I'm a licensed clinical social worker.

Anonymous

April 2,2023 at 5:18PM UTC

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I'm a licensed clinical social worker. Two months ago, I started a new job (in-person) as an Assistant Director at a small group practice. This is my first job with supervisory responsibilities and I love the work and have a great team and a great manager. I'm getting good feedback so far from my manager. I have a small caseload and my responsibilities include supervising the other clinicians and reviewing and signing off on their notes I have other administrative responsibilities as well such as checking insurance and intakes. The issue is I'm working 11-12 hour days, 5 days a week and I know this is not sustainable. I feel as though I'm headed for early burnout. I would appreciate any thoughts and/or comments on how to better make this job more manageable. Thanks.

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AnonymousApril 2,2023 at 6:40PM UTC
Does this feel like something that's a matter of not being fast enough yet or is it simply too much work for one person to reasonably do in a standard workweek? Does everyone work 60-hr weeks? Did your predecessor do a crap job or work 60-hr weeks to get everything done? These are all questions that will help you determine the best next steps.
Options: if you're just not as fast yet as you need to be, consider if everything really needs to be done as often as it is (or at all - you'd be surprised what you might be able to dump when you track down the why behind each task). If there is any training that might help you get faster, look for it and get your office to pay for it.
If it's been "usual" for people to work lots of extra hours, write a job description for an assistant to pitch to the practice or look into outsourcing some of the specific parts that are repetitive and time-consuming (insurance billing, transcription, scheduling - whatever tasks are pretty generic and can be done by a specialty org). Lots of assistant services out there in the patient care space to free up providers for the things only they can do.
At the end of the day, it's not reasonable to expect you to work 60-hr weeks indefinitely and if that's a condition of employment, you may need to look for a different practice.
Reb562April 2,2023 at 7:43PM UTC
Have you checked others workload and delegated some of your responsibilities?
AnonymousApril 3,2023 at 3:26PM UTC
It is time for a discussion with your manager about your caseload. Can it be reduced to just one or two critical and visible cases? How many hours are the other social workers working? In discussion with your manager, ask if there are ways to streamline the administrative work. They may have some practical and efficient processes that remain thorough.
Rebecca Gale-GonzalezApril 4,2023 at 12:29PM UTC
Delegate. Prioritize. Become more efficient. Is there anything that be spread among the other case workers? What is it you are doing that can be done differently or streamlined? Is there anything that you can eliminate and still fulfill the obligation and requirements? Think outside the box. Share your ideas, solutions with your manager, along with the statement that its not sustainable to expect someone to sustain 11 hour days for any length of time...a four day week is usually only 10 hrs a day. It's pretty cut and dry in terms of that. Might they afford you an assistant?
AyianApril 4,2023 at 2:20PM UTC
I second this - can they hire an assistant? Some of the things I heard were not necessarily supervisory tasks. It's not reasonable to go for 60 hour weeks more than once or twice a year in a real pinch.
Tina GeeApril 4,2023 at 12:31PM UTC
I'm also a LCSW and have a similar role. Was in this situation about a year ago. I let my boss know that my situation was unsustainable. We agreed I'd no longer accept new clients, so as clients terminated, they would not be replaced. I also discontinued scheduling clients after 4pm or between noon and 1pm and set stricter boundaries on after hours phone calls and taking on extra intakes. I also identified one staff member who requires less frequent supervisions. Thankfully, I was listened to, and things improved. Being assertive helped.