Ambiguity Of Burnout In The Workplace

Burnout In the 1970s, burnout became a vital concept that emerged in psychological literature (Schaufeli, Leiter, & Maslach, 2009). According to Barford and Whelton (2010), burnout initially was described as emotional overload, cynical reactions, and mental exhaustion. Burnout has inspired research on job stress in various areas of work within the helping field. Christina Maslach developed the most research formulation of burnout that is utilized (Barford & Whelton, 2010). The three dimension model includes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Moreover, burnout is mostly widely defined as a syndrome that is caused by depersonalization, lack of personal accomplishments, and emotional exhaustion (Blau, Tatum,

Nevertheless, Barford and Whelton (2010) indicated that the development of burnout is not only due to organization characteristics, but, individual characteristics and social support are also predictive values as well. Perceived levels of burnout, age of the employee, and marital status are demographic factors that have shown to predict burnout (Barford & Whelton, 2010). Age is consistent with years of experience within the field and younger employees have higher levels of burnout (Brewer & Shapard, 2004). Research also depicts that employees in the later stages of their career are more immune to experiencing burnout (Bardford & Whelton, 2010). As it relates to marital status, employees that are married consistently have lower scores that those that are single (Bardford & Whelton, 2010). Moreover, social supports on and off the job and are barriers to the effects of burnout among

Emotional symptoms of burnout are characterized by a sense of failure and self- doubt. Burnout has the ability to cause poor self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. (Sangganjanavanich, & Balkin, 2010). Individuals may experience a depressed sense of personal achievement that may cause an individual to experience burnout (Wilczek-Ruzyczka, 2011). Persons who cope with burnout have feelings of helplessness, pessimism, and loss of personal perspective (Stanetic & Tesanovic, 2013). According to Speakes- Lewis (2011), persons who cope with burnout have continuous and deep thoughts regarding quitting their jobs and even leaving their profession. They feel trapped within their lives with decreased satisfaction, detachment, and loss of motivation. Moreover, a person coping with burnout may have an increased cynical and negative viewpoint due to feelings of defeat (Sangganjanavanich & Balkin,