Aspects of Burnout among Professionals

Statement of the problem: Burnout is a phenomenon of nowadays societies. It involves high levels of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion, and it endorses negative attitudes towards work. Giving the scarce empirical research on this topic, the current study aims at identifying the main features and types of burnout experienced by a sample of Romanian helping professionals. Method: 400 professionals delivering social, medical or educational services filled the Burnout measure, split into four groups: social workers, psychologists, medical staff and educators. Results: Males were significantly different from females in burnout, with males displaying higher levels of professional exhaustion. Social workers proved to be the professional category with the highest degree of burnout (both general and sub-types), but the differences are significant only if compared to educators. Psychologists also declare emotional exhaustion, and medical staff mental exhaustion. Educators seem to be the category with the lowest scores, which points out that they do not experience work burnout as often as other professional categories. Discussion: Burnout is a social problem that has serious consequences. Institutions delivering social services should invest more in the work environment that may help employees deal with their growing job demands.

Keywords: burnout, physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion, emotional exhaustion, helping profession