By Althea Need Kaminske

It’s January 2021! A new year and a fresh start. Given the general stress last year between the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and the switch online learning in order to avoid exposure to COVID-19, I think it’s safe to assume that most of us were feeling pretty burned out by the end of the year. I know I was. So I wanted to write a blog post about ways to avoid burn out this year. A quick list of things you can do to manage your stress to avoid feeling like a shell of a human being by the end of the school year. However, the more I read about the research on burnout the more I became convinced that I wouldn’t be able to make a list like that.

Burnout syndrome was first described in 1974 by American Psychologist Herbert Freudenberger to describe emotional exhaustion, reduced performance, and cynicism due to extreme pressure at work (1). Despite its increasing prominence in discussions around mental health, there is no standard definition for burnout and it is not classified as a distinct mental health disorder (2). Studies that look at the prevalence of burnout often find that it is occurs along with official diagnoses of depression, making it difficult to tell whether or not it is a separate disorder (2). Despite the controversy around whether burnout syndrome qualifies as a mental health diagnosis, research into the causes and prevalence of burnout has brought increased awareness to the problem of occupational stress. High rates of burnout have been found in teachers (3) and students alike (4).

The original conception and early research on burnout syndrome focused on the organizational causes of burnout (1, 2).Freudenberger first described burnout syndrome among staff at a free clinic in New York City. The factors he thought contributed to their burnout were (2):

• being dedicated and committed to their work

• work that requires a significant amount of emotional work and empathy, personal involvement, and intrinsic motivation

• being underpaid

I can’t recommend that you be less dedicated or committed. Or that you should stop being empathetic to your students. I will recommend that you get paid more, but chances are you and I have relatively little control over that. In other words, to truly address burnout changes need to be made to policies and procedures in the workplace, rather than putting onus on individuals to treat their own burnout.

In other words, to truly address burnout changes need to be made to policies and procedures in the workplace, rather than putting onus on individuals to treat their own burnout.

In the paper, Burnout Research: Emergence and Scientific Investigation of a Contested Diagnosis (5), the authors review the history and the current state of burnout research. They stress the importance of examining the larger societal context of the increased interest in burnout. Heinemann and Heinemann point out that many burnout studies have found prevalence rates around 50% in various occupations, with particularly high numbers in medical professions. They ask, “What is the value of such information and the burnout concept in general if almost everyone seems to be prone to it and has to deal with it?” (5, pg 8).

I’ll admit, I was somewhat disappointed that I couldn’t add “avoid burnout” to my to-do list this year. I checked off “sign up for mindfulness app”, “attend workshop on distance learning”, and even “do laundry”. While it is frustrating that I don’t have control over everything, I also have to admit to feeling a bit relieved. I will still do my best to manage my stress and anxiety, scheduling in time for self-care, and setting more manageable expectations for what I expect to get done in my classes this year. But, if, at the end of the day, I’m still feeling overwhelmed and under-resourced, I’m a bit relieved that it may not be my fault.

References

1. Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burn-out. Journal of Social Issues, 30, 159-165.

2. Heinemann, L V. & Heinemann, T. (2017). Burnout Research: Emergence and Scientific Investigation of a Contested Diagnosis. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017697154

3. Rudow, B. (1999). Stress and burnout in the teaching profession: Eurpoean studies, issues, and research perspectives. In R. Vandenberghe & A. M. Huberman (Edss), Understanding and preventing teacher burnout: A sourcebook of international research and practice (pp. 38-58). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Unversity Press.

4. May, R. W., Bauer, K. N., & Fincham, F. D., (2015). School Burnout: Diminished academic and cognitive performance. Learning and Individual Differences, 42, 126-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.07.015

5. Blalnchard, P., Truchot, D., Albiges-Sauvin, L., Dewas, S., Pointreau, Y. Rodrigues, M., … Kantor, G. (2010). Prevalence and causes of burnout amongst oncology residents: A comprehensive nationwide cross-sectional study. European Journal of Cancer, 46, 2708-2715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2010.05.014