The sources of burnout

There are several sources that leads to burnout. One source refers to insufficient clarification of roles and responsibilities. Normally staff feels caught in the middle when receives conflicting messages from different superiors, when requirements exceed the resources and skills or when the tasks do not coincide with their aspirations and skill.
If we see some requirements as unclear responsibilities it will be obvious the conflict between them and resources.
Lack of adequate information on the tasks to be fulfilled and so their failure will result in a decreased self-esteem and affect the sense of personal fulfillment.
Another source of exhaustion refers to the blocking of creativity in work, exclusion from decision-making cycle and limitations on the discretion of work. The unknown always causes alarm and standoff from taking decision that concern personal staff can be stressful because they do not know what to expect.
Nobody knows someone's job better than the person concerned, and organizations should be open to their suggestions and to enable them to improve work environment in certain limits.
Paradoxically, a source of exhaustion can be boredom as the starting point. The circumstances leading to the emergence of boredom relates to the existence of a low variety of tasks and opportunities for expansion of knowledge. Thus, employees become uninterested in their job, which will become for them a source of conflict. And this scheme fits in the scheme mismatch between resources and requirements.

The effects of burnout on the organization

The effects of burnout on the organization results from increase staff dissatisfaction, absenteeism, staff fluctuation and reduce productivity.
More than just a physical environment, the organization is primarily a social environment, a community of people characterized by common ideals. It may be said that people compile the organization and each one has his meaning in this broad mechanism. It is then easy to understand how corruption can affect an entire piece. Tired individuals, who are permanently in a state of tension, unmotivated or unhappy do a major disservice to the organization in which they work. State of gratitude and satisfaction of employees is in direct relationship with the organization's prosperity.
One of the issues of the organization is the negative attitude the employees have towards it. This attitude is manifested in attempts of sabotage , assuming risks that can hurt both the organization and individual. An exhausted person identified the organization as the enemy and its activities will focus on the challenge of damages. Employee should not necessarily be bad on purpose, it is quite enough not to think a certain action.
Some employees which are in a state of exhaustion begin to oppose any changes to their current state, others seek solitude and do not express their opinions anymore. Withdrawal from society and the refusal to express opinions is a form of standoff.
Once the burnout installed the self-esteem decreases due to dissatisfaction at work. A combination of dissatisfaction and a decrease of self esteem due to breakdown can have serious consequences for individuals who seek satisfaction in the consumption of alcohol and drugs. Staff absenteeism and fluctuation are less damaging ways for the individual but with adverse consequences for the organization.
In the event of exhaustion in an organization is necessary to use strategies of intervention, made after a complete analysis of the sources of burnout, factors and determinants of the characteristics of organization and personnel.

The effects of burnout on the individual

Not all individuals live the same the burnout phenomenon, but once it appears brings some common characteristics. Visible physical signs are increasing beatings heart, breathing and perspiration, and those less visible are: irritability, insomnia, anger and lack of interest in daily activities.
From an emotional point of view feelings of impotence and loss of hope, moral and low self esteem appear.
Burnout attacks health of the individual and physical fatigue leads to decrease body immunity,to a worsening of disease symptoms and slight increase in risk of infection.
If physical fatigue attacks health, the emotional fatigue has consequences in interpersonal relationships,decreasing the communication and raising a barrier between people.
A person emotionally exhausted will not feel the need to communicate with colleagues and customers, more he will see them as enemies as sources of the stress he lives.
Exhaustion attacks also satisfaction and work efficiency. Fatigue does not allow the person to manifest at its maximum capacity. The exhausted person doesn't reaches his potential and is liable to commit mistakes. And so the work efficiency decreases, and satisfaction on the work performed is diminished.
The person is not satisfied by her work, not only because she doesn't have achievements but also because fatigue prevent her from feeling anything.
Exhaustion dries enthusiasm and motivation and leads to depression, the feelings of impotence and anger and stimulating irritability and a more serious consequence is to recourse in order to solve the problem to the consumption of alcohol and drugs.

Stages of burnout

Burnout is considered to be a multidimensional phenomenon that consists of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low personal fulfillment.
A good understanding of the development of these stages is a prerequisite for developing effective intervention strategies.
Accumulated empirical evidence suggests that burnout is a process that develops gradually over time. Below are the stages of burnout, some of their characteristic and a characterization of what the individual feels in each stage.

1. The first stage is characterized by a disagreement between demands and resources that leads to feelings of emotional distress. In this stage the individual feels impoverished with work, morning tired, exhausted, frustrated, and it comes difficult to work with people.

2. In the second stage the person develops a set of negative attitudes and behaviors such as the tendency to treat clients in a detached and mechanical way or the cynical concern to meet their own needs. The person becomes professional insensitive , treats people as objects , do not care what happens to them and may feel that others blame him for their problems. This stage is called depersonalization.

3. The third stage comprises a decrease in worker's efficiency to achieve his goals. Thus a decrease of personal fulfillment and feelings of incompetence and self-bending appears. The person reaching this stage can not effectively cope with problems, considers himself not to have a good influence on others, can not understand and pity others,and doesn't consider his work attractive anymore.

The Burnout Syndrome

Burnout is the final stage of a prolonged state of stress lived by an individual , without possibility of release. A stressful situation that repeats forever, can not be changed and does not give the individual an opportunity for defense against stressful factors will inevitably lead to burnout.
Depletion is characteristic of a person unable to cope successfully with stress,who leads a bad management of stressful situations. This inability is temporary and is related with the perception of the situation. The situation is perceived as threatening, difficult or impossible to control or changed, and living it as a permanent condition of life considerably reduce any possibility of releasing the stress.
Exhaustion can be viewed as an imbalance, perceived by the individual between resources and requirements.
Resources refer to the individual possibilities, namely skill and abilities he has and which ensure him that optimal adaptation to the environment.
Requirements are all factors in the environment to which the individual has a certain responsibility.
Burnout is a state of contradiction between individual and environment, or between individual resources and excessive demands that unbalance adaptive function.
It should be noted that burnout is not synonymous with stress. Stress is a physical or psychological pressure that result from requirements that exceed the resources.
Burnout, however, marks a situation which is in process of deterioration ,coming from a deficient management of stress. It is a response to a chronic situation of prolonged stress, opposite to the occasional reactions to acute stress.