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.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Engagement, curse or blessing?
Emotionally demanding work
A well-known factor in the building-up towards a burnout. Some professions, like teaching or nursing, apparently demand a more than average engagement with the pupils, patients etc. But we can also postulate that those professions even provoke that engagement. Within the occupational group the story goes that without just that engagement you can never qualify as a "good" teacher, nurse etc. The social perspectives under which you function then are very present, very implicit, very un-outspoken and even dressed up with a certain morality. Young professionals will easily follow this implicit ideal. When you are young, you can live up to it for some time. But, just face it: giving, giving, giving without ever getting something back, how do you make it?
The so-called professional attitude
So you can get stuck in your work. To make matters worse, the last 10 or 20 years we are bullshitted into believing that we should behave like a "real" professional. Now this "real" professional is just as fake as the mandatory engagement that you have to show on order. The implicit assumption behind this professional is that you are able to completely exhaust yourself day in day out for your pupils, patients etc. After preferably putting in some overtime you close the door behind you and are able to throw away all your worries, mixed emotions and concerns instantly.
Dilemmas
Unfortunately, there is no school or education in this world that teaches us how to do it, this closing off your emotions at will. So if you keep on doing what you always did, without ever getting aware of those implicit paradoxes, you can easily get burnout, simply because you can't distinguish a way out.
How do we solve this riddle?
What of course should happen is that you get aware of the position you are in. If you can tell yourself that you are guided by implicit and unlabeled assumptions, instead of the clauses from your labor-contract, you have already come a long way. You will probably not be able to do this on your own, it needs a lot of talking to your colleagues going through the same processes. It is also the moment that some counseling could be of help. It is by now a well-known fact that it is quite difficult to learn to perceive those implicit laws and to understand how far-reaching these influences can be.
A well-known factor in the building-up towards a burnout. Some professions, like teaching or nursing, apparently demand a more than average engagement with the pupils, patients etc. But we can also postulate that those professions even provoke that engagement. Within the occupational group the story goes that without just that engagement you can never qualify as a "good" teacher, nurse etc. The social perspectives under which you function then are very present, very implicit, very un-outspoken and even dressed up with a certain morality. Young professionals will easily follow this implicit ideal. When you are young, you can live up to it for some time. But, just face it: giving, giving, giving without ever getting something back, how do you make it?
The so-called professional attitude
So you can get stuck in your work. To make matters worse, the last 10 or 20 years we are bullshitted into believing that we should behave like a "real" professional. Now this "real" professional is just as fake as the mandatory engagement that you have to show on order. The implicit assumption behind this professional is that you are able to completely exhaust yourself day in day out for your pupils, patients etc. After preferably putting in some overtime you close the door behind you and are able to throw away all your worries, mixed emotions and concerns instantly.
Dilemmas
Unfortunately, there is no school or education in this world that teaches us how to do it, this closing off your emotions at will. So if you keep on doing what you always did, without ever getting aware of those implicit paradoxes, you can easily get burnout, simply because you can't distinguish a way out.
How do we solve this riddle?
What of course should happen is that you get aware of the position you are in. If you can tell yourself that you are guided by implicit and unlabeled assumptions, instead of the clauses from your labor-contract, you have already come a long way. You will probably not be able to do this on your own, it needs a lot of talking to your colleagues going through the same processes. It is also the moment that some counseling could be of help. It is by now a well-known fact that it is quite difficult to learn to perceive those implicit laws and to understand how far-reaching these influences can be.
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