Maslach and more

MBI
Before I mentioned the MBI, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the most generally recognized instrument to measure the prevalence of a state of burnout. Basically it is a list of not even 30 questions that point out three subjects or dimensions, together making up the burnout-syndrome.

Emotional exhaustion
This concerns the feeling of being completely empty because of working with others. Where we already saw that burnout is originally described as being related to the care-taking professions, this is still the most reputed part of being burnout.

Depersonalisation
You have developed a cynical and distant attitude towards the people you work for and with. Your belief in the other has gone out of the window and you don't expect it to come back soon.

Decreasing personal competency
You doubt your own competencies, you think you lost all of your original skills and you doubt if you can still face your patients etc. properly.

Engagement and more
Now the remarkable thing in this summing-up is that there is no more mention of engagement while originally that looked like the defining concept in the whole story. An overflow of engagement is considered the regular first cause of becoming burnout. Now this is mainly stuff for those scientific researchers who cook up all these psychological instruments in the first place, I won't go into further details here. It is also worth noting that the MBI is regarded as the best instrument but still these days there are researchers who point out that the essence of burnout is the particular combination of exhaustion and emotional distancing. Burnout so would not be composed of three, but only of two parts or dimensions. The essence of burnout then would be a lack of power to act, combined with a lack of motivation. We would be thinking then of an energetic and a motivational aspect, basically simplifying the idea of treatment.