Do Case Managers Work Weekends?

One of the most important questions to ask before applying for a case manager job is to find out if they work weekends. Because many case managers work not only nights but also weekends.

Case managers don’t make a lot of money, unless they are full time government employees—and even then the major befit is job security and excellent benefits.

There are a lot of reasons people go into social work, and case manager jobs are the most easy kind of work to find. Most of the time you can find a case manager job directly out of college with no experience.

Every major city will have dozens of non-profits and city agencies that hire case managers. So, it’s a common job for people graduating from community colleges and city schools with degrees in social work or psychology.

But the million dollar question is, do case managers really work weekends?

Yes, some case managers do work weekends.

But some case managers don’t ever work weekends.

Let’s see how you can tell who will and who won’t work weekends as a case manager.

What Level Case Manager Works Weekends?

The first thing to realize is that senior level case managers never work weekends. It’s a responsibility that never falls to senior level management.

It’s important to understand that within the social service world, the millions of dollars in compensation are only found at the top. The CEO and other corporate staff are the ones who are making six figure compensation packets.

Also, for the most part, the large money is really only found in setting up lucrative commercial projects connected with non-profits. This is why so many CEOs and Hedge Funds are involved with non-profits, and this includes charter schools.

The money is in government grants and lucrative projects involving non-profits.

Even the smallest local non-profit likely has an executive team on board making 100k. This would be the minimum amount of money one would expect to find in any sort of human services non-profit such.

Local case managers make much less money. The field workers, which is what most case managers are, make slightly above minimum wage in many states.

In large cities with big social welfare safety nets a case manager might make $20 an hour. This is certainly above minimum wage, but it’s not something that is a huge payday.

And what’s not surprising is that the case managers who work at the lowest pay grade are the ones who have to work weekends. Because you do not need a degree to be a case manager, there are many people who graduate with general high school diplomas and or local communcity college degrees in social work who go straight into case management instead of obtaining a Bachelors Degree.

Supervisors and other higher level social service workers do not work weekends. It’s the low pay grade case managers.

For instance, a NYC of Chicago city case manager might have to work overnights at the homeless intake shelters. Their supervisors will not have to work overnight, however. The upside to the social service world is that there is almost endless money involved in process. Just recently billions was approved in NY for homeless shelters to operate overnight.

Case managers at the Level 1 and Level 2 level, which are popular distinctions to use in the social service field, are often tasked with overnight rules and regulations. These include after hour programs and on-call emergency programs.

The higher level executives at Non-Profits (the ones making millions of dollars) are usually not going to be working after hours or on weekends doing case management. And while runing a non-profit can be lucrative, it can also result in the non-profit executives ending up arrested for suspicious crimes.

What Population Are You Case Managing?

Whether or not you work weekends as a case manager will also depend on what population you are working with.

It’s important to consider the different areas of case management. There are case managers who work with populations that do require weekend work and round the clock supervision, and then there are case managers who have regular office jobs.

Here’s a short review of the different populations that case managers work with and info about if they need to work weekends:

• Homeless Shelter Case Managers – Weekend and Nights
• Geriatric Case Managers – No Weekend or Nights
• Foster Care Case Managers – Weekend and Nights
• MICA Case Managers – Weekend and Nights
• LBGTQ Youth Case Managers – No Weekend or Nights
• Medicaid Case Managers – No Weekend or Nights
• Low Income Single Mother Case Managers – No Weekend or Nights
• Undocumented Immigrant Case Managers – No Weekend or Nights
• Nurse Case Managers – Weekend and Nights but higher pay (RNs are unique in their pay grade)
• Low Income Youth Employment Case Managers- No Weekends or Nights

The Low Person On the Rung Rule For All Weekend Work

So, if you were to go by that above list, it seems that almost every case manager works nights or weekends. Well, that’s partly true. Technically it’s part of the job for most case managers, but in truth most case managers won’t really work nights or weekends.

They might be on call, but they do not have to actually step foot into an office or do a home visit.

The case managers who have to do those visits tend to be case managers who are new to the organization. The long term employees are always exempt from that sort of grueling field work and weekend and night shifts.

This is why many case managers work two jobs. You might find that someone is a long term staff member of non-profit. They might have the official job title of case manager and be expected to do field work and home visits. However, because they are staff, they are able to push that onto new case managers.

This person who is a staff member then might take a second job as a case manager through a temp staffing agency and work per diem at another company. They can often times have overlapping jobs due to field work. So, for instance, a case manager might sign into work at 9am and then leave to do field work. They can then clock into their second job and in this manger double their yearly salary.

The social service world is rife with this sort of double scheduling, which leaves the case load at risk. So, thankfully government funded non-profits and hospitals are able to hire 2 or 3 people for every role they need filled.

Does The Pay Increase For Working Weekends?

With the exception of Nurse Case mangers who work overnights or weekends, most case managers do not make more money. In many instances, case managers are actually working multiple jobs.

Unlike the professional world where a person works a single full time job, many case managers work multiple jobs—oftentimes those jobs hours conflict. Sometimes a case manager might have a full time 9-5 case manager role, and then also work a per diem role (during those same hours) for another company.

It’s not considered “double dipping” in the social service world to work multiple jobs at the same time.

Because of this, there is no shortage of case managers looking for work. With the exception of Registered Nurses, the case manager role will not be paid more. It is important to know that nurses need a degree.

Sometimes a temp agency will offer a higher wage, however those normally come with strings attached.

The simple fact is that temp agencies are able to supply endless case manager candidates

Why Do Case Managers Work Weekends?

To understand why case managers work weekends, it’s important to understand what a case manager does.

At the basic level a case manager handles the life and dealings of someone else. This might be as simple as filling out a welfare application, or it might mean doing an intake and assessment for someone.

Case workers deal with shelters, elderly in supported living situations, and everything in between.

Many of the clients for a case manager are unable to work, some simply do not want to work and others are not capable of work due to lack of skill, medical issues, or simply they prefer to take care of family.

Case managers have to schedule time to meet with these people and assess their situations. If, for instance, the case manager is someone who is in charge of finding and providing housing for people on a limited income, or no-income, they might need to view their current home to make sure it’s in good shape.

So, in order to schedule a time where they will be available, many case managers need to accommodate the needs and availability of their clients. In the world of case management, the clients dictate their availability and case managers need to work with their schedule. These are people who are dealing with trauma, diminished mental ability, lack of behavioral control, substance abuse and a host of other problems.

Case managers who work with children, shelters, or undocumented migrants will have to be on call at nights as well.