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

**Table 2.**

*Work settings.*

As can be seen in **Figure 2**, most social workers were rather or very satisfied with the social environment at their workplace (84%). Most social workers, 44% were rather satisfied with their work condition as well (**Figure 3**). A rather small ratio, 16% was rather unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the work conditions.

Most social workers, 92% were very satisfied or rather satisfied with the work itself, the content of the work. Only 2% were rather or very unsatisfied with the content of their work (**Figure 4**).

#### *Social Work - Perspectives on Leadership and Organisation*


#### **Table 3.**

*Theories/ideology in work with clients.*


#### **Table 4.**

*The availability and quality of relevant interventions for clients.*

And finally, nearly half of the social workers 48% were rather satisfied with their salaries. However, a considerable number of social workers, 23% were rather or very dissatisfied with their salaries. Only 9% were very satisfied with their salaries (**Figure 5**).

When the job satisfaction variables were combined into one variable, there was a significant difference regarding the role of the social workers. Social workers in all

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

**Figure 1.** *Satisfaction with management.*

**Figure 2.** *Satisfaction with social environment.*

roles had a similarly high job satisfaction, except social workers who were teaching and/or doing research. Those social workers were significantly less satisfied than social workers who were working as directors, social workers/project managers, or those who were doing counseling/therapy, F = 2.849 (df = 4), p < 0.05. The participants were asked how much stress they perceived in their job on a five-point Likert scale. Most of them thought that the stress was very much (48%) or rather much (39%). Thirteen percent thought that it was not too much and not too little, only two thought it was rather little, and nobody thought it was too little.

The participants had experienced various kinds of stress symptoms (**Table 5**). The most common were lack of energy, worries, sleep difficulties, irritation, and work anxiety. The least common symptom the participants marked was arrogance toward clients. As can be seen in the table, a rather high ratio of the social workers were experiencing health-related symptoms and/or psychosomatic symptoms such as discomfort in head or stomach. Only 12% noted that they had not experienced any workrelated stress or burnout symptoms at all. Stepwise regression was used to see if (1) marital status (single vs. cohabiting or married), (2) number of children living in the household, (3) housing (renting on the general market vs. other), (4) work area (child protection vs. other), (5) salaries, (6) years of experience, (7) job satisfaction regarding social environment, (8) job satisfaction regarding leadership, and (9) job satisfaction regarding work environment influenced number of stress symptoms. Only

**Figure 3.** *Satisfaction with work conditions.*

**Figure 4.** *Satisfaction with the content of the work.*

**Figure 5.** *Satisfaction with salaries.*

four of those variables significantly influenced number of stress symptoms; (1) job satisfaction regarding social environment, unstandardized beta = −1.328, standardized beta = −0.230, t = −3.401 (df = 255), p < 0.01. (2) social workers who worked in the area of child protection had significantly more stress symptoms, unstandardized beta = −2.520, standardized beta = −0.200, t = −3.409 (df = 254), p < 0.01, (3)

