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Is social service just “paid volunteering” for kind-hearted individuals? Turns out, the reality behind having a career<\/a> in social work goes beyond just lending a helping hand to those who need it.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly what YES 933 DJ Ze Liang<\/a> discovered in the latest episode of Gen Z Crash Course<\/em><\/a>. He followed Amir, a Protection Officer with the Ministry of Social and Family Development, and Ming Fang, a strategist at non-profit organisation The Majurity Trust, to better understand their day-to-day roles.<\/p>\n For Amir, a big part of his job comes with being able to find a balance between empathy and doing the right thing.<\/p>\n Some days, he goes for home visits, and on others, he attends court hearings, holds case conferences with other professionals, and also visits children at the children’s homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I handle a few cases at one go, some can last for a few moths, but some for a few years,” he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n While heading to a home visit, he shared: “Sometimes we may not know what to expect. [We don’t know if] they would welcome our support, and sometimes they may not open the door or become aggressive. I think for some of them, they see us as a threat. They think we’re trying to take away their children or destroy their family, but it’s important for me to remain calm and remain professional so I get to achieve [my goal] for the visit.”<\/p>\n In his line of work, Amir sees heartbreaking cases on a regular basis.<\/p>\n When asked how he compartmentalises his emotions to deal with a case logically, Amir said: “It’s very important for us to have listening skills to hear what [parents] are worried about. It can be very quick for us to say what we want to say when we’re concerned about safety, but we have to hear what they’re going through each day to understand their struggles and provide hope that things will get better.”<\/p>\n The toughest part of his job is making the difficult decision to remove a child from their family so they can receive better care. As much as he wants the child to remain with their parents, in some cases, they need to be relocated to children’s homes, or to a foster family.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n