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Job Burnout
Burnout is a prolonged response to chronic
emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, and is
defined by the three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism,
and inefficacy. The past 25 years of research has established
the complexity of the construct, and places the individual
stress experience within a larger organizational context
of people’s relation to their work. Recently, the work
on burnout has expanded internationally and has led to new
conceptual models. The focus on engagement, the positive
antithesis of burnout, promises to yield new perspectives
on the interventions to alleviate burnout. The social focus
of burnout, the solid research basis concerning the syndrome,
and its specific ties to the work domain make a distinct
and valuable contribution to people’s health and well-being.
(Excerpted from Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W.B., and Leiter,
M.P, Annual Review of Psychology, V.52, 2001, pp.397-422.)
Teacher Burnout
Statistical data indicate that teachers are
abandoning the profession in increasing numbers.
According to Shinn (1982) and Katzell, Korman, and Levine
(1971), teachers are three times more likely to quit their
jobs and even more likely to want to quit their jobs than
are similarly trained professionals. Many are findings jobs
in private industry, others are seeking early retirement,
and still others are simply dropping out. Thousands of teachers
have laid down their pointers and chalk largely because
of because of decreased funding, limited personal control
over their teaching, and lack of societal commitment.
One important factor that contributes to this trend is teacher
burnout. Burnout is a more serious problem to the profession
than job change or early retirement because it renders a
teacher unable to cope, although he or she remains in the
classroom. According to Truch (1980), teacher distress costs
at least 3.5 billion annually through absenteeism, turnover,
poor performance, and waste. It is estimated that one-quarter
of all teachers feel burned out at any given time.
Job burnout is a problem in many professions,
but it significantly more prevalent in the helping professions.
Teachers, as well as administrators, counselors, doctors,
nurses, police officers, and so on have the additional burden
of extreme responsibility for the well being of others on
top of the multitude of stressors that stem from routine
job activities. This heavy responsibility combined with
limited resources, long hours, marginal working conditions,
and often unreasonable demands from those receiving services,
lead to chronic stress, and ultimately, burnout. (Teacher
Burnout in the Public Schools: Structural Causes and Consequences
for Children A.G. Dworkin. 1987. State University of New
York Press)
Support Staff Burnout
I have heard counselors complain that they
are just going through the motions of their job. They feel
that whatever they are doing makes no difference at all and
that they have nothing left to give. Some of these practitioners
have convinced themselves that this feeling of burnout is
one of the inevitable hazards of the profession and that there
is not much they can do to revitalize themselves. This assumption
is lethal, for it cements the feeling of impotence and leads
to a giving up of hope. Equally bad are those practitioners
whodo not realize that they are burned out.
Burnout manifests itself in many ways. Those who experience
this syndrome typically find that they are tired, drained,
and without enthusiasm. They talk of feeling pulled by their
many projects, most of which seem to have lost meaning. They
feel that what they do have to offer is either not wanted
or not received; they feel unappreciated, unrecognized, and
unimportant, and they go about their jobs in a mechanical
and routine way. They tend not to see any concrete results
of the fruits of the efforts . Often they feel oppressed by
the “system” and by institutional demands, which,
they contend, stifle any sense of personal initiative. A real
danger is that burnout syndrome can feed off itself, so that
practitioners feel more and more isolated. They may fail to
reach out to one another and to develop a support system.
Because burnout can rob us of the vitality we need personally
and professionally, it is important to look at some of its
causes, possible remedies, and ways of preventing it.
(From Theory and Practice of Counseling
and Psychotherapy (1996), by Gerald Corey) |
