Agnieszka Kalbarczyk When aiding is tiring: how to cope with stress and to prevent burn out syndrome in work with the unemployed and the job-seekers

Agnieszka Kalbarczyk

When aiding is tiring: how to cope with stress

and to prevent burn out syndrome in work with the unemployed and

the job-seekers

Workshop title inspired by

Jörg Fengler’s book

„For therapists, physicians and nurses, teachers, advocates, priests…..

- Helfen macht mude” (1996)

Relative terms and phenomena:

oJob StressoJob DepressionoJob Strain

Amount of demands, Opportunity to Control,

Social Support

Burn out – basic concept

The term „burn out” in professional discourse 1974 - dr Herbert J. Freudenberger,

an American psychiatrist

1980 - with G. Richelson - book „Burnout: How to Beat the High Cost of Achievement”

1976 - Christina Maslach – article in „Human

Behavior”

Definition

„breakdown of the psychological defense (that) workers use to adapt and cope with intense job-related stressors”

Herbert J. FreudenbergerThe Staff Burnout Syndrome in Alternative Institutions (1974)

Active vs passive burning out:• An active burning out – caused by institutional aspects,

external events and too many demands

• A passive burning out – internal reaction to those external

factors, as a result of too little resilience (some personality traits, lack of distance toward oneself, beliefs)

What does it look like?„Workers are conceding their time. They

are working longer hours. They are taking work home, often continuing after hours on computer equipment they have purchased themselves.

They are devoting more time to tasks that are not personally rewarding,

that is, that are not enjoyable and psychologically

do not further their careers.” Maslach & Leiter

The Truth About Burnout (1997)

So as a consequence...

„three things happen:1. you become chronically exhausted; 2. you become cynical and detached

from your work; 3. and you feel increasingly ineffective

on the job.” Maslach & Leiter

The Truth About Burnout (1997)

Burnout process• begins from demands, pressure and

amount of work exceeding one’s ability• trough the individual worker’s ineffective

attempts to manage• the first burn out symptoms of an

individual whose coping capacity becomes insufficient to the amount of stress one experiences

• but at the end one’s clients suffer as well, because one is no longer able to give the best to the clients one serves.

The nature of burnout• Occurs gradually • Processual - different number of stages

(from 3 to 12)• Lasting too long becomes chronic• Wrong coping strategies, when adopted,

make it deeper • Circle of1. perceiving one’s job as a stressful2. applying destructive coping strategies3. stabilizing or even deepening of burnout

Maslach’s burn out conceptPsychological syndrome of• emotional exhaustion – caused by emotional

overload• sense of low personal achievement – feeling of low

competence and lack of success at work • depersonalization expressed in negative attitudes

and reaction to recipients of one’s servicethat can concern

- some people, - working in some professions- in some special way…

Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) 1986

(together with Susan E. Jackson);contains three general scales:· of emotional exhaustion - assesses

feelings of being emotionally exhausted by one's work

· of personal accomplishment - assesses feelings of competence and achievement in one's work

· of depersonalization - assesses an unfeeling and impersonal response toward recipients of one's service, care treatment, or instruction

Burn out symptoms

differ among individuals dependant on

• individual physiological way of reacting

• one’s resources – cognitive, social, material

• stage of burn out process

Different symptoms of burn out in different professions – dependant on the job specificity

(for example among medical staff: being insincere, lying about patients chance of recovery, black humour especially about dying)

General burn out symptoms

Negative emotions• feelings of frustration, anxiety,• being angry, depressed,

dissatisfied • become chronic emotional fatigue


Psychosomatic or even health problems:• Chronic fatigue • Probable increased vulnerability to illness:colds,headachesbackaches • Frequent or prolonged illness• Sleeping problems until insomnia


Interpersonal problems • increasing communication difficulty

with co-workers, friends and family members;

• family stress – less time spent together• tendency to withdraw and neglect

other relationships – very probable among „helping" professionals;


Declining job performance: - quality and quantity of your work

decrease- rather subjective than objective


Feelings of meaninglessness • especially probable in the case of

those, who at the beginning were very enthusiastic and dedicated to their job

• the enthusiasm is replaced by cynicism

Style of destructive coping

Substance abuse (so treated usually as symptoms):

• more alcohol and drugs, • poor eating, more or less than before, • drinking more coffee • if smoking - more cigarettes Developing or worsening of bad habits -

instead of giving help and relief, diminishes one’s physical resilience.


Reacting emotionally • in extreme, exaggerated ways• not adequately to the situation –

strong reaction to minor problems• misplaced Getting away physically but not

mentally


• withdrawal from or even breakdown of meaningful and important relationships and friendships

• withdrawal from pleasant activities – because of tiredness and lack of motivation

• working more but less effectively and worse

Instead of helping, diminishes one’s psychological resilience.

Burn out as an individual problem

„The conventional wisdom is that burnout is primarily a problem of the individual.

That is, people burn out because of flaws in their characters, behavior, or productivity.

According to this perspective, people are the problem, and the solution is to change them or get rid of them …”

Maslach & LeiterThe Truth About Burnout (1997)

Proposals of reducing burn out at the individual level:

Taking care of one-self:practicing favorite (in the past)

activities – even without motivationbody exercise relaxing - rest, relaxation and sleeppersonal, individual methods of

improving one’s mood

Why just the so called „helping professions” are especially

vulnerable to a job burn out?

Are they special people or special professions?

Both.Maslach conceptualizes a burn out

as a process which combines the key relationships between personal, social, and contextual variables.

Special people – An individual risk factors

• Primary personality predispositions as factors of burn out risk - Type A of personality

• Some personal needs - of being - outstanding - special or - popular and liked by everyone

An individual risk factors

• Some elements of one’s self imageI should always manageI am indispensable

I have to do this or everything will fall apart

I should do everything by myselfI must finish jobs with accuracy and

perfection


• Some primary attitudes towards the job and clients:

Being extraordinarily enthusiastic, optimistic, devoted and ……. unrealistic

Putting the focus on personal adequacy instead of organizational roles and responsibilities


• Personal beliefs producing burn out syndrome:

I am not allowed to neglect somebody asking for help

I am a person with a missionI feel personally responsible for my

clients’ progressSuccess of clients’ carriers depends

on my efforts

Counsellors’ attitudes towards relationship with the unemployed client

• Understanding help as reaching concrete result – „objectively good”

• Projecting the counsellor's value system on the client

• Not respecting the client as an independent person with free will

• Taking responsibilities for the client

Unemployed clients’ attitudes towards relationship with counsellors

Some clients don’t understand • that- to succeed in their carrier they must decide

by themselves;- they need time to reach success in their

carrier;- real help needs time, their involvement

and activity.and demand to be helped directly and

immediately.

Some advice for counsellors – to take as soon and as often as possible

1. Be aware of your own expectations and assumptions

2. Learn to set limits and learn to say NO – negotiate new/ temporary job schedule

3. Don’t hesitate to ask for help: be more willing to ask for help and share ideas with someone else

4. Recognize priorities and delegate tasks5. Appreciate your co-operators’ competence:

use their knowledge and experience

Some advice for counsellors – to take as soon and as often as

possible

7. Don’t bear somebody else’s stress 8. Notice positive side of your job

and even smaller successes in job 9. Recognize when you need help in

coping with yourself 10.……?

Burn out as an organizational problem

„burnout is not a problem of the people themselves

but of the social environment in which people work ...”


An institutional risk factors

„..burnout in individual workers says more about the conditions of their job than it does about them.

Contrary to popular opinion, it's not the individual but the organization that needs to change …”


What is so special about vocational counsellors work?

• People with problems as typical recipients of service – unemployed seeking for a job

• Frequent contact with their negative emotions, behavior

• Demand of being in a psychological contact with clients as they are

• Persistent contact with clients burned out because of unemployment

What is so special about vocational counsellors work?

• Help and assistance as a basic form of a job

• Expected behavior - requiring the control and use of one’s own body, verbal and non verbal expression in an „appropriate way” - to meet goals oriented to client needs

• Goals of clients - being employed - rarely reached

Burn out as a result of a relationship between job and a person – result of

mismatching

„Burnout is the index of the dislocation between

what people are and what they have to do.”


Primary conditions of burn out • on the stage of selection for the counsellor’s

job: being - badly educated- too optimistic about the counsellor’s job- not prepared for job conditions- not prepared for job difficulties and troubles- not informed about real job conditions or

informed inadequately• at work- not being trained further- being underpaid

At organizational level

„Contrary to popular opinion, it's not the individual but the organization that needs to change …”


The My Relationship with Work Test (by Maslach) evaluates :

• Workload: working alone or with others, amount of work to

be completed, deadlines• Control:authority, decision making, professional judgment• Reward: salary, benefits, perks, recognition of achievement• Community: organizational communication, employee

interaction

My Relationship with Work Test• Fairness: diversity, cultural sensitivity, disciplinary

procedures, management's treatment of staff• Values: management's commitment to the

organization's values and mission, justice, honesty

Leiter & Maslach (2005)Banishing Burnout: Six Strategies for

Improving Your Relationship with Work

What is the relation of „helping professionals” i.e.

social workers, medical staff or vocational counsellors

to their job?

Some general features of bad job description

overloaded work scheduleno opportunity to controltreatment of workers perceived as

unfair or unjustweakness of communityconflict of values Research has demonstrated that lack

of control is extremely stressful

Some general features of good job description

participation in the setting of goals clarity of goals, demands,

instructions, feedback on progress, meeting

deadlines acknowledgement for job

performance

Basic ways and methods of coping with and prevention of job burning

Different proposals for diminishing job burn out

• more self-management, • stress control, • building social support network and using it, • developing skills: professional as well as social and coping skills

• job adapting, • changing jobs, • neutral thoughtfulness – „detached concern”

– keeping emotional distance but behavioral involvement

Change of thinkingDo you want to be helping?If you appreciate help as a virtue, let other

people be helpful for you

If you forget, that you are a human being, consider:

you use your own body and mind to help others, so you are kind of helping tools

– you take care of your machines and domestic tools, don’t you?

To cope or to prevent?

Programs were quite successful for less burned out participants.

Those with stronger symptoms of burn out syndrome didn’t take as big an advantage.

Especially difficult to reduce and change is depersonalization – core dimension of burn out at the counsellor’s job

Conclusions:

• It is absolutely necessary to prevent burn out syndrome, before it occurs,

• It is too difficult to cure or at least reduce it.

Documents

Agnieszka Kalbarczyk When aiding is tiring: how to cope with stress and to prevent burn out syndrome in work with the unemployed and the job-seekers