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Resolving occupational burnout : exploring factors in personal recovery through an enhanced critical incident technique

University of British Columbia

Occupational burnout is used to describe working individuals who feel emotionally exhausted, have developed negative perceptions about the people they work with and their work environment, experience detachment from their surroundings, and feel reduced accomplishment at work (Bährer-Kohler, 2013; Maslach, 1993). This qualitative research aims to understand the factors that have helped, hindered, or were wished for by adults who have suffered from moderate to severe occupational burnout and feel that they have since recovered in the past three years. All participants were first screened for retrospectively moderate to high occupational burnout symptoms using the Maslach Burnout Inventory- General Survey (MBI-GS; Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996). Following this assessment semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve participants using a format consistent with the Enhanced Critical Incident technique. The analysis of categories focused on helpful and hindering incidents. There was also a consideration of what would have been helpful for participants. In the helping category of critical incidents, support, empowerment, meaning making, better work-life balance, and hope captured the broad themes. In the hindering category of critical incidents, difficulty transitioning, systemic concerns, a lack of time away from work, and a lack of resources made recovery more difficult. Participants endorsed some wish list items including better access to professional help, the workplace appropriately addressing burnout, greater support from the workplace and colleagues, and more time for rest.

Text

2019-04-09

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69551

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/