Burnout conspiracy?

Burnout- that's the first time I used the word. First off, let's get a good definition and then we'll talk about if I have it or if you have it!

Some of you may wonder why I care so much about my profession to do all this work on my time off. Again, my personality type - EMFJ states that I must do something that I am passionate about. Since burnout has been defined as “erosion of the soul” (Thomas Skovholt, The Resilient Practitioner) and a loss of will to do the work, something more serious than the need for a vacation, Confucius say that I must uncover the rediscover my enthusiasm for the profession or forget it all together.

Traditionally, the word “burnout” was used to describe people who can't handle the pressures and everyday stresses on the job and continues to be perceived as an individual problem or personality flaw.

Schultz, Greenley and Brown (1995) define burnout as "emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment [occurring in response to] the chronic emotional strain of dealing extensively with other human beings when they are troubled or having problems” (pg. 333). In other words, people burnout because they can't deal with clients.

How many social workers have been approached by people who say, "God, you are so noble"? Many of us are irritated by this statement and rebel stating, "I can handle my clients. I'm the type of person who can put up with this". Sure it takes a certain type of person to deal with trauma, resistant clients and personal hardships. Thus, the first thoughts about burnout are, “if I have it, I'm not admitting it because that means maybe I can't handle this work”. After putting up with my last job, I realized that I already blamed myself for everything, so why not move closer to that anxiety and explore it.

So I read books about people who are likely to experience burnout. Staff characteristics that contribute to burnout have higher levels of education and less experience (Schultz et. Al, 1995). This seems to indicate novice professionals are burning out right out of graduate school, or when they are forming professional identities. This indicate that the newbie isn't able to deal with the profession.

Grosch and Olsen (1994) state that many people do social work for the wrong reasons and are more likely to get burnt out. In other words, it is healthy for helpers to help others make sense of things, but unhealthy to make quick judgment. It is healthy to live vicariously, but be cautious of over-involvement. Listening to clients can be an adventure, but invasion is a risk. It is healthy to feel useful and needed, but you can't only feel useful and needed at work. Well, I assess myself high on the “ability to set boundaries scale” and this viewpoint has been backed up by colleagues. Boundaries are important because you can't be of use to others if you're sick of them. So , check- this isn't my problem.

Next step, if taking time off doesn't resolve anxiety about burnout, then do a genogram to resolve family of origin issues. Cool, let's resolve some Oedipal issues! I learned about fusion and cutoff (extremes in the Murray Bowen family continuum) that respectively mean over-involvement on a family system for identity or complete removal from family system. I even learned about the process of over-functioning, when parents don't functionally take charge so the kid picks up the slack. C'mon now guys, who has a functional family?I consider myself pretty lucky in the sense that I didn't have the shit beat out of me by anyone or get sexually abused. I did over-function in my family when I was 19 because my parents went through a divorce, but was this the reason that I was having trouble in social work? In Bowen's words, I was, in fact, “differentiated” from my family. So, check, family of origins really doesn't seem to be the problem either.

That leaves the one thing I can't control, the environment. More recent researchers have actually started to consider work environments where people are more likely to burnout. Thank god, maybe it's not all my fault.

Okay, that hits the spot a bit more- yes, the anxiety, frustration level is rising. In my opinion, it takes a god damn saint or a martyr (which I definitely am not) to put up with stressful clients plus a non-supportive work environment, incapable leaders, hostile management and little to no reward (financial and otherwise).

Now, you say, who is this girl trying to blame? Obviously there is something inherent about me that has made me more likely to burnout in my job (Person in Environment), but to read this over and over again that there must be something wrong with me if I can't deal, perpetuates a process which raises anxiety (enough of that) and keeps me living in the past. Here is the dichotomy of Psychoanalysis and acceptance. Acceptance needs to be practiced in order to move forward and abandon self blame and psychoanalysis is all about self-blame. Interesting how those of us who are prone to self-blame continue to self-psychoanalyze, while those who are prone to blame others continue to be solution focused.

In order for my anxious self to move on, I meditate on Pema Chodron's ideas that we can't know everything, and to think that we do is arrogant. Attempting to pick apart the mysteries of my life is a useless task. I am grateful for my childhood and my family. It's the past two years that have been of ultimate frustration and anxiety. That leaves the “family” of people at my job, (the I-Ching calls it Chia Jen) which is also in line with Bowen's theory- The Eight Concepts (Gilbert, 2004). Bowen states that a work team is just another family looking for balance. That doesn't mean that it's not fucked up. So forward movement, as the I-Ching says is to concentrate of myself as a part of this family (weird how on base that thing is. It's like it works or something!)

Therefore, I move the the concept of burnout as related to the work environment.

Here are a few tidbits of information that talk about the importance of a good learning environment on the job:

In the book When Helping Starts to Hurt, Grosch and Olsen (1994) talk about burnout as a result of the interplay between a person and his environment. Gallacher (1997) shows the importance of supervision, guidance and mentorship in the profession: "quality control in which the supervisor is responsible for monitoring employee performance; personnel development in which the supervisor is responsible for helping practitioners refine their skills and elaborate ... discipline-specific knowledge and their technical competencies; promoting commitment to the field and position, which, in turn, enhances motivation”. If this process is not effective, it seems that in turn, the employee loses motivation and burn out might be related to inappropriate mentorship.

Thomas Skovholt talks about the need for appropriate supervision during the early stages of practitioner development. Early stage practitioners are “fragile and incomplete” and need someone to guide, mentor and lead them. When these things are not provided the novice experiences a substantial level of anxiety which can be debilitating.

"Results show that a team organization structure, transformation and transaction leadership, and a clan culture are antecedents to a favorable work environment that leads to job satisfaction and less burnout” Schultz et al, pg. 340).

A positive work environment includes 1. job clarity, 2. goal congruence, 3. staff autonomy, 4. participating by staff- so they feel a sense of self efficacy and contribution. BINGO! If we're all on the same page – job role and goal congruence - even if we don't agree, but simply understand where everyone is coming from, if we understand how much freedom we have in decision making (autonomy) we feel like we are learning ourselves.

Other concepts of importance are 1. positive leadership, 2. organizational culture. I think we could safely say that my organization had a "cult", not necessarily a culture. With no understanding of my job role, goal congruence and no ability to participate, I had no self efficacy. While I was hired to not only be a clinician but to help be a part of developing a newer branch of the organization, it was my understanding that I was supposed to help develop new ideas. However, my supervisor's unwillingness to discuss ideas made me think either I was stepping on her toes, or that she did not agree (despite my attempts to clarify job role) and eventually caused me to feel stonewalled and back down.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-1465(199512)36%3A4%3C333%3AOMACEO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9#abstract

Two other books that look at the person in their environment theory are Lillian Glass's Toxic People and How to Deal with Difficult People at Work. They mainly talk about the fact that each individuals react differently to other individuals, especially supervisors. We all have someone who is “toxic” to us and it simply means we have to learn tactics to either, “unplug” or “deal” with them. It depends on what is less damaging. She is non-judging about people who choose to unplug saying sometimes we need to self-preserve.

Bowen family theory often talks about the importance of a leader differentiating while leading a group. Ironically, they are looked at as more of team player when they are clear about their own principles and identity.

Thus, it becomes evident that much of the effects of burnout can be attributed to a lack of differentiated leadership.

I need to make a statement on where I am going with all this information. First off, no matter how many books I read, I have not yet discovered the one with the best advice at all.

Quit your job. I went to three therapists for almost a year total going back and forth, weighing my options asking for feedback. The only thing that I got was increased anxiety because I felt it was my problem. Another truth about burnout (Maslach) is that you will feel like you are wrong. The agency, and even other therapists will make you feel crazy because burnout is thought to be your problem. No one pays attention to it, and no one validates it (families, friends, psychiatrists, helpers). Therefore, while the individual struggles to rectify the problem, they intensify it's symptoms rather than gaining validation and understanding. This is magnified for social workers because burnout is a loss of faith in the profession, so the first thing you need is guidance from a professional. As I reached out to the profession for help, I got aloofness and complete lack of opinion which validated and exaggerated my hatred and anxiety towards the profession.

I only quit my job because my massage therapist finally said, “you sound like an abused woman when you talk about your job. Don't stay there. Get the hell out, you're making yourself crazy. It's not you it's the agency”. This statement expressed an opinion and feedback. I have felt crazy for two years and the only objective person that could get through to me was not the person in the profession (the mentor, the leader, the guide) that I needed help from, it was a person in a totally different profession who has not yet been brainwashed.

What I need to clarify for myself is 1. what happened back there was not me and 2. that anyone in position would have broken down. I am a natural leader, I enjoy taking a stand and I understand adversity. How then did I back down against this type of adversity- why was I not strong enough?

My current purpose seems to be to use my frustration about my job (writing about it and exposing it) towards a bigger issue. The idea that social work as it stands is a cult. Only with exposure can light be shed on why and what to do about it. Given the fact that there are not many outraged social worker blogs, I feel a need to talk about this. There needs to be a complete revamping and that starts with someone BIGGER than the individual (Maslach). It starts with specific criticism of the system and how it affects the individual.