Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest (depersonalization or cynicism), usually in the work context. It is also used as an English slang term to mean exhaustion. Burnout is often construed as the result of a period of expending too much effort at work while having too little recovery, but it is sometimes argued that workers with particular personality traits (especially neuroticism) are more prone to experiencing burnout. Further, it appears that researchers disagree about the nature of burnout. While many researchers argue that burnout refers exclusively to a work-related syndrome of exhaustion and depersonalization/cynicism, others feel that burnout is a special case of the more general clinical depression or just a form of extreme fatigue/exhaustion (thus omitting the cynicism component).

Theories of burnout

Health care workers are often prone to burnout. Cordes and Doherty (1993), in their study of employees within this industry, found that workers who have frequent intense or emotionally charged interactions with others are more susceptible to burnout. Still, burnout can affect workers of any kind, including students at the high school and college levels.

High stress jobs can lead to more burnout than normal ones. The customer service industry, taxicab drivers, law enforcement personnel, air traffic controllers, musicians, authors, teachers, Pro Football coaches (ie Dick Vermeil), engineers, emergency service workers, soldiers, reporters and high technology professionals seem more prone to burnout than others. General practitioners seem to have the highest proportion of burnout cases (according to a recent Dutch study in Psychological Reports, no less than 40% of these experienced high levels of burnout).

The most well-studied measurement of burnout in the literature is the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Maslach and her colleague Jackson first identified the construct "burnout" in the 1970s, and developed a measure that weighs the effects of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced sense of personal accomplishment.^[1] This indicator has become the standard tool for measuring burnout in research on the syndrome. People who experience all three symptoms have the greatest degrees of burnout, although emotional exhaustion is said to be the hallmark of burnout.

Although burnout is work-related, most responsibility for burnout currently rests on the individual worker in the United States, as well as the individual company, as it is in a company's best interest to ensure burnout doesn't occur. Other countries, especially in Europe, have included work stress and burnout in occupational health and safety standards, and hold organizations (at least partly) responsible for preventing and treating burnout.

Organizational burnout

Tracy in her study aboard cruise ships describes this as "a general wearing out or alienation from the pressures of work" (Tracy,2000 p.6) "Understanding burnout to be personal and private is problematic when it functions to disregard the ways burnout is largely an organizational issue caused by long hours, little down time, and continual peer, customer, and superior surveillance"^[2] ( Tracy, 2000, p.24).

'Burnout' in popular reference

The word is also used as pejorative slang, referring to an individual who has burned themselves out on a vice, such as drugs or alcohol. It may also refer to an individual who has "burned out" his or her interest in life, similar to a slacker.

See also

• Stress (medicine)
• Compassion fatigue
• Boreout
• The poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay: "My candle burns at both ends/It will not last the night."

References

1. ↑ Redirect Notice
2. ↑ Tracy, S. (2000) Becoming a Character for Commerce Emotion. Management Communication Quarterly, 14. 90-128

Sources

• "A review and integration of research on job burnout", Cordes, C. and Dougherty, T. (1993). Academy of Management Review, 18, 621-656. Cited in O'Driscoll, M.P. and Cooper, C.L. (1996).
• "Sources of Management of Excessive Job Stress and Burnout", In P. Warr (Ed.), Psychology at Work Fourth Edition. Penguin.
• "Tailoring treatment strategies for different types of burnout" Farber, B. A. (1998). Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, 106th, San Francisco California, August 14-18. ED 424 517
• "Staff burnout", Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Journal of Social Issues, 30(1), 159-165.
• "Authentic leaders creating healthy work environments for nursing practice", Shirey MR. American Journal of Critical Care May 2006. Vol. 15, Iss. 3; p. 256
• "Taming burnout's flame", Krista Gregoria Lussier, Nursing Management Chicago: Apr 2006. Vol. 37, Iss. 4; p. 14
• "A Scientific Solution To Librarian Burnout", Craig S. Shaw New Library World Year 1992 Volume: 93 Number: 5
• Stress and Burnout in Library Service, Caputo, Janette S. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1991.
• An assessment of burnout in academic librarians in America using the Maslach Burnout Inventor (the MBI) Ray, Bernice, Ph.D., Rutgers University - New Brunswick, 2002, 90 pages; AAT 3066762
• Tracy, S. (2000) Becoming a Character for Commerce Emotion. Management Communication Quarterly, 14. 90-128

External links

• Understanding and Preventing Teacher Burnout
• Staff "Burnout" in Child Care Settings
• Preventing burnout in youth sport
• Social Work Burnout
• Manager burnout
• Understanding and Managing Stress in the Academic World
• Stress and burnout
• Burnout Busters
• Information and research on burnout
• Predictors & prevention
• Burnout in volunteer organisations
• New York Magazine - Can't Get No Satisfaction - In a culture where work can be a religion, burnout is its crisis of faith

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