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The secret life of a social worker: you just have to get used to letting people down
The poverty we encounter these days is the worst we’ve seen– it’s a race to persuade everyone to pull together to keep our families afloat
There is no humour quite like that found in a social work office. It is dark, inappropriate, and completely necessary in order to survive the grind. Our desk is awash with sugar, caffeine and good intentions. The long hours and fluctuating stress levels are a nightmare for eating regularly, and many people coast along on a diet of biscuits, fizzy drinks and an endless round of birthday cakes. It helps though after yet another urgent call-out, on top of a court appearance you didn’t expect that day, to know you can eat something from the filing cabinet and then decide conspiratorially with your workmates whether you’ll bother logging it on whatever weight management app is doing the rounds.