Very likely from time most professionals will feel burned out – that is, mentally and emotional exhausted by the demands of their job. The causes seem simple and cross professions, but are seen very clearly among the human services professions, namely: job dissatisfaction, boredom with the job, excessive and continuous stress, senses of helplessness and/or hopelessness, pressure and tensions on the job, insufficient resources to do the job (both literal resources and one’s own personal emotional resources), and fatigue, emotional and/or physical (Schaufeli & Maslach, 2017). The frequency of burnout appears depends on the profession and the country in which one works (Lizano, 2015). However, strategies for mitigating, reducing, and even preventing burnout seem to work across profession types and geographical borders. Reducing job stress is hailed as one of the key strategies (Lizano, 2015).
After all, prolonged work stress leads to fatigue, tension, and emotional depletion which in turn lead to emotional exhaustion which in turn leads to burnout. Supporting employees is also important; Lizano (2015) recommends that employers and managers provide emotional resources to their employees. These resources can take the form of social supports and instrumental tools which help employees deal with their work-related responsibilities, tasks, and stressors (Lizano, 2015), theoretically alleviating the stress through the availability of sufficient emotional and literal resources. Perhaps the most critical insight I have acquired in reading about burnout is that it may well happen, no matter how well-equipped and well-supported a workplace is. It may happen no matter how not stressful a job appears.
Professional burnout is about the emotional toll a job can take on a person and how that translates to a physical impact. Working in a human services field means I am going to be dealing with some emotionally-heavy situations. No matter how well-prepared I am, those situations may still take a toll. I need to be mindful of that toll.
