Talk:Burnout (psychology)

message: I think there should be a disambiguation page for burnout. What do you guys think? Duke toaster 16:41, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Disambiguation 

message: From the passage:
:Students are also prone to burnout at the high school and college levels; interestingly, this is not a form of work-related burnout, so perhaps this is better understood as a form of depression.
How is this not a form of work-related burnout?  Surely, if one is under pressure to always do more work than they can handle *at school*, the health related effects would be similar to some else always doing more work than they can handle *at work*, wouldn't they? --ErikStewart 21:44, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Work-related burnout 

message: I've experienced burnout and seen it in many people, especially in volunteer projects (open source, and associations).  My analysis is that it's not related to the stress or the work, but to the economic equilibrium of specific projects.  This is also why burnout is usually (always?) work-related.  What I think happens is this: an individual will invest a certain amount of energy and time in a project, expecting some benefit.  The short-term benefit can be moral support but in the longer term it must be economic, reflected in one's standard of living.  If the long-term benefit's don't appear, the individual becomes disillusioned and develops a strong aversion to the project, which shows itself as burnout.  I've also worked with people who have experienced this, and found that providing such individuals with a good economic basis (e.g. a paid job) can cure the burnout.  Money prevents and cures burnout.  This is why charities that survive always end-up with a core of (low-paid) professionals.  Ditto for open source projects.
To summarise:
# burnout is project-related.
# burnout hits men more often than women.
# burnout hits people after a certain period, usually 18-24 months, depending on the character and circumstances.
# burnout is caused by severe economic disbalance, caused by over-investment in a project that does not pay back.
# burnout can express itself as severe depression, anger, poor health.
# burnout is especially frequent in charities, associations, and open source projects where people work for no money under heavy peer pressure.
# burnout is preventable, and curable, by ensuring all hard work is fairly rewarded (economically, not emotionally).
There are many other forms of depression and tiredness but (work-related) burnout seems quite a specific syndrome.
Lastly: people who think emotional rewards (kudos) are enough to substitute for economic rewards are wrong - in fact emotional rewards often bind people even tighter to their projects, causing worse burnout in the long term.
If someone with better wiki skills than me want to add my explanation to the article, that'd be nice. -- Pieter Hintjens 10:34, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Analysis 

message: I'm also removing the following two sentences:
:"Burnout is often used generally to describe a lethargic feeling related to work"
:"Burnout differs from other mental health conditions, such as depression, as it is not chemical but is related to work."
The first sentence is redundant because it already says at the top of the article that the word burnout is used as a slang word for general exhaustion at work.
The second sentence is simply not true.  There is a chemical component underlying all mental conditions.  The chemistry of the brain is what is producing the thoughts and feelings associated with burnout syndrome.  Though such research has not been done,  if you were to test levels of diffuse modulatory neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine) in the brains of sufferers of burnout you would see alterations..  The author of this sentence, I gather, is getting at the strong role played by environmental factors in burnout -- that it is not somatic in origin.  However, "other mental illnesses" often also have environmental components, and some, such as PTSD, like burnout, are almost entirely associated with environmental causes.  There is no solid reason to make this distinction except to try to alleviate the stigma associated with mental illness, but in so doing, we must not further stigmatize those mental illnesses that are endogenous in origin (that are "chemical").
In any case, there has not, to my knowledge, been any research on the neurochemistry of burnout for us to cite, so we'll just leave this question out of the article. 
--Dwinetsk 20:58, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Unnecessary sentences

message: How is Compassion fatigue related to being burnout? --68.112.75.210 09:07, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Compassion fatigue

message: A couple of factors that, from my experience, are important in burnout and are under-considered in the article.
* Environmental toxins. Chemical, emotional, social. Like somatic energy, a person's psychological energy is not infinite. It's not just lack of positive feedback. Factors in the environment, often overlooked, can "short-circuit" that energy. Many "neuroticisms" are the result of under-recognized toxins. Noone wants to be neurotic; most people aren't born that way. 
* Job mismatch. Two examples.
1. the job does not permit the expression of a person's best skills (that self-motivate and self-reward them), it's like a "poor coupling" between the energy source and the energy sink. A pianist might make a poor jackhammer operator.
2. the job is superficially appropriate but performance is hampered by unexamined obstacles, toxins, busy-work that sucks time away from people's highest-efficiency skills.
This topic is *extremely* important in modern society; this article falls far short of even a good pop-psych magazine article. It deserves and needs a much more profound treatment. -Twang 21 December 2007  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.100.245.213 (talk) 23:55, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing considerations 

message: I have read several books and articles about burnout and this is the first time I see a mention of a particular burnout risk for "creative" professions such as these two. The passage really needs some references, or it should be deleted IMHO. Aren't we confusing it with the "writer's block" or something? I mean, sure, burnout can happen to every professional, but do "musicians and authors" deserve a preminent mention in a syndrome that hits mostly "helping professions"?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.208.31.222 (talk) 17:39, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Musicians and authors?!

message: The note of burnout expressed here can be derived from an actual account of engaging for example many Engineering design projects, maintaining unexpected project deadlines, and dealing with new employee millenium people who have the interest and motivation, but lack the practical comprehension of the tasks at hand.
As a result of this prolonged stress, the person can be depressed, angry, and dis-allusioned to a point that has compromised the well being of the body in whole. 
Burnout involves physical, emotional and intellectual fatigue that generally translates into weakened stamina, emotional exhaustion and feelings of despair and helplessness, and into the appearance of a negative attitude, equally towards oneself, as towards one’s work, life and people 
Burnout is the exhaustion due to overwork and generally affects professionals that mostly have responsibilities related to people and that pursue objectives which are difficult to attain. 
Risky situations are those where there is a misfit between the tasks and the means allocated to accomplish them or also if there is ambiguity and/or role conflicts. In these situations, the person may be unsatisfied or doubt the value of their work because they compare their results with ideal circumstances or because their accomplishments do not correspond to their true professional identity, to what they would really like to do and accomplish
Here are the primary symptoms of a burnout :
· Gradual loss of satisfaction at work: the person does not feel like going to work and becomes aware of their loss of satisfaction.
· The appearance of minor health problems: headaches, backaches, stomach aches, repeated colds, intestinal problems, loss of sleep.
· The problems affect the workplace: the person interacts inappropriately with their colleagues or reacts inappropriately to work situations. He/she becomes increasingly prone to angry outbursts and isolates himself.
· The loss of productivity and output: it is accompanied by depression and increased apathy. The final stage of this exhaustion is characterized by total apathy and the inability to gather inner resolve to respond to outer pressure and demands.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.76.160.92 (talk) 01:25, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Burn out  

message: The article mentions burnout particularly in healthcare workers. I've been involved in some research on that topic:
Taylor C, Graham J, Potts HWW, Candy J, Richards MA, Ramirez AJ (2007). Impact of hospital consultants' poor mental health on patient care. British Journal of Psychiatry, 190(3), 268-9
Taylor C, Graham J, Potts HWW, Richards MA, Ramirez AJ (2005). Changes in mental health of UK hospital consultants since the mid-1990s. The Lancet, 366(9487), 742-4. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67178-4
Graham J, Potts HWW, Ramirez AJ (2002). Stress and burnout in doctors. Lancet, 360, 1975-6.
I don't know if they might be of use. Bondegezou (talk) 14:24, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Burnout in health care workers

message: ...is not even close to what burnout is. If anyone wants to argue that it is a symptom of burnout, then "citation needed" as the saying here goes. --72.39.35.178 (talk) 20:44, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Depersonalization

message: Very little exploration has been made of the great similarities that burnout has to chronic fatigue syndrome. 
Perhaps the similarity of symptoms should be mentioned.
In the future, it may be seen that burnout is a variation of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Drgao (talk • contribs) 22:17, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

message: Could anyone send me the article via Email of burned out from ulrich kraft at the Scientific American Mind? I´m from Germany and don´t get the paper here.
By Kathy  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.116.182.180 (talk) 12:06, 3 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Scientific American Mind 

message: Hello everyone working on this page. Would it be alright for me to make some additions possibly. I am new to Wikipedia and am a student. I am working on a class project, and wanted to check in before changing or adding things. Thanks. User: SJP-Chaudhary  —Preceding undated comment added 04:54, 28 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Additions

message: The article somehow presumes that burnout only occurs in connection with employment, whereas it can occur in other situations too, such as self-employment, studies, unemployment, relations with public administration, and presumably other situations. The article would be more balanced without the presumption of an employment situation. That doesn't exclude specific mention of the employment situation of course. Flexfrog (talk) 18:12, 26 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Burnout in other situations than employment? 

message: Merging Occupational burnout into this article was suggested at Talk:Occupational burnout/Archives/2015#Merge proposal.  Perhaps it would be best for all comments to be added over there.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 00:14, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Emphasis added, for people like myself who miss it the first time.  Please do NOT leave a comment here.  Leave comments at Talk:Occupational burnout/Archives/2015#Merge proposal.  :-)   HTH. 74.192.84.101 (talk) 15:07, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: By no means a mistake, since the templates on both pages link here. Fixed. 93 01:50, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge proposal 

message: A couple of days ago I changed "Despite its great popularity, burnout is not recognized as a distinct disorder..."
to
"Despite how widespread it has become, burnout is not recognized as a distinct disorder..."
It's been reverted but I still think that "popularity" doesn't feel right here. Somehow "popular" indicates voluntary choices. Do people burn out because it's "in"?  
May I again replace "popularity" with "widespread"?  If not, why not?  --Hordaland (talk) 14:07, 23 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  "popularity"