This blog looks at burnout at work, especially in the caring professions. We cannot recover from burnout without support. In the workplace, it is essential to examine external solutions: more family friendly flexible working practices, adequate breaks etc But such solutions may seem unrealistic – many of us are employed in sectors that demand punishing hours and unstinting commitment. Employers will not be quick to change! If we are self-employed, we cannot simply turn off our phones and email – the buck stops with us.
Who is most at risk?
Emotional labour, or emotional work, were terms coined in the 1980s and apply especially in the caring professions – nurses, doctors, social workers, teachers, therapists. It is closely linked with levels of burnout. Burnout is also common in frontline jobs such as the police and emergency services. But it’s important to stress that burnout at work can happen in any job.
Health Workers – Recent Research
The pandemic created the conditions for burnout to become almost inevitable for front line workers – the news was full of pictures of exhausted healthcare workers, faces bruised from masks, describing their exhaustion and their stress. Even before the pandemic, a major survey of NHS staff in 2020 found that 44% of staff reported feeling unwell due to work-related stress in the previous year – a steady increase since 2016.
Other UK reviews of the mental wellbeing of healthcare staff have also found the following:
- Psychological distress: higher levels of distress (self-reported mental health problems, sleeping difficulties, and minor cognitive errors) than in the general working population.
- Burnout: the risk of emotional exhaustion is high, with younger staff more vulnerable.
- Post-traumatic stress: with some specialisations (e.g.emergency medicine) more susceptible
- Suicide: female staff, particularly nurses, are at 24% greater risk than the national average for women.
- Compassion fatigue: a condition characterised by emotional and physical exhaustion leading to difficulties in empathising or feeling compassion for others.
It is believed that the ‘true’ extent of difficulties may be underestimated due to a) the ‘healthy worker effect’ where people with serious health problems or who cannot cope will have left the profession and b) the stigma of disclosing mental health problems and fears about confidentiality.
Ambulance Staff
Ninety-four per cent of ambulance staff in a study in the North of England in 2021 study (382 were interviewed) reported a sense of personal achievement within their professional role; however, more than 50% were experiencing varying levels of burnout with 87% displaying moderate or high levels of depersonalisation towards their work. Causes of stress were complex: themes attributed were a perceived lack of management support, the public’s misuse of the ambulance service, involuntary overtime and a poor work-life balance. Frontline crew members also blame lack of meal breaks, delays in reaching seriously ill patients and their shift often not ending when it should for their high levels of stress and anxiety.
The study concluded that the working lives of ambulance staff are so difficult that nine out of 10 display symptoms of “depersonalisation”, characterised by “cynicism, detachment and reduced levels of empathy” when dealing with patients who need urgent medical treatment.
Every Job
There are clearly identifiable risk factors in every job – including the following:
- Lack of control. Not having a say in how you do your job, such as your schedule (including having to work through breaks or work overtime) or workload, can lead to job burnout. Not having what you need to do your work (experience, training, support, resources) also can add to burnout.
- Lack of clarity about what’s expected of you – a loose job description, that appears to change week by week.
- Conflicts with others. A bullying colleague or an ineffective or micromanaging manager.
- Too much or too little to do. Interestingly the two ends of the scale each can lead to fatigue and job burnout.
- Lack of support. This is hugely important – If you feel alone and unsupported at work.
- Problems with work-life balance. It is common in today’s workplaces for work to take up so much of our time and energy that we have little left for ourselves and our personal lives.
The following links are excellent resources for learning about burnout at work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngV756EHDlg for the Burned Out, Fried and Exhausted
https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-emily-and-amelia-nagoski-on-burnout-and-how-to-complete-the-stress-cycle/ Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski Ph.D. and Amelia Nagoski, M.D.
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If you are struggling with any of the issues raised in this article, or indeed any other emotional issues or life challenges and would like to talk things over in complete confidentiality, contact me:
See also: Just Relax!, Warning Signs of Burnout, Tools and Strategies for Burnout Recovery
