If it didn’t screw me up, I’d be screwed up: Moral injury and moral labour in Canadian federal parole

The aim of this article is to develop knowledge on how moral challenges affect officers’ well-being and professional performance. Building on existing research on adverse work experiences and the developing literature on moral injury, we examine 150 Canadian federal parole officers’ experiences of moral distress at work as distinct from traumatic stress and emotional stress. We unpack the process of how officers experience and manage moral distress and its aftermath in interaction with their social, organizational, and professional context. Our findings are crucial for addressing PPOs’ adverse work experiences, and for recognizing barriers to supporting clients’ rehabilitation and reintegration in penal settings. Therefore, we suggest a conceptualization specific to the moral aspects of challenges at work – moral labour – to further theorize and examine the relationship between moral distress at work, contextual conditions for managing the distress, and adverse work outcomes such as moral injury, burnout, and compassion fatigue.