workers’ professional and personal boundaries and the strategies they adopt to navigate their work and non-work roles and responsibilities. Our study’s findings call for more assistance and resources for child protection workers with implications for their managers and organisations.

KEYWORDS:

• Child protection workers
• work demands
• turnover
• work–life boundaries
• work–life strategies
• work–home resources model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Xi Wen Chan is a Lecturer in Organisational Psychology at the School of Applied Psychology in Griffith University. She received her PhD in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources from the Australian National University. She conducts research on the work–life interface of various occupations (e.g. nurses, social workers, flexible knowledge workers, and public servants) with a focus on flexible/remote working, work–life boundary management, and self-efficacy to regulate work and life.

Shea Xuejiao Fan is a Senior Lecturer in International Management at the School of Management, College of Business and Law, RMIT University. She received her PhD in Cross-Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne. She conducts research on identity dynamics in social interactions, cross-cultural management, and expatriate management, as well as international education and work-integrated learning.

Darryn Snell is an Associate Professor of Management at the School of Management, College of Business and Law, RMIT University. He conducts research on employment and skills development relating to structural adjustment, industrial transition, and regional regeneration across a range of industries such as manufacturing, agri-foods, electricity generation, cleantech, transportation and logistics, and the disability sector.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by RMIT University’s School of Management Internal Seed Grant.