I've worked in social care before, specifically for adults with learning disabilities and it's always been a high risk low pay job. I understand that the nature of the job involves being hit or grabbed sometimes, but at a certain point it is too extreme.
I lasted just over 3 months at my most recent job at a day centre before I broke down and quit on the spot. Within that time, I'd been hit, punched, scratched, bitten and had my hair pulled countless times and on one occasion, even been strangled. It was technically possible to report these incidents, but good luck finding time or accessing management to discuss it. We were so understaffed it was almost impossible to reach them during working hours.
I was terrified of going to work, and I brought these concerns up with management whenever I could, but was often dismissed with “thats just the nature of the job” or “the only way to become more confident is to just do it”. The worst of this was after a particularly brutal attack where I was unexpectedly punched in the face, had my hair grabbed and ragged down and had someone bite my head before other staff could remove them. I had not received safety intervention training at this point and it was treated as a “it is how it is” situation. Even having me work with this person after my training despite me being very upfront with being absolutely terrified.
We didn't have breaks. We ate with the people we supported at lunch, but all day, I was with them. My anxiety got to the point where I was petrified of going to work and struggling to sleep knowing I'd have to go the next morning and do it all again. On several occasions, I vomited at work due to this fear and every single time, management would at some point come in to the toilet and pressure me to go back to work while I was being sick. The worst one was management saying “we really need you to go back reserve staff are needed” all while I'm throwing up. Management are trained just like support staff are, but were unwilling to go in my place despite me being unfit to work.
Altogether I had 4 sick days. 2 from anxiety induced vomiting at work (I worked after vomiting multiple times due to pressure) and 2 from a seasonal flu. I was called in to a meeting over my absences with a manager who smugly told me I had more days off in 3 months than she had in 10 years. She worked in the safety of an office sat down behind a laptop, if I had her job, I probably could have gone in with the flu, it wasn't as physically demanding as actual support. She tried to catch me out, asking how I recovered in only 2 days if it wasnt so bad, as if I didn't come in still feeling unwell because of her pressure on me.
I was paid £10 an hour for this. I'm glad I quit. I don't regret it at all and I know I'll need a new job and thats going to be hard but I will never ever work in social care again. Staff are paid little and expected to endure and ignore physical abuse. Management offered basically no support and continued to take on more service users despite already being understaffed.
I hate how its justified to treat staff as though they are expendable and take no responsibility for their wellbeing in an inherently high risk environment. Being paid less than most retail jobs by a company thats yearly revenue was nearly 4 million pounds is an insult.
If I could, I'd never work again.