**4. Discussion**

This study sheds light on social workers in Iceland following the COVID-19 epidemic in Iceland regarding numerous factors, mainly regarding their professional experience, but also few main factors regarding their personal life.

#### **4.1 Summary of major results and connection with related literature**

Most social workers were females, the mean age was 45 years, three-fourth were married or cohabiting, most of them living in their own home, and the average number of children living in their home (at all ages) was 2.6. The participants had work experience from few months up to 50 years, the average work experience was 13 years. Three-fourth of the social workers worked in the capital city area. The highest number of social workers, 26%, were receiving between 5.016 and 5.724 euro in monthly salaries, even though the range of salaries was from under 3.577 euro and over 7.155 euro for 100% position. There was not a significant difference between the salaries social workers were receiving in urban or rural areas. Most of the social workers were working in 100% position or 69%. However, some were working in positions from 49–99%, and others were working up to 130%.

The social workers worked in different areas and in various settings. Nearly twothirds of them (60%) worked in the social services, and most of those social workers worked in the area of child protection. Others worked in the healthcare services with physically ill or mentally ill clients, in services for older adults, special services for children, in schools, in the third sector, in other institutions, or in private practice. Most of the social workers were working as social workers, case workers, or program managers (66%), few as directors, few were providing counseling or therapy, and very few were teaching and/or conducting research. More men than women were in the role of a director. However, the difference was not significant.

The majority of the social workers were using empowerment (79%) as a theoretical background and solution-focused approach (66%). Many or from 21% and up to 27% were using cognitive behavioral approach, life cycle perspective, narrative approach, behaviorism, humanism, and Bowen. Fewer marked that they were using other approaches. Regarding reasons for interventions with their clients, the most common reason marked was "various kinds of problems" (70%), followed by psychiatric problems (65%) and alcohol or drug abuse problems (53%). When asked about how the social workers perceived the availability and quality of interventions for their clients, the largest part or one-third of them thought that the relevant intervention did exist, but that they could be better, they were difficult to receive, or there was a long wait for the interventions.

The social workers were asked about job satisfaction concerning five different factors. Most of them were rather or very satisfied with the management, social environment, the work condition, content of the work, and the salaries. However, only 9% were very satisfied with their salaries, and a little lower proportion was very unsatisfied with their salaries. Interestingly, the social workers who were teaching or doing research were less satisfied in their job compared with other social workers.

Nearly half of the social workers (48%) thought that the stress was very much in their job or rather much (39%). Thus, the majority of them or nearly 90% seemed to be working in a stressful environment. This ratio is considerable higher than results of another study showed among healthcare workers, were the ratio experiencing stress in their workplace was 70% [37]. Not surprisingly most of the social workers in this study, presented in this paper, had experienced stress symptoms (88%). The most common stress symptoms were less energy/lack of energy (59%), worries (58%), sleep difficulties (45%) a feeling of emptiness (45%), and irritation (44%). This is in part similar to the results of another study, where the most frequent stress symptoms were thinking about clients when not intending to 61%, being easily annoyed 42%, having trouble sleeping 40%, having trouble concentrating 39%, wanting to avoid working with some clients 38%, and feeling emotionally numb 36% [25]. Only 12% thought that they had not experienced any stress symptoms. The higher the number of stress symptoms, the more likely they were to be thinking of leaving their job in the near future. Sixteen percent thought it was rather or very likely that they would leave their job in the near future, which is similar to a survey conducted in China [26], but much less than found in other studies conducted in the United Kingdom [4, 10].

Four variables were predictive of stress symptoms. Child protection workers experience higher number of stress symptoms than social workers working in different areas and lower job satisfaction regarding social environment, leadership, and work condition predicted more stress symptoms. Child protection workers were experiencing the highest number of stress symptoms or on the average 8.5 compared with 5.9 among other social workers. There was not a significant difference in the mean number of stress symptoms among social workers working in urban area compared with rural areas. No connection was found between salaries and stress symptoms, as noted before, the results of former studies have been inconclusive regarding that [12, 16, 25].

A considerable number of social workers (22%) had been away from work previously because of a burnout, which is a similar ratio as in other studies [18, 32]. Age did not seem to be related to burnout. The higher the employment ratio was, the more likely the social workers were to have experienced burnout. Interestingly, child protection workers and social workers working in the psychiatric health care were not more likely to have experienced burnout than other social workers [24].

Supervision has been believed to be important in order to reduce stress symptoms and reduce the likelihood of burnout. The overwhelming majority of social workers (89.5%) had received individual supervision sometime in the past. The ratio is similar to the results of an older Icelandic study [38], and 63% had received group supervision sometime in the past. More than half of the social workers had received individual supervision during the last year prior to participating in this study. Nearly two-thirds of the social workers had been in supervision by a psychologist and 51% by a social worker. Much fewer social workers had been in supervision by other professionals. In the older study mentioned above, third of social workers had received supervision by another social worker, 53% from a social worker and another professional, and 14% from other professionals [38]. Interestingly, the social workers

#### *Social Workers in Iceland in the Pandemic: Job Satisfaction, Stress, and Burnout DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106515*

in this study, who had received supervision at any time in the past, were more likely to have experienced burnout. It is likely that they had been experiencing more stress than other social workers prior to the burnout, but that was not tested in this study. However, social workers who had been in supervision during the last year, prior to the study, were experiencing significantly fewer stress symptoms than social workers who had not been in supervision during the last year.

Regarding the pandemic and the issue of working at home, the social workers worked significantly more at home during the pandemic than before the pandemic. Three-quarter of the social workers wanted to be able to work partly at home after the pandemic, fourth of them did not want to work home at all. That ratio is even higher than the ratio of university educated professionals wanting to be able to work partly at home, according to a recent survey conducted in Iceland, where the ratio was 60% [39].

Finally, it might be noted that the participation ratio was little under 50%. Thus, it is not possible to generalize the results [36] to all social workers in Iceland. However, it is likely that nearly half of all social workers in the country participated in this study, since it is believed that nearly all social workers are registered in the social workers' reunion.

#### **4.2 Practical implications**

Social workers tend to work with clients who are likely to have experienced severe difficulties and trauma [24, 40], and the difficulties experienced by both clients and social workers have increased even more during the pandemic [30]. Since nearly 90% of the social workers who participated in this study have experienced stressrelated symptoms, and one out of five of them had been away from their job because of burnout, it is important to provide organizational support in order to reduce the likelihood of severe stress symptoms and burnout [20]. Especially since poor working environment, poor social environment, and poor leadership predicted stress symptoms. Such organizational support should provide a decent case load [25] and good working environment. In addition, supportive administration in terms of leadership and social environment is especially important in order to reduce stress [20, 26]. Relevant intervention possibilities are also important to exist, since it can be a great stress for a social worker to have a case without being able to have quick access to relevant interventions, which were lacking in most cases in this study. Finally, it is of vital importance that supportive administration provides social workers with supervision [25, 41]. Supervision should benefit the professional as well as the workplace and should emphasize empowerment, knowledge, and growth [41] as well as selfreflection. Social workers who had been in supervision the previous year before they participated in this study had indeed significantly fewer stress symptoms than other social workers, which is similar to the findings of another study [25].

The various kinds of support discussed here are of even more importance in the area of child protection, since child protection workers were found to experience more stress than social workers working in other areas. It is interesting to note that personal variables, such as number of children in the household, were not predictive of stress symptoms. Thus, even though it can be important for social workers to take good care of their health and meditate [26], it seems that it is of outmost importance for them to experience healthy and good job environment.
