"Det här är ju vårt arbete - att man går in i en roll liksom" En studie om socialsekreterares erfarenheter av det emotionella arbetet inom utredning barn och unga

Sammanfattning: In Sweden, the child perspective in social services has become greater and more acknowledged over the years. Today, social services have a child perspective in which the children's best always should be the main issue in an investigation. However, this also means that the social service workers must adapt to the working conditions in which they can feel compassion, anger, and sadness, all whilst keeping a professional role and a proper relationship with the client. This study builds on the interviews of eight social service workers who work with children and youngsters. The aim of the study is to analyze how this emotional labor is expressed and how social service workers act when meeting clients. In addition, the study aims to look into what purpose colleagues play in relation to managing difficult emotions. Findings show that the participants constantly work with managing their emotions as well as with maintaining a flexible and adjustable approach towards each individual client. The study also found that colleagues and the relationships between them play a crucial role in coping with a heavy workload, difficult situations, and tough clients. In the discussion, the material is related to theory and previous research. The theoretical framework is based on Hoschchilds theory on emotional labor, Goffman's theory of roles, and Korczynski's concept of “communities of coping”.