Self-monitoring, self-blaming, self-sacrificing workers: Gendered managerialism in the non-profit sector

AFSCME's Social Worker Overload: Digital media stories, union advocacy and neoliberalism

“…(https://youtu.be/d5YG9TVNSDw: 00:45 -01.26) Belinda's statements identify the relationship among social workers, workload and risk to clients. Social workers are charged with the task of preventing harm to vulnerable populations in situations where elevated risk and needs are identified (Baines et al, 2012(Baines et al, , 2014. However, when too few resources are allocated to this kind of work, the goals of the service may get lost (Baines, 2011a;Baines et al, 2014;La Rose, 2009).…”

“…Furthermore, she presents us with an understanding of professionalized social workers as holding a particular kind of knowledge, and yet the practice is not supported with needed resources and helpful structures (Baines, 2011a;La Rose, 2009). The knowledge of social workers is not enough to motivate the employer and managerial regime to respond to the workers' demands or to structure the work in ways that are seen to actualize the best of social work (Baines et al, 2012(Baines et al, , 2014Beddoe 2013;La Rose, 2009). …”

“…They are required to engage in standardized activities in an effort to create evidence of the necessity of their work and the correctness of their actions (Baines, 2011b;Mullaly, 2009). The effect of having to do administrative work in order to justify doing the social work has detrimental effects on social workers, effects shown to be a global phenomenon (Antle et al, 2006;Baines, 2011a;Baines et al, 2009Baines et al, , 2012Baines et al, , 2014Brookfield, 2009;La Rose, 2009). …”

“…Furthermore, all social workers benefit from this production, especially, for example, when researchers like myself opt to make use of these texts to consider the plight of contemporary social workers (Boler, 2008;Kidd and Rodrı´guez, 2010;Snickars and Vondreau, 2009). The kind of public disclosure made by the workers is important as it challenges the fragmentation common in neoliberal work places (Baines et al, 2012(Baines et al, , 2014. The information these workers share is important social work knowledge that has global implications.…”

“…The social workers interchange words like 'social worker', 'union member' and 'professional' in their narratives, presenting these identity positions as complementary. This positionality challenges discourses of professionalization that preclude and marginalize the idea that professionals can also hold the identity of worker; a foreclosure that serves in part to downplay the need for labour organizing in social work (Baines, 2011b;Baines et al, 2012Baines et al, , 2014La Rose, 2009;Rosenberg and Rosenberg, 2006), a perspective challenged by AFSCME, by the workers who share their stories, and by the content of the stories themselves.…”