5 unexpected things you learned in 2020

Okay, it’s a bit of a gross one to start with, but who knew that we’d all have to run the gauntlet of being desperate for the toilet whilst undertaking ten back-to-back home visits to clients?

With offices out of bounds, cafes, pubs, and restaurants shut, and using a client’s bathroom reserved for all but the most urgent of situations, we all had to develop an encyclopaedic knowledge of the supermarkets, service stations, and essential shops that offered public toilets.

Well over a year on from the start of the first national lockdown, there is still barely a day that goes by without us having to say “your microphone is on mute (insert name here).”

If there is one thing most of us will not miss about home working, it is spending half of our meetings telling people that we can’t hear them, can’t see them, or to mute their microphone because we can hear them on the phone to somebody else.

The car is a sacred place for social workers.

It is our office, cafeteria, therapy space, break room, rubbish dump, storage cupboard, removals van, and means of transportation all in one.

Who hasn’t had a breakthrough conversation with a client while they were sitting in the passenger seat?

And we’ve all experienced the excitement of a first joint visit with our work buddy.

What we didn’t realise is that the commute to and from the office, that we always thought was a bit of a drag, was actually kind of nice. It was our time to reflect on the tasks to come, listen to audiobooks, make phone calls, and decompress after a difficult day.

Food peer pressure in social work is a serious matter and we need to raise awareness of it!

You all know for a fact that as soon as one person in the office suggests going out for lunch, we are all going to follow (or face having to sit there with our salad whilst everyone else is tucking into their Big Mac).

When that option was taken away, and we all had to eat at home, we realised just how much we were spending on all the takeout lunches, cakes, chocolate bars, and coffees that kept us fuelled.

Not so great for the town centre coffee shops and bakeries that relied on our custom though!

Let’s be honest, who hasn’t loved getting to see what their manager’s house looks like, how their service manager decorates their living room, and which of their colleagues has their own office space?

Who hasn’t rejoiced in seeing someone’s partner or child going about their lives in the background of a team meeting?

Who hasn’t marvelled at how a fellow social worker has found the energy to do their hair and put on a full face of makeup just to sit at home all day?

It will be a real shame when we no longer get to look through the keyhole, and peer into the homes of our coworkers and multi-agency colleagues, and have to go back to sitting in stale corporate council offices instead.