Cause And Prevent Of Burnout In Human Service Agency

The Cause and Prevention of Burnout in Human Services Agency Staff

In this paper, I write about the causes and prevention of burnout in Human Services agency staff. I define “what is burnout?” I identify some of the individual, cultural, organizational, supervisory, social support factors that cause burnout and organizational methods to prevent burnout. I provide a summary of my examination of my own personality and share how I react and responds to personal and work-related stress. I give some insight to how I reduce the effects of burnout. And what to do as a human service manager to be alert and ready to assist with staff burnout.

According to Johnson and Stone (1987), burnout “refers to a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion resulting from involvement with people in emotionally demanding situations.” It is a clusters of reactions to physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion, resulting from the different emotional upheaval that is constant and repeated associated with people at home and in the workplace.

According to Maslach, burnout has three dimensions including emotional exhaustion or feeling unable to give of oneself psychologically, depersonalizationor feeling cynical and uncaring toward clients, and reduced personal accomplishment resulting in dissatisfaction with ones’ work (Lloyd, Kind & Chenoweth, 2002).

Work pressure is a significant factor contributing to feelings of emotional exhaustion. A human services worker working in an environment with many different work pressures and not enough support is a good example. The work involves a high degree of work stress, either from the job itself, or from the demands placed on the person by employers or customers. For example, while work pressure appeared consistently as a major predictor of emotional exhaustion, work pressure is a significant factor contributing to feelings of depersonalization. The human service person develop a lower level of clarity, higher degree of...