Why Hong Kong social workers feel forced out
HK01 · 1 SOURCESabout 4 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A commentary by lawmaker Lam So-wai says some Hong Kong social workers are leaving despite remaining committed to their clients, because daily work has become dominated by caseload pressure, paperwork and constant availability rather than sustained support. It argues that repeated staff turnover disrupts hard-won trust with families, children and carers, while supervision and self-care measures often fail to address the structural causes of burnout.
Key Points
- The article opens with a veteran social worker resigning after years in the field, saying he still cared deeply but could no longer continue working in the same way.
- It describes long hours, interrupted meals, calls during leave and months of covering for departed colleagues while new cases, reports and meetings kept piling up.
- Lam writes that many workers spend growing amounts of time on forms, data collation, reports and messages, leaving less time to listen properly to service users.
- Staff turnover is presented as more than an internal management issue, because each handover can break fragile trust built with abused women, withdrawn youths and children affected by separation.
- The commentary says supervision can become another progress-check meeting focused on paperwork and targets, while frontline staff also see limited advancement unless they move into management.
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong readers, the piece points to a service-quality problem as much as a staffing one: when experienced social workers leave, continuity of care and client trust can weaken even if formal handovers are completed. It also suggests that improving mental-health workshops alone will not help unless agencies review caseload allocation, leave cover, on-call expectations and administrative procedures.