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Burnout: Causes and Management

Dr. D. Dutta Roy Psychology Research UnitIndian Statistical Institute

203, B.T. RoadKolkata – 700 108

E-mail: ddroy@isical.ac.inWeb: http://www.isical.ac.in/~ddroy

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Indian Statistical Institute Welcome to Indian Statistical

Institute (ISI), devoted to the research, teaching and application of statistics, natural sciences and social sciences. Founded by Professor P.C. Mahalanobis in Kolkata on 17th December, 1931, the institute gained the status of an Institution of National Importance by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1959.

http://www.isical.ac.in

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PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH UNIT

Scientists of this unit conduct research on application of Statistics and Mathematics in explaining different psychological phenomena and psychological test development through different internal and external funding projects, sometimes in collaboration with scientists of other units of ISI/ or other organizations. Besides, the faculties of the unit are involved in teaching and training activities and are providing Ph.D. guidance to the research fellows selected through All India Examinations of the Institute. Scientists are also providing services in statistical or psychometric analysis of Psychological data.

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Definition The term ‘Burnout’ is a relatively new term, first coined

in 1974 by Herbert Freudenberger. It refers to a state of physical and emotional exhaustion.

However, burnout is much more common; for example, it’s estimated that 25%-60% of practicing physicians experience burnout in western countries.

No epidemiological survey for college teachers has been noted.

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Why Burnout common to college teachers ?

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Burnout Model for College Teachers

Stress in College

Job Related Stress

Role Stress

Life Stress

Emotional exhaustion

Depersonalization

Negative reactions to Personal accomplishment

Type A Personality

Social Network

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Is it biological or Psychiatric disorder ? It’s also less severe, more

temporary in duration, and clearly caused by situational stressors rather than a biologically mandated chemical imbalance.

While burnout isn’t a recognized clinical psychiatric or psychological disorder, there are some similar features between burnout and diagnosable conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders or mood disorders.

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Multidimensional Nature Emotional exhaustion:

Tired & fatigued feeling Depersonalization

Negative & Cynical Attitude Loss of feeling of personal

achievement derived from their job

Others evaluate them as negatively.

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Symptoms Depleted Physical Energy: Prolonged

stress can be physically draining, causing you to feel tired much of the time, or no longer have the energy you once did.

Emotional Exhaustion: feel impatient, moody, inexplicably sad, or just get frustrated more easily than one normally would.

Lowered Immunity to Illness: When stress levels are high for a prolonged amount of time, your immune system does suffer. People who are suffering from burnout usually get the message from their body that something needs to change, and that message comes in the form of increases susceptibility to colds, the flu, and other minor illnesses (and sometimes some not-so-minor ones).

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Symptoms Less Investment in Interpersonal Relationships:. You may feel like you

have less to give, or less interest in having fun, or just less patience with people.

Increasingly Pessimistic Outlook: When experiencing burnout, it’s harder to get excited about life, harder to expect the best, harder to let things roll off your back, and harder to ‘look on the bright side’ in general. Because optimism is a great buffer for stress,

Increased Absenteeism and Inefficiency at Work: When experiencing job burnout, it gets more difficult just to get out of bed and face more of what’s been overwhelming you in the first place.

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Stress Symptoms

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What Causes Burnout?

Work-Related Causes of Burnout

Lifestyle Causes of Burnout

Psychological Causes of Burnout

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Work-Related Causes of Burnout

Unclear Requirements: When it’s not clear to teachers how to succeed, it’s harder for them to be confident, enjoy their work, and feel they’re doing a good job.

Impossible Requirements: Sometimes it’s just not possible to do a job as it’s explained. If a job’s responsibilities exceed the amount of time given to complete them properly

High-Stress Times with No “Down” Times: where teachers work longer hours and handle a more intense workload for a time.

Big Consequences for Failure: People make mistakes; it’s part of being human. However, when there are dire consequences to the occasional mistake.

Lack of Personal Control: People tend to feel excited about what they’re doing when they are able to creatively decide what needs to be done and come up with ways of handling problems that arise.

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Work-Related Causes of Burnout Lack of Recognition: It’s difficult to work hard and never be recognized for

one’s accomplishments. Awards, public praise, bonuses and other tokens of appreciation and recognition of accomplishment go a long way in keeping morale high. Where accolades are scarce, burnout is a risk.

Poor Communication:. When a teacher has a problem and can’t properly discuss it with someone who is in a position to help, this can lead to feelings of low personal control.

Insufficient Compensation: Some occupations just are stressful, and it’s one of those things that you just accept along with the paycheck. “They don’t pay me enough to deal with this!” And the burnout risk goes up.

Poor Leadership: College authority can go a long way toward preventing or contributing to burnout by appreciating work, by providing role clarity and by providing support.

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Lifestyle StressSome people seem to thrive under

pressure. Too Much Work With Little BalanceToo Little Social Support:No Time For HobbiesToo Little SleepToo Little Time Off

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Role Space Conflicts Self-Role Distance: This stress arises out of the conflict between the self-concept and

the expectations from the role, as perceived by the role occupant. Intra-Role Conflict: Since an individual learns to develop expectations as a result of

his socialization and identification with ‘significant’ others, it is quite likely that he sees certain incompatibility between the expectations (functions) of his role. For example, a professor may see incompatibility between the expectations of teaching students and of doing research. These may not be inherently conflicting, but the individual may perceive these as incompatible.

Role Stagnation: As the teacher grows older, the need for taking up a new role becomes crucial. This problem of role growth becomes acute especially when an individual who has occupied a role for a long time enters another role in which he may feel less secure. However, the new role demands that an individual outgrow the previous one and take charge of the new role effectively. This is bound to produce some stress. In college which are fast expanding, and which do not have any systematic strategy of manpower development, teachers are likely to experience this stress of role stagnation .

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Role Set Conflicts: Role Ambiguity: When teacher is not clear about the various expectations

that people have from his role the conflict that he faces is called role ambiguity. Role ambiguity may be due to lack of information available to the role occupant, or due to lack of understanding of the ‘cues’ available to him.

Role Expectation Conflict: When there are conflicting expectations or demands by different role senders (persons having expectations from the role), the role occupant may experience the stress. There may be conflicting from the boss, subordinates, peers or clients.

Role Overload: When the role occupant feels that there are too many expectations from the ‘significant’ others in his role set, he experiences role overload.

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Role Set Conflicts: Role Erosion: A role occupant may feel that the functions which he would like

to perform are being performed by some other role. Resource Inadequacy: Resource inadequacy stress is experienced when the

resources required by the role occupant for performing the role effectively are not available.

Personal Inadequacy: When a role occupant feels that he is not prepared to undertake the role effectively, he may experience this stress. This role occupant may feel that he does not have enough knowledge, skills, or training, or he/she has not had time to prepare for the assigned new roles without enough preparation or orientation are likely to experience this type of stress.

Role Isolation: the role occupant may feel that certain roles are psychologically closer to him, while others are a t a much greater distance. The main criterion of distance is the frequency and ease of interaction. When linkages are strong, the role isolation will be low & in the absence of strong linkages the role isolation will be high.

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MANAGING BURNOUTAssess burnout curve of your lifeAssess your job stressAssess your role stressAssess your personalityChange your life style Follow some habits : Yoga/Relaxation

exercise, Foods, Psychological counselling

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Burn out Curve Burnout is systematic

process. Take preventive measures across each stage of changes

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References Freudenberger, H.J. (1974). Staff burn-out Journal of Social Issues, 30, 159-

165. Shinn, M., Rosario, M., Morch, H. and Chestnut, D.E. (1984). Coping with job

stress and burnout in the human services. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 846-876.