What is vocational burnout? Who is the most likely to suffer from it, and what are some ways to prevent it?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: Although emotional engagement with work is usually seen as psychologically healthy, it can also result in burnout—a condition in which long-term job stress leads to mental exhaustion, a sense of loss of personal control, and feelings of reduced accomplishment. Burnout occurs more often in the helping professions, including health care, human services, and teaching, which place high emotional demands on employees. Although people in interpersonally demanding jobs are as psychologically healthy as other people, sometimes a worker’s dedication exceeds his or her coping skills, especially in an unsupportive work environment. Burnout is associated with excessive work assignments for available time and lack of encouragement and feedback from supervisors. Burnout is a serious occupational hazard, linked to impaired attention and memory, severe depression, on-the-job injuries, physical illnesses, poor job performance, absenteeism, and turnover. To prevent burnout, employers can make sure workloads are reasonable, provide opportunities for workers to take time out from stressful situations, limit hours of stressful work, and offer social support. Interventions that augment employee control over schedule and supervisor support for family and personal life show promise for sustaining work engagement and effectiveness while preventing burnout. Improved employee health behaviors, including increased nightly sleep, and gains in work–family balance help explain these positive outcomes.