“O meu maior medo é enlouquecer, não contrair Covid”: trabalho emocional e experiências no sistema único de assistência social no contexto pandêmico.

Abstract

The present work deals with the emotions of the workers of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, it aims to discuss how the changes in work processes resulting from the current scenario have influenced the emotions of social assistance policy professionals in the city of Santa Maria/RS. Faced with the increase in vulnerabilities experienced by a large population segment, we seek to understand what emotions have mobilized in practice and how their management has been carried out. The qualitative research was carried out based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with higher-level technicians, social workers and psychologists, who are current in basic and special social protection equipment of medium complexity, that is, in the Social Assistance Reference Centers (CRAS) and the Specialized Social Assistance Reference Center (CREAS). The investigation proposes to discuss emotions from the theoretical perspective of the anthropology and sociology of emotions, based mainly on Arlie Hochschild's theories. The work is divided into two stages: the first consists of a bibliographic and documental research on the literature and legislation dealing with social assistance policy and discussions on emotions in social sciences; the second refers to semi-structured interviews and analysis of the material collected through the lens of anthropology and sociology of emotions. Finally, the investigation demonstrates that the workers perform in-depth emotional management and, in the current situation, there is more emotional work to be done, without increasing the number of professionals to perform it.