Professionalism in Social Service Work
Social Service Workers (SSW) interact with the vulnerable people of our community. To be an effective SSW, you must build a relationship of trust with the people you support, so it is very important that you be beyond reproach by ensuring that you behave professionally at all times.
Most students believe that they know what being a professional means, but they don’t totally grasp being a professional SSW. Most students know that they need to dress neat and be polite at work but that is just the tip of the iceberg for SSWs. Just as important are your written communication skills, how you behave outside your scheduled hours, time management, organization, dealing with dual relationships, and understanding confidentiality as it relates to social service work. Social service workers are also held to the code of ethics developed by the College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. In the courses that I teach we discuss each of these areas over four semesters and provide specific SSW field related examples. In third and fourth semester, they can apply their professional practices through experiential learning in the community. It is at this point that they seem to really grasp how important professionalism is in the SSW field.
Unprofessionalism in SSW is like wearing a tuxedo jacket with shorts to a black-tie event. People are not going to remember that you arrived in a fancy car, were dressed in an expensive suit, had impeccable table manners, and danced exquisitely, they are going to remember your hairy legs. This is true of being a professional in social service work. There are several criteria to being a professional SSW you must practice all of them, not just some as you will be remembered for the ones that you did not practice.
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