In my graduation thesis, I research how social workers employed at the Unit Radlje ob Dravi of the Centre for Social Work Koroška (CSD Koroška), experience their work regarding stress and burnout. I was interested in the causes of stress and burnout of social workers and how they deal with stressful situations. In addition, the aim of the graduation thesis was to research the connection of stress and burnout with the reorganization of work at social work centres and the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. In the theoretical part of the thesis, I first present stress and burnout, the factors associated with experiencing them and ways of dealing with these factors. I conclude the theoretical part with a presentation of the course and current state of the reorganization of social work centres. In the empirical part, I present the results I gathered with partially standardized interviews with six social workers at the Unit Radlje ob Dravi of the Centre for Social Work Koroška. The results of the research revealed that most social workers experience work stress and most of them have already experienced burnout. The findings show that a variety of factors contribute to experiencing stress and burnout at several levels, especially at the level of the state and the social security system. I identified most of the reasons as systemic obstacles, such as overburdening, lack of staff and bureaucratic and administrative procedures. At the same time, the results indicate that the way how an individual social worker will experience certain factors also depends on her personal traits. To help them cope with stressful situations, social workers have access to various leisure activities, support organized by an organization, good workplace relations and mutual support. The social workers experienced the reorganization of work at the Centre for Social Work regarding stress and burnout in different ways, but the related changes did not relieve them. The reorganization of work during the COVID-19 epidemic also brought some additional stress to some social workers.
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