Professional exhaustion or burnout

Professional exhaustion or burnout

When professional investment becomes too heavy to bear

Burnout or professional exhaustion, initially identified among healthcare and helping staff, can affect all professions that require intense personal commitment. Preventive measures must prevent a worsening of the health of people already threatened with exhaustion and, at the same time, prevent the occurrence of other cases.

Exhaustion or burnout

Professional exhaustion syndrome, or burnout, is a set of reactions following situations of chronic professional stress in which the dimension of commitment is predominant. It is characterized by 3 dimensions:

emotional exhaustion: feeling of being emptied of one's emotional resources,

depersonalization or cynicism: insensitivity to the surrounding world, dehumanization of the relationship with others (users, clients or patients become objects), negative vision of others and of work,

the feeling of personal non-fulfillment at work: feeling of not being able to respond correctly to the expectations of those around you, depreciation of one's results, feeling of waste, etc.

Many professions require significant personal and emotional investment. Employees in these professions may be affected by the risk of burnout when they come to feel that there is too great a gap between their expectations, the representation they have of their profession (driven by values ​​and rules) and the reality of work. . This situation, which exhausts and “emotionally” empties them, leads them to question their initial investment.

Examples of risk exposure

Exposure to the risk of burnout may concern the professions of help, care, teaching, etc. professions where the relationship with others is at the center of the activity and constitutes an issue, sometimes vital, for the beneficiaries. of this relationship (users, patients, clients, etc.). However, burnout can also concern other sectors of activity likely to mobilize and commit people to very significant professional values.

Risk factors

Professional burnout being a consequence of stress at work, stress factors are among the causes of burnout. Different studies have specifically highlighted the role of the following factors:

Work overload, time pressure,

Low control over his work,

Low rewards,

Lack of fairness,

Value conflicts, contradictory demands,

Lack of clarity in objectives and means.

The effect of these risk factors can be combined, for certain helping relations professions (nurses, doctors, social workers, teachers, etc.), with the emotional burden inherent to these professions.

Accidents and health effects

The manifestations of professional burnout, more or less acute, can be:

emotional (feeling of emptiness, helplessness, loss of self-confidence, irritability, pessimism, “bureaucratic” attitude, etc.),

cognitive (difficulty concentrating, indecision, difficulty carrying out simple operations, alteration of the quality of work, etc.),

physical (generalized fatigue, headaches, back pain, muscle tension, sleep problems, etc.)

interpersonal and behavioral (withdrawal, isolation, aggressiveness, impulsivity, reduced empathy, addictive behaviors, etc.)

motivational and attitudinal (negative attitude towards work and others, disengagement, etc.)

The symptoms of burnout are in fact quite complex, not very specific and can progress towards depression or anxiety.