Supervisor support and emotional labor in the context of client aggression

•This article documents how child protection workers (CPWs) go about requesting support from their supervisor after having been exposed to client aggression.•A longitudinal qualitative analysis revealed three main themes 1) receiving proactive and urgent care;2) making sense of the aggression together; and 3) building a relationship of trust.•Findings suggest that the quality of the supervisor/CPW relationship influences how CPWs involve their supervisor in their emotional recovery and may explain why many of them are dissatisfied with the support they receive. Because of the nature of their mandate, child protection workers (CPWs) are at risk of experiencing physical and psychological forms of aggression at the hands of service users. For this reason, it is important that CPWs receive the support they need to ensure their resilience. This study sought to analyze how CPWs seek, receive, and perceive the support from their supervisors after experiencing service user aggression. Researchers interviewed 30 CPWs at three different time points (less than 1 month after the aggression, and then 2 and 6 months later) to assess how their needs for support evolved over time and how supervisors adapted in response. Researchers identified three dimensions: 1) receiving proactive and urgent care;2) making sense of the aggression together; and 3) building a relationship of trust. Findings suggest that supervisor support efficacy is greatly influenced by the quality of the supervisor/CPW relationship.