The costs of job related burnout are devastatingly high, not only for the individual employee but any organization as a whole.
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The three principle hallmarks of job related burnout – emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of a sense of personal accomplishment are extremely good measures for the presence of burnout. However, they are not the causes of job burnout. They are only the symptoms or result of burnout. Six major mismatches between the job and employee are the cause of burnout.
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If you are an employee you don’t want to risk burnout because it is complete misery. Burnout can cause you to hate your job, increase your absenteeism, decrease your performance, make you cynical, completely exhaust you and even depress you.
Unfortunately, when the symptoms of burnout are being displayed, rather than attacking the underlying causes the individual displaying them often becomes the sole focus of any effort to alleviate their symptoms. It surprises many to discover the underlying job-employee mismatches are not created by the individual employee. Ninety percent of the time they are caused by the work environment.
For organizations, failure to address burnout in the workplace can result in a dysfunctional workforce, high staff turnover and inferior products or services. The result is a drain on the bottom line due to high employee turnover, increased location and training costs, and other indirect expenditures.
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The mismatches which are responsible for job related burnout have been extensively studied by Dr. Christina Maslach. Every employee and every organization should be vigilant for these burnout inducing conditions.
Here are the six major job mismatches which can lead to job burnout.
- Work Overload – Downsizing, budget cuts, layoffs, reorganization efforts all usually result in three things – more work intensity, more demands on time, more job complexity. In short, people are required to do ever more with less. This can leave individuals exhausted.
- Lack of Control – Organizations which become intolerant of creative problem solving in lieu of centralized control will squelch individual autonomy. This reduces an employee’s capacity to set limits, exercise problem solving, select individualized approaches to work, allocate resources and set priorities. The overall effect is a loss of interest in the job and monumental frustration.
- Insufficient Reward – Market forces focusing on reducing costs have also reduced organizations’ capacity to reward their employees in meaningful ways. People seek tangible rewards from meaningful work such as money, security, recognition, benefits, intrinsic satisfaction, etc. If these are lacking people naturally begin to wonder why they are working so hard. More work + less reward = dissatisfaction.
- Breakdown of Community – As organizations grow larger or too quickly a breakdown in the character of the organization can result as short-term profit is chased at the expense of interpersonal relationships within the company. This will inevitably lead to greater conflicts among employees, a lack of mutual support, lack of respect and a growing sense of isolation. Dr. Maslach states, “A sense of belonging disappears when people work separately instead of together.”
- Absence of Fairness – Dr. Maslach perceives a workplace to be fair when three key elements are provided: trust, openness, and respect. When all three are present employees are valued and they will in turn feel valued and remain fully engaged (the opposite of burnout). When these elements are absent burnout will be the direct end result.
- Conflicting Values – If organizations say they are dedicated to excellence service yet take actions which damage the quality of the services they provide then conflict results. This can be extremely frustrating and demoralizing to the employee, especially if their internal moral compass or core values are being assailed. To achieve a quality product or service a company’s values must remain in alignment with those of the employees.
These mismatches can occur in any combination or in aggregate. However, they must each be addressed individually as each will have a unique set of solutions. The costs of job related burnout are devastatingly high, not only for the individual employee but any organization as a whole.
Failure to address these mismatches will result in a dysfunctional and burned out staff with high staff turnover and inferior products or services. I will be discussing each of these individual job mismatches in future posts along with what can be done to lessen their impact or eliminate them altogether.
Do you recognize any of these mismatches in your current work environment? In yourself? If so, what have you thought to do about them?
Previously Published on ClarkGaither.com
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Photo: Getty Images
“Market forces focusing on reducing costs have also reduced organizations’ capacity to reward their employees in meaningful ways.”
Many companies are posting record profits in the many billions, whilst cutting staff, cutting pay, etc. The money is there to reward employees, the problem is that they would rather reward share-holders instead.
Absolutely correct, Archy. This gets at at least three of the major mismatches which cause burnout, Namely Insufficient Reward, Breakdown of Community and Absence of Fairness. Thanks for your comment!
Try CEOs making you work to death for pitiful wages, no benefits, and no vacation/sick leave time plus little or no job security.
Thanks for the comment G. You put your finger on some of the mismatches which cause burnout such as Work Overload, Insufficient Reward and Absence of Fairness. Those will burn anyone out.