Varför stannar socialsekreterare kvar? En kvalitativ studie om hur erfarna socialsekreterare hanterar arbetsrelaterad stress och vad som får dem att stanna kvar.

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to provide a further understanding about how experienced social service workers who exercise public authority manage work-related stress and what makes them remain in the field despite the fact that it is a demanding job. The research method used was qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven social workers that have been working within the Swedish social services for at least five years. The collected data was analyzed through Antonovsky’s theoretical concept “sense of coherence” and Hirschman’s concepts of “voice” and “loyalty”. The main findings of this study were that social workers mainly used two types of strategies to reduce stress in the workplace: (1) to create structure both as an internal and external process and, (2) to seek support, both emotional and practical, from colleagues, supervisors or other human resources. Another finding was that stress can have both advantageous and disadvantageous effects on social workers depending on their perception of stress. Some social workers associated stress with negative feelings making it more difficult to perform at work, while others seemed to associate it with increased productivity and performance. Furthermore, it was found that having a sense of purpose and meaning at work was an important factor in the social workers’ desire to remain in the field.