Employee Burnout in Higher Education
"Here鈥檚 a quote I once heard from a priest: If you don鈥檛 want to burn out, stop living like you鈥檙e on fire.鈥 -Brene Brown
The term 鈥渂urnout鈥 was first introduced in 1974 by American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger to describe the consequences of severe stress and high ideals in human professions (social workers, teachers, nurses, police officers, physicians, etc.). Freudenberger defined burnout as 鈥渢he extinction of or incentive, especially where one's devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results鈥 (1974). In 1989, Byrne and Hall explored the impacts of the three dimensions of burnout (exhaustion, depersonalization/cynicism, and reduced personal accomplishment) on teachers, including university instructors, as well as the work-related stress factors that contribute to burnout. Byrne and Hall found that a combination of personal traits and organizational factors directly contributed to feelings of burnout. 听