“Don’t take your work home with you”, has been a repeated phrase from my professors in Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences. Each has a plethora of case studies and their stories: nights spent with notes sprawled out around tables, transcribing each client's speech with the phonetic alphabet, checking scans obsessively for any clue to what they were dealing with. 

            Hypocrites

            Each professor has the same story of how they stayed up all night in pursuit of an answer and a subsequent solution. One repeats her client’s phrases for hours in an attempt to figure out their articulation errors, another listens to therapy session recordings on repeat, and my research director has stayed up for hours trying to program our current software for lateralization detection. 

            We’ve all seen the trope of the doctor hunched over some old-ass textbook, surrounded by coffee cups, barely maintaining their consciousness. Finally, the answer pops out of the page and it’s like it was such an obvious answer the whole time. Then they’re the hero who gets to triumphantly show off their efforts. Yet, here I was, sitting in front of SLPs, AuDs, and PhDs who’ve all gone through that process and were telling me, “don’t do that”. 

            Speech and Language Pathologists(SLPs) report that they feel overworked in multiple settings. ASHA, the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, reports the average monthly caseload to fall somewhere between 31 and 64. Most full-time SLPs report an average of 48 clients a month.  One SLP I interviewed my sophomore year told me that she was in charge of overseeing the entire Worcester Public School district - she had a caseload of about 70 a month and more on the side. 

            You may be wondering why the SLP community is swamped with caseloads: it’s because the area of study is still relatively small. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that jobs for SLPs will grow 29% over the next 10 years with an average of 15,200 positions opening each of those years. Meanwhile, more people are beginning to realize the benefits of speech and language therapy - especially in children’s early language development. 

            This then leaves me wondering, how can I leave my work at home? I’ve always struggled with a work-life balance; especially since society places self-worth on the amount of work you’re able to complete. Even something as simple as one of my three email accounts (work, school, personal) pinging can send me down a rabbit hole of work rather than taking time for myself. In rebuttal to this, I tell myself that I cannot help others unless I help myself first, but this still feels like a copout. While I treat myself to a vacation or even a night in, I could be helping someone regain the ability to speak instead. 

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            I fully understand it’s unhealthy for your job to be your life; however, what do you do when other people’s futures depend on what you’re doing right now? 

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            Say I have the ‘perfect’ work-life balance: I only work for what I’m getting paid for. Will I lose the empathy I could have for my clients had I put in more effort? When I put a lot of time and effort into something, I feel as though I’m guaranteed to care more, so then, if I’m only focused on making a difference during a normal 9-5, will I have an impact? Will I be of use to anyone? 

            I want to be good at my job. I want to make meaningful connections with clients. I want to have a healthy work-life balance. These three things seem to be intertwined; however, with such a high caseload, I feel as though I’ll need to give up one to satisfy the others. 

             The only way I can see myself succeeding at this point is to find an SLP position that also allows for an SLPA (speech and language pathology assistant): someone with a B.A. in speech-language and hearing sciences. This assistant would handle the daily tasks of a practice such as setting up sessions, conducting sessions, and transcribing notes. Then I’d be asking for help, which I feel is necessary but is still stigmatized professionally. Sure, a surgeon has scrub nurses, but that's a real job. There’s still a stigma surrounding speech therapy. Some believe it to be a soft science or a guessing game. The term ‘therapy’ leaves a sour taste in people’s mouths. When explaining my position, I’ve had people say, “oh, so like a sp-ed teacher?”. Special education teachers. Another position that has a negative connotation in society's eyes. I have to stop myself from getting angry. No, not special education, but that’s still a great job that takes a lot of talent. 

            Continuing under my current working habits wouldn’t be an efficient way to operate. I set the bar high for myself, plow through work, burn out, and end up failing to maintain my work pace. My social life suffers as well. I end up isolating myself to focus on work or resting after my inevitable crash….which is exactly what my professors are attempting to warn against. So then what should I model myself against? I choose this field because I’m excited to jump in. I want to help people achieve their goals, but will I be sacrificing mine in the process? I’ve gotten this far on a shitty system - so would dropping it be detrimental? Would I fall back into my original patterns? 

            I want to succeed and be recognized for my efforts. However, with the stigma and ignorance surrounding the field, I feel as though people are taking on more work than they can handle just so that they can seem more important to those who don’t understand. Speech Therapy is important. I know that but how can I prove it? How will I be able to stand my ground on workload when those around me are trying to take on double my own? I could hold conferences. I can spread my knowledge to those who are unfamiliar with the job. But more importantly, I won’t be the one to say, don’t take work home with you.

            I’ll be the one who says, “You’re helping people find their voices but don’t forget about your own.” 

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Works Cited

https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/professional-issues/caseload-and-workload/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20ASHA%202016,64%20(ASHA%2C%202016).

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/speech-language-pathologists.htm