The Attitudes of Helping Professionals in Public Administration toward Stressful Situations

Gabriela Beníšková, Monika Punová

Abstract:
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this theoretical paper is to answer the question: “What is the attitude held by helping professionals and their superiors toward the stressful situations they face?” THEORETICAL BASE: The issue is viewed from the perspective of stress and attitude theories in the context of public administration. METHODS: The research was carried out using a qualitative strategy. To answer the question, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight helping professionals and their six superiors in public administration. OUTCOMES: The results of empirical research have shown that workers regard stress as a natural part of their profession. They try to react to it in an active way, but if they consider a situation unsolvable, they resort to the expression of stronger emotions. SOCIAL WORK IMPLICATIONS: We believe that more attention needs to be paid to caring for the needs and well-being of workers in public administration. This can be done, for example, through supervision. Through this, we recommend reflecting more deeply on the topic of professional borders in relation to clients and on the area of personal and professional development. At the same time, we recommend putting emphasis on developing the issue of worker resilience in stressful situations so that workers can succeed in both professional and personal levels.

Keywords:
public administration, helping profession, social work, workload, stress, attitude