Self-Care in Public and Community Sector Workplaces

ABSTRACT

Key aspects of modern public service and community workplaces associated with significant levels of distress are identified. This includes the transformation of public sector and community agencies under the aegis of new public management (NPM). Using a child protection case study, it is argued that NPM ethos generates stressful workplaces and “uncomfortable knowledge” adding pressure to a system already in crisis. It is also argued that while there is value in self-care practices like debriefing, “boundary maintenance,” and “work-life balance,” one critical aspect of self-care associated with the virtue ethics tradition is missing. This gap in the literature and practice needs attention.

KEYWORDS:

• Community and public sector
• self-care
• uncomfortable knowledge
• virtue ethics

Notes

¹ The need for self-care is not exclusive to NPM and neo-liberal workplaces. Many traditional organizations (e.g., churches, the military, and pre-neo-liberal bureaucracies) generated burnout and considerable “uncomfortable knowledge.”

² For example, cultivating virtues like courage, honesty, self control, critical thinking, generosity, forethought, and commitment to justice, loyalty etc.