Burnout Prevention for Concordia University Staff and Faculty

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Burnout Prevention for Concordia University Staff
and Faculty

• Amy L. Swanson, Psy.D., LP
• Director
• Concordia Counseling Services

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Introduction

• Overview of presentation
• Why is burnout a topic of relevance to university
  staff and faculty?
• What are the characteristics of burnout?
• What are the risk factors for burnout?
• How can burnout be prevented?

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Why is burnout a topic of relevance to university
staff and faculty?

• Nature of work in higher education
• Constant human interaction
• Norms include working long hours, putting others
  needs first, doing whatever it takes to help
• Nurturing human development requires continuous
  giving of self (e.g., time, energy, knowledge,
  support)
• Possibility of emotional depletion is high,
  increasing risk for burnout

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• Costs of burnout are high
• Loss of productivity
• Turnover and absenteeism
• Physical illness
• Decreased organizational commitment
• Incompetent or unethical professional behavior
  (i.e., occupational impairment)
• Social, physical, psychological impairment

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• Prevention easier to address than treatment
• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
• Recognition of early warning signs will allow for
  action before the full spectrum of problems
  related to burnout develops
• By the time burnout sets in, more likely that
  disillusionment, desire to leave job, disgust
  with self, poor work performance, impairment, and
  possibly depression or other serious mental
  health problems have also set in

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What are the characteristics of burnout?

• Maslachs Multidimensional Model of Burnout
• A prolonged response to chronic emotional and
  interpersonal stressors on the job
• A psychological syndrome consisting of
• Emotional exhaustion Decreased energy,
  emotionally overextended, depleted of emotional
  resources
• Depersonalization Negative, callous, or
  excessively detached response to others loss of
  idealism starts as self-protective buffer of
  detached concern but leads to dehumanization
• Reduced personal accomplishment Feelings of
  incompetence and productivity feeling like a
  failure work suffers

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• Skovholts Burnout Types
• Meaning burnout
• When ones work of giving to others no longer
  offers sufficient meaning/purpose to lifean
  existential crisis
• Activities seem routine and boring
• Not feeling helpful to students
• Caring burnout
• When there is a disruption in the caring cycle
  with students
• Process of attachment to, active involvement
  with, and separation from students
• Depletion accumulates, generates negative energy,
  and professional disengages from process

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• General characteristics of burnout
• Acute or chronic
• Mild to severe
• Symptoms tend to be progressive and worsen if not
  detected or if left unchecked
• Manifests in variety of symptoms

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• Physical symptoms Fatigue, overwhelming
  exhaustion, weariness, tension, insomnia,
  physical illness, low energy
• Emotional/psychological symptoms Boredom, feel
  out of control or overwhelmed, resentment, guilt,
  moodiness, frustration, anger, helplessness,
  hopelessness, emotional drain, cynicism, anxiety,
  low self-confidence, tearfulness, dread of work,
  powerlessness

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• Cognitive/mental symptoms Negative attitude
  about work and about students, self-doubts,
  decreased concentration, memory difficulties,
  forgetfulness, focus on negative parts of each
  day
• Interpersonal symptoms Withdrawal from
  colleagues, withdrawal from friends and family,
  isolation, avoiding others, relationships
  suffering

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• Disengagement symptoms Inability to care about
  job, detachment from students and loved ones,
  missing work, daydreaming, desire to quit work or
  escape, use of alcohol/drugs
• Work quality symptoms Decline in quality of
  work, procrastination, decreased enthusiasm, lack
  of interest, decreased motivation,
  ineffectiveness, impairment via incompetence or
  unethical behaviors

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What are the risk factors for burnout?

• Concerns inherent in work environment and job
  conditions
• Systemic issues Excessive workloads, lack of
  administrative support, lack of appreciation or
  recognition, budgetary limitations,
  organizational politics, rules/restrictions/polici
  es, long hours, decreases in wages/benefits,
  unrealistic or unclear expectations, value
  conflicts, lack of resources, lack of control,
  unfairness

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• Stresses from students Challenging them to
  learn/grow/take action, student disinterest,
  emotionally distressed students, unmotivated
  students, disruptive students, not knowing what
  happens to students who drop classes/discontinue
  services/leave school (ambiguous loss)
• Stresses specific to teaching Adequate
  preparation for classes, workload, staying
  current in field, grading, feedback from students
  and colleagues, meeting deadlines, elusive
  measures of success
• Additional stresses Conflict with colleagues,
  advancement in position, setting limits and
  boundaries, staying ethical in work, ineffective
  meetings, managing the different roles of job

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• Cultural factors
• Social, political, and economic factors that
  shape the work environment
• Decrease of quality of workplace health
• Budget cuts to higher education
• Value on overachievement and over-functioning
• Normalized and rewarded in our culture to
  overextend ourselves beyond our developmental,
  physical, or emotional capacities
• Confused with ambitiousness
• Blurs boundary between professional and personal
  lives

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• Stage in professional development
• Novice professional
• Ideals fade when faced with reality of everyday
  work tasks
• Not enough guidance
• Performance anxiety
• Finding own style
• Preoccupation with students, work tasks
• Mixed emotionsfrustration, fear, pride, delight,
  relief
• Seasoned professional
• More likely to be from boredom and
  under-stimulation
• Work becomes predictable as it is mastered

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• Disruption in attachment-involvement-separation
  process
• Process involves attaching to students, becoming
  actively involved with them, and separating from
  them as academic semester/year ends
• If difficulty at attachment phase, may care too
  much and take on students distress and problems,
  taking it home with them
• Active involvement is usually easiest part
  because it reflects ones content area of
  expertise
• Separation phase can be difficult because it is a
  loss and problems may arise if not prepared for
  loss
• Need to find balance between emotional
  involvement and emotional distance so can
  continually attach, stay involved, and separate

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• Individual variables
• Unmet personal needs or conflicting needs
• Ability to tolerate stress
• Varies from person to person based on
  physiological, psychological, and developmental
  factors
• Stress response releases hormones that activate
  nervous system into heightened alertness and
  over-activity of many of the major systems of the
  body
• Has survival value but is often prolonged beyond
  the immediate crisis and can result in a variety
  of problems negatively affecting health and
  well-being
• Caregiving tendencies
• Typically are self-sacrificing, at work and at
  home
• Take care of others to expense of own development
• Difficulty setting limits and boundaries
• Suppressing/not discussing problems or feelings
• Personal life stressors or crises

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• Defining identity mainly through work
• Have to keep working to feel competent and
  important
• Work may divert us from personal problems or may
  be what we latch on to if we do not know
  ourselves
• Run risk of becoming a compulsive worker, or
  workaholic who gets an adrenaline rush from work
  and deadlines, leaves personal life in shambles,
  has little sense of peace
• Belief that it is selfish or self-indulgent to
  give time and attention to ourselves
• Not realizing how giving to ourselves allows us
  to be more effective in our work
• Not understanding that it is self-respecting and
  responsible to spend time in self-care

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• Biases in our thinking
• Underaccumulation bias
• Tendency to view stressful experiences in
  isolation from each other rather than a long
  sequence of similar decisions that have a
  cumulative effect that puts us at risk for
  burnout
• May have this bias especially if there are not
  many or any initial negative consequences from
  actions (e.g., working late, taking on more and
  more, bring work home)
• Optimism bias
• Belief that bad things are more likely to happen
  to others than to oneself, leading to an
  underestimation of the need for prevention
• Not aware of increasing risk
• Feeling invulnerable to negative consequences of
  stress

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How can burnout be prevented?

• System-centered approaches
• Options may include
• Eliminating or modifying worksite stressors
  (e.g., limiting work loads)
• Enhancing the job experience (e.g., giving
  employees voice in policy decisions and job
  functions)
• Offering training (e.g., self-care, conflict
  resolution, time management)
• Creating an open, supportive, well-communicating
  work environment
• Offer regular recognition of employee achievement
  
• Making Employee Assistance Programs and wellness
  services available

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• Person-centered approaches
• Though burnout often results from the stresses in
  the organization, few organizations will take
  significant steps to preventing burnout
• Leaves responsibility for preventing burnout in
  the hands of employees
• Numerous ways of preventing burnout to choose
  from
• When possible, reducing or eliminating stressors
  in professional and personal lives is a starting
  place
• Find a balance between maintaining personal and
  professional lives by tending to both

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• Maintaining oneself professionally
• Change work patterns
• Decrease hours
• Slow down pace
• Take breaks
• Avoid overtime
• Vacations, time off, leave of absence
• Avoid unnecessary meetings
• Set priorities daily

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• Focus on professional development
• Inservices, workshops, conferences
• Developing new skills and interests
• Reflection on professional development, including
  own observations and feedback from others
• Clarify professional goals and values and avoid
  activities/commitments that do not fit
• Prevent boredom by seeking out novelty in work
• Look at uniqueness in each repeat experience
• Change work tasks, methods used, time allocation
  for tasks
• Involve self in a variety of work tasks and roles
  
• Increase skills for utilizing and managing
  technology

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• Create your own growth-promoting work place
• Aesthetics, personal comforts in office
• Seek out leaders, mentors who promote balance
• Seek out professional social support
• Laugh, use humor, be playful at work
• Learn to accept self as good enough employee
• Accept that it is impossible to perform at 100
  capacity, 100 of the time
• Accept that B work quality is enough at times

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• Use rewards to increase enjoyment at work
• To encourage self
• To acknowledge work done
• To overcome barriers
• To soften unpleasant tasks
• To celebrate accomplishments
• Can include activities, relaxations, luxuries,
  food, time, exercise, self-praise, time with
  others

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• Minimize ambiguous loss
• Acknowledge that students come and go
• Discuss with colleagues, get support
• Find a way to get closure from loss of students
• Value the achievements/progress of students
• Say goodbye
• Reflect on what you have learned from students
• Avoid over-involvement with students
• Set boundaries
• Say no to unreasonable requests for help
• Consult with colleagues

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• Maximize your experience of professional success
• Evaluate different aspects of professional
  functioning
• Changes for student is only one aspect
• Limited control over this
• Look for small gains and positive feedback from
  students
• Success may go undetected, unexpressed, or
  unappreciated
• Recognition by supervisors, peers, others
• Limited control over feedback we get by others
• Savor it before it is gone before rushing to next
  task
• Expert knowledge content
• More control over this
• Keeping up-to-date, growing intellectually in
  professional knowledge
• Professional relationship process
• More control over the working alliance with
  students
• Being fully present for them

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• Maintaining oneself personally
• Develop preventive coping skills
• Time management
• Conflict resolution
• Problem-solving skills
• Relaxation skills
• Deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation
• Visualization, music
• Massage

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• Utilize social resources
• Professional support from colleagues
• Guidance from supervisors, mentors
• Personal support from family and friends
• Seek counseling
• Limit or eliminate unhealthy relationships
• Support provides
• Direct assistance
• Emotional comfort
• New insights
• Recognition of work
• Basis for comparison for ones reactions
• Reduces isolation
• Increases encouragement, optimism, humor

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• Pay attention to physical health
• Adequate nutrition
• Balanced diet, avoid emotional eating
• Exercise
• Aerobic exercise
• Yoga
• Strength training
• Adequate sleep
• Avoid/limit use of caffeine, tobacco, alcohol,
  drugs
• Medical care
• Preventive care
• Management of health issues

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• Increase self-awareness
• Self-awareness helps when monitoring oneself for
  signs of burnout and keeping balance between care
  of self and care of others
• Develop an understanding of ones personality,
  needs, and motivations to gain insight into
  personal risks for developing burnout
• Assess attitudes, personal standards and
  expectations, spiritual-philosophical values and
  ethics, interaction of personal
  ideals/aspirations with job conditions
• Solitary time in self-reflection, journaling

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• Be a coach to yourself
• Encourage yourself instead of berating yourself
• Remind yourself to keep things in perspective
• Always more than one way to look at and approach
  a situation
• Will it matter in 10 years?
• Reiterate to yourself your commitment to
  continuous self-care and replenishment and the
  reasons for doing so
• Cultivate an attitude accepting of altruistic
  egotism holding own welfare as sacred and
  believing that your obligation to own well-being
  is necessary for competent care of/work with
  others

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• Tap into your spiritual-philosophical resources
• Prayer, meditation, religious practices
• Reading spiritual or inspirational materials
• Spending time in nature
• Spiritual counseling/advising
• Reflect on values
• Reflect on meaning from work, life

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• Cultivate your care-free side
• Spend time in leisure, recreation
• Develop and participate in hobbies
• Use humor and laughter as a stress-reliever
• Seek out positive life experiences

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Conclusion

• Work in higher education demands care of
  professional self and personal self
• Many options that will help in doing so
• Professional and ethical imperative to prevent
  burnout as the potential cost to students,
  selves, professions may be great