The school counselors’ workload : A qualitative study of school counselors’ experiences regarding their workload and strategies used to make their work manageable

The purpose of this study was to understand school counselors’ experiences regarding their workload and what was considered as the main factors that effected it. The purpose was also to understand which strategies school counselors use to endure high workload. This qualitative study is based on interviews of five school counselors in two municipalities in the south of Sweden. The result of this study has been analyzed from Lazarus (1999) theory of stress and coping. The results showed that all counselors perceived their workload as high. The workload was explained as a result of understaffing and increased ill health among students. The distress students felt regarding final grades or the changing of schools effected the students health which in turn effected the school counselors’ workload. To divide the employment between different schools also contributed to high workload. The cooperation with teachers and principals was presented as one last factor that effected school counselors’ work. When the principal took unwarranted decisions for the counselors’ assignments or when teachers was perceived as resistant to cooperate with assignments regarding students healthcare, the counselors’ workload was effected. The results show that counselors used different strategies to handle high workload. To speak up, to seek support among colleagues, to draw work-boundaries and to place more responsibility on teachers was strategies identified in this study