Causes and Prevention of Burnout in Human Services

Causes and Prevention of Burnout in Human Services

The human services are gratifying but can cause many problems in their life. If he or she does not know how to control themselves, it can turn into a problem. Any human service worker wants to give and stay positive. There are times when many do not listen and fall into burnout stage. All human services workers need to learn and prevent falling into the burnout stage.

Burnout

According to Merriam Webster burnout is defined, "is the condition of someone who has become very physically and emotionally tired after doing a difficult job for a long time." (Merriam Webster Dictionary, 2013) Anybody can suffer from burnout whether it is at work, home, or school. Burnout causes the person to be very tired, weak, and sometimes become depressed. According to Ripa, "Mental exhaustion, also known as burnout, results from excess, long-term stress. Symptoms of burnout are subtle at first and become progressively worse with time. Mental exhaustion symptoms not only manifest in the mind, but also as physical, emotional and behavioral symptoms." (Ripa, 2013)

Causes of Burnout

There are different causes of burnout but they all relate to one another. Work overload or too much work can be one of the causes. According to (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, 2007), "Individual Personality factors or unrealistically high career goals or expectations may predispose individuals to become burned out. Organizational norms bureaucratic rather than flexible management philosophies, lack of feedback, a competitive climate, large amounts of conflict, and low openness and trust can contribute to burnout. Organizational roles burnout may be more likely if an individual is experiencing role conflict (disagreements about expectations), ambiguity (unclear expectations), or overload (too much work); has a job with low motivating potential; or has low autonomy. Supervision and social support--Lack of participative decision making increases the likelihood of burnout. Cultural aspects of the culture at large, including a declining feeling of community, frustrated expectations for the self-actualizing potential of work, and pervasive competition, create a climate conducive to burnout." (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, 2007) All of these characteristics explained by Lewis, Packard, and Lewis give a general idea on the causes of burnout and give the reader the opportunity to prevent burnout.

Preventing Burnout

Companies or organizations have to help prevent burnout within their employees. If employers do not prevent burnout their effective employees will not be able to show production within the organization. In a human service profession, he or she wants to help the client out of his or her problem. If the human service professional is burned-out they will not perform effectively, and this will affect the client as well. According to (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, 2007), "Changes might be as simple as assigning more varied types of clients to each service deliverer or, of course, lowering caseloads. Flextime, part-time work, job sharing, and increased use of volunteers can provide some relief from inherently demanding jobs." (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, 2007)

An organization has many employees starting from human service professionals, paraprofessional, and