This article examines the consequences of liberal reforms (2004 and 2015) in Québec’s health and social services network, and their effects on the emotional and care work performed by social workers on a daily basis. We argue that the emotional work performed by social workers during successive liberal reforms, as well as during the pandemic, has been severely impacted. We postulate that the deterioration of working conditions and relationships, as well as the conflicts of values and ethics experienced by social workers and exacerbated by the pandemic, put at a distance the emotional and care work intrinsic to social work. Considering the thousands of deaths linked to the pandemic in our institutions, the NPM approach has shown its limits. It is urgent to rethink the power relationships that permeate managerial logic to the detriment of people, workers and populations, including those in extremely vulnerable situations.