Social WorkerFame

Hope you didn't think a social worker career meant you worked the crowd at a corporate cocktail party. In fact, social workers are among the unsung heroes of the human services field. Your human services colleagues, and perhaps some law enforcement and medical personnel, might place you on speed-dial if they contact you a lot. In reality, however, you operate in the background...kind of like a music soundtrack you don't really notice.

There's also a second, more compelling reason you won't become a famous social worker. If you're serious about your career, you've probably joined the National Association of Social Workers, or NASW. This respected organization has approved a Code of Ethics that all social work professional members are expected to follow.

In part, the Code specifies your clients' right to privacy and respect, and details the limited circumstances under which you can release client information. In other words, you can't share the juicy details of a client conversation with your colleague Suzi at lunch. You also can't dish on a brewing client scandal to your local gossip queen, in hopes you can get your name in the paper. If you value your professional career, and have a healthy personal respect for yourself, you'll relegate any dreams of fame to your mental File 13.