Coping with stressful situations in social work before and after reduced working hours, a mixed-methods study

Little is known about how reduced working hours relate to social work stressors, coping and work-life balance. An exploratory mixed methods study was therefore performed at a Swedish social service agency participating in a quasi-experimental trial of work-time reduction by 25%, with proportionally reduced workload, and retained full-time pay. Social workers that reduced their working hours reported less emotional exhaustion (n = 28, p