Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare hanterar de yrkesmässiga kraven på att vara både empatiska och objektiva i klientnära arbete. Målet med uppsatsen var även att ge insikt i hur empati och objektivitet används i arbetet med klienter. Det empiriska materialet samlades in genom åtta intervjuer som genomfördes med socialsekreterare i två kommuner i Mellansverige. Empirin bearbetades genom en fenomenografisk analysmodell för att tematisera resultatet utifrån forskningsfrågorna. Resultatet analyserades med stöd i rollteori, kommunikationsteori och humanistisk praktik. I resultatet framkom det att empati är betydelsefullt för yrkesutövningen och att det främst används för att skapa och vidmakthålla relationer till klienterna. Dessutom visade resultatet att objektivitet används i beslutsfattandet och myndighetsutövningen och att den ofta påverkas och säkerställs av kollegorna på arbetsplatsen. Det framkom även i resultatet att det är möjligt att kombinera ett empatiskt förhållningssätt med att vara objektiv genom att ha en myndighetsdistans mellan socialarbetaren och klienten. Resultatdiskussionen fokuserades kring de centrala delarna i resultatet och hur vi tolkat dessa. Metoddiskussionen fördes kring för- och nackdelar gällande vald metod fram i syfte att stärka studiens trovärdighet och tillförlitlighet. En slutsats som framfördes var att empati används som verktyg för ett specifikt ändamål, nämligen byggandet av klientrelationer. En annan slutsats som framkom var att socialsekreterarna strävar efter att vara objektiva men att det inte alltid är möjligt. / The purpose of the studies was to investigate how social workers handle the professional demands of being both empathetic and objective in client-related work. The goal of the essay was to provide insight and a deeper understanding of the use and importance of empathy and objectivity in working with clients. The empirical material was collected through interviews conducted with social workers in two municipalities in Central Sweden. The empirical work was processed through a phenomenographic analysis model to thematize the results based on research questions. The result was analyzed with support in role theory, communication theory and humanistic practice. The results showed that empathy is important for professional practice and that it is primarily used to create and maintain relationships with clients. In addition, the result showed that objectivity is used in decision-making and exercise of public authority, and that it is often influenced and ensured by colleagues in the workplace. It also emerged in the results that it is possible to combine an empathic approach with being objective by having an authority distance between the social worker and the client. The results-discussion focuses on the central parts of the results and how we interpret them, and in the method discussion the pros and cons of the selected method were brought forward in order to strengthen the credibility and reliability of the study. One conclusion that was put forward was that empathy is used as a tool for a specific purpose, namely the building of client relationships. Another conclusion that emerged was that the social workers strive to be objective but that this is not always possible.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka om socialsekreterare som arbetar med barn och unga inom socialtjänsten upplever att kvaliteten i det klientnära arbetet påverkas av reducerad arbetstid samt om det ser olika ut beroende på erfarenheten inom yrket. Teorier om balans mellan arbets- och privatliv, handlingskompetensens utveckling samt evidensbaserad praktik har använts för att förstå det insamlade materialet. Studien genomfördes genom en webbaserad enkät som skickades ut till enhetschefer inom socialtjänstens enhet för barn och unga i fyra olika svenska kommuner. Enkäten vidarebefordrades till 103 medarbetare varav 34 av dessa svarade. Materialet har analyserats genom univariat och bivariat analys och redovisats genomtabeller, figurer och text. Resultatet visade inget som tyder på att yrkeserfarenhetens längd hos socialsekreterare påverkar upplevelsen av kvalitet i det klientnära arbetet. Resultatet visade även att majoriteten av socialsekreterarna upplevde sig nöjda med kvaliteten gentemot sina klienter samt att de i stor utsträckning hinner med sina tilldelade ärenden inom utsatt tid, oavsett om socialsekreterarna omfattades av arbetstidsförkortning eller inte. Det enda i studiens resultat som tydde på ett samband i upplevelsen av kvalitet i det klientnära arbetet var gällande barnsamtal där socialsekreterarna med arbetstidsförkortning i högre grad ansåg att arbetstiden var tillräcklig för att uppnå god kvalitet i detta arbetsmoment. Slutsatsen var att det verkar finnas ett visst samband mellan socialsekreterare som har arbetstidsförkortning och upplevelsen av att tiden räcker till för att uppnå god kvalitet i barnsamtal samt att arbetstidsförkortningen till syneshar god effekt på socialsekreterare och deras arbetssituation. / The purpose of this essay was to examine whether social workers who work with children and young people in the social services feel that the quality of the client-oriented work is affected by reduced working hours and if it looks different depending on the experience in the profession. Theories of work-life balance, the development of action competence and evidencebased practice have been used to understand the collected material. The study was conducted through a web-based questionnaire that was sent out to unit managers in the social services unit for children and young people in four different Swedish municipalities. The questionnaire was forwarded to 103 employees, of which 34 responded. The material has been analyzed through univariate and bivariate analysis and presented through tables, figures and text. The results showed nothing to indicate that the length of professional experience of social workers affects the experience of quality in the client-oriented work. The results also showed that the majority of the social workers felt satisfied with the quality of their work towards their clients and that they to a large extent had time to do their assigned cases within the set time, regardless of whether the social workers had a reduction in working hours or not. The only thing in the study's results that indicated a correlation in the experience of quality in the client-oriented work was regarding child conversations where the social workers with reduced working hours found to a greater extent considered that the working hours were sufficient to achieve good quality in this task. The conclusion was that there seems to be a definite correlation between social workers who have reduced working hours and the experience that there is enough time to achieve good quality in child conversations and that the shortening of working hours seems to have a good effect on social workers and their work situation.

The diploma thesis "Social worker in youth drop-in centres / services" in the theoretical part delineates borders of the field ,,drop-in service" and describes the importance of contact workers in terms of reaching the true sense of the youth drop-in service. In the practical part it answers the research question: "Which positive and negative factors influence motivation for remaining in this field?" The answer has been found using open coding analytical tool of the Strauss and Corbin's Grounded Theory in responses of (the representative sample of) ten social workers, which have been active in youth drop-in service longer than two years. The important output from the practical part of the diploma thesis is the finding that there are many motivation factors, which can be influenced by social workers themselves or by their direct and/or indirect superiors. Final part of the diploma thesis presents the list of factors. They are classified from the point of view "we can/cannot do something with it". There is also recommendation for supporting the motivation of the social workers to remain in the youth drop-in services, especially by weakening negative factors and strengthening the positive ones.