Surviving Being a Helping Professional
What Makes These Jobs Hard and How to Stay Motivated to Make a Difference
When we are young and dreaming about what we want to do with our lives, many of us dream of being able to help others, or making the world a better place. We might even get into politics, teaching, nursing, law, psychology, and other social sciences when we choose a major; shout out to Mesa Community College for brightening up the Dobson and Southern area with these lovely pillars. A lot of people in these fields are bright, hardworking, and good-hearted, but unfortunately, they get burned out. You might wonder, “What does it take to survive working to make a difference in the world?”
First, what causes people in these fields to give up? The work environment certainly makes an impact, where many are underpaid, expected to work long hours, take out large student loans for advanced degrees to even get decent employment. We all need to get our basic needs met, and while meaningful work is valuable, it doesn’t feel as valuable when you struggle to pay rent and barely have energy to enjoy life outside of work.
Then, many people in these helping professions eventually realize that no matter how much effort they put into improving the lives of people who seek them out, there are large systemic problems that get in the way. It can make one feel powerless and hopeless. If all of that suffering to even be in these jobs doesn’t result in being able to actually help, then what was the point?
The world clearly needs people working in these world-bettering professions. So how do we help reduce the hardships of these roles?
Systemically, different policies enacted locally, state-wide, and federally, make an impact. It might seem small at the time, but any policy changes that increases access to support for the general population, and helps to meet everyone’s basic needs, reduces the toll on those in helping roles. They wouldn’t feel the burden to save everyone as heavily when society picks up the slack.
Beyond policies, even individual efforts to help each other out and take care of one another reduces how much people look to helping professions for support. Charities, volunteer work, and donating, all help the community function. Even just being a friend or a kind neighbor helps, because people suffer when they don’t have others to depend on.
Many people lack a friend to help them move. A lot of people don’t have someone to make them soup when they are too sick to get out of bed. This isn’t usually out of their own lack of trying, they might not have supportive family to help, and are struggling to just make ends meet. They don’t have a neighbor to babysit their kids when a family member needs to go to the hospital. Some are isolated and just need someone to check in and ask how they are doing in the months after their spouse died. Doing these simple acts of kindness make a huge difference for people in need, in a way that services, policies, and professionals just can’t effectively replace.
If you are a person in one of these fields, you might wonder, “Well, sure these would be nice, but what can I do to help myself in the meantime?” Don’t overwork trying to get everything done, because the work will never get done in these fields, there will always be more waiting for you. Ask for help! When we are so used to helping others, we can avoid asking for support, but we need it.
Then there is recognizing the small ways that you are actually making a difference. All of the societal and systemic problems are interwoven. So whatever thread your work is pulling at, it is helping to make that interwoven cloth of problems unravel. Just like inter-generational trauma has impacts far beyond itself, so does healing. As one generation is slightly more supported, the next is less burdened, and society as a whole heals.
