Professional burnout of top managers

ayshakhatunasha

Modern employers are well aware of how much the consequences of professional burnout cost them, which include a decline in productivity and involvement in work processes, a deterioration in the socio-psychological climate, a decrease in job satisfaction, and an increase in staff turnover.

The specifics of top managers' work include socio-economic instability, high competition in the labor market, the need to quickly respond to changing conditions, where they have to make decisions every day that affect their career, the fate of their subordinates and the organization as a whole. Not everyone can adapt to such conditions and effectively carry out their professional activities, which leads to a disruption of the physical, mental and emotional state of the individual and often becomes the cause of professional burnout.
How do we kill ourselves at work?
Emotional burnout (also known as psychological burnout) is a complex of mental experiences and behavior that have a direct impact on the employee's performance, physical and psychological well-being, and interpersonal relationships. Thus, it is rather a process than a condition that develops over time, starting with severe and prolonged stress at work. Market realities increasingly make demands on top managers that exceed their available resources. As the consequences of work stress virtual phone number service worsen, moral and physical strength is exhausted, a person's activity decreases, the number of contacts decreases, and their quality declines. Along with this, indifference to work develops, cynicism and aggression appear, work motivation declines, the quality and productivity of work deteriorate, and health deteriorates.

Professional burnout
One of my priority tasks in the field of career counseling , I chose to study the socio-psychological characteristics of professional burnout of top managers. To solve this problem, in the period from 2019 to 2021, Administrative Resource conducted a study, the purpose of which was to identify the socio-psychological aspects that affect the professional burnout of company executives.

To achieve the set goal, an empirical study was conducted on the basis of OOO Administrative Resource in Minsk, in which 132 heads of commercial organizations (81 men and 51 women) took part. The following were used as the main tools: a questionnaire aimed at studying the socio-demographic characteristics, the questionnaire "Attitude to work and professional burnout"; the questionnaire "Losses and acquisitions of personal resources"; the questionnaire "Motivation for success and fear of failure"; "Questionnaire of social and psychological attitudes"; the technique "Ways to overcome life problems and defense mechanisms of the individual"; the questionnaire "Diagnostics of strategies of behavioral activity in stressful conditions". The results were processed using the methods of mathematical and statistical analysis (descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis criterion, the Wilcoxon T-criterion).


Results of the study of professional burnout of 132 Minsk managers
1. Most of the top managers who took part in the study are characterized by an average (36%) and high (33%) level of professional burnout. This indicates the presence of developing emotional exhaustion, a feeling of tension and exhaustion of internal resources. As a result - fatigue, developing emotional detachment, loss of previous interest in work and a decrease in professional efficiency. The main unfavorable factor of professional burnout is emotional exhaustion, and not the cognitive and physical aspects of fatigue from work.
2. Most of the "burned out" top managers (56.2%) are characterized by an exaggerated need for activity, which is manifested in the inability to distract themselves from work, relax, in the lack of time for rest and entertainment. Such managers experience constant tension of mental and physical strength in the struggle for success. Those managers who have a favorite business or hobby have higher self-esteem, there is a desire to engage in professional development, and accordingly, their burnout level is lower.
3. The analysis did not reveal any significant relationships between professional burnout and age, length of service, and marital status. That is, managers of any age, length of service, and marital status are susceptible to the development of professional burnout syndrome. However, the study revealed that female managers are slightly more likely to exhibit both the integral index of professional burnout and all its symptoms than male managers. It was also revealed that female managers are more process-oriented, while male managers are more result-oriented, and fear of failure is more common among female managers than among men. At the same time, no significant differences were found between men and women in the type of behavioral activity and the way they overcome life's problems; both strive to solve problems on their own and demonstrate business activity.



Emotional burnout

4. Top managers with emotional burnout syndrome tend to be impulsive, emotionally incontinent, have an inability to listen to the other person until the end, are competitive, ambitious, and aggressive towards people who resist the implementation of plans. Among other things, they are characterized by frustration with external circumstances and life's difficulties, an unwillingness to give up on achieving a goal despite the "defeat", to perform daily thorough and monotonous work; impatience, a desire to do everything quickly: walk, eat, talk, make decisions.
5. "Burned-out" managers are least likely to be motivated to succeed, i.e. they show less initiative, tend to avoid responsible tasks, and are less persistent in achieving their goals. In the event of failure in completing a task, its attractiveness, as a rule, decreases. Such managers tend to perceive and experience time as “aimlessly flowing”, and they tend to plan their future for less distant periods of time than “non-burnt-out” managers. That is, “burnt-out” managers are more inclined to avoid solving problems than those with a medium or low level of professional burnout syndrome.
6. Regardless of the degree of professional burnout, top managers strive to solve their problems on their own, without resorting to the help of others (psychologists, coaches, psychotherapists, career consultants). As a result, the development of professional burnout has a negative impact on the ability of a manager to be successful and satisfied with the quality of their life; they have reduced stress resistance and less adaptive potential than managers with a low level of professional burnout.
7. The resource index is higher for managers without professional burnout syndrome. The development of professional burnout and all its symptoms reduces the resource index, that is, a burned-out manager loses much more resources than he receives in return.
8. Respondents with pronounced professional burnout are dominated by attitudes focused on the process, money, and power. Whereas in “non-burnt-out” subjects, these attitudes are less pronounced, and the dominant orientation is toward results and freedom.