by Mary Powell
Burnout is discussed a great deal these days. Thank goodness. We have to address it, as many people are burned out due to their jobs.
Burnout has three parts: emotional exhaustion, cynicism toward the job, and a decreased feeling of personal accomplishment. People are often told that the way to help with burnout is through “self-care.” Self-care often means eating healthy, exercising, feeling and venting emotions, hobbies, meditating, spending time with loved ones, sleeping, and anything that tells us to “do you.”
This idea appeals to many people. They try self-care, and it works much of the time. All too often, however, this solution ends up being a temporary one — a sort of band-aid. The person feels better, but then goes right back into their stressful work environment and becomes burned out again. Making self-care the cure for job burnout sets us up for failure.
What happens is that the cause of burnout gets ignored. We avoid what needs to change. And that is the job itself. For several decades, studies on burnout have found that the work environment is the primary cause of job burnout. And therefore, burnout is not a failing on the individual’s part. As mental health professionals, such as myself, we tell people that they should practice self-care to cure burnout.
I am in complete agreement that it is important to take the utmost care of ourselves physically, emotionally, psychologically, socially, and spiritually, especially if that is all that we can do and can control in terms of our jobs. In a way, Jesus talked about self-care. With anxiety, He told people not to worry about tomorrow’s stress but to only focus on today’s.
Yet with this statement, He was also implying that the things causing us to worry were outside ourselves. That it wasn’t our imagination. I am an expert in the field of burnout among social workers and social work students. In research on job burnout, some of us emphasize “coping” instead of self-care.
Jesus was trying to teach people how to cope with things that we have no control over. He knew that the outside systems in people’s worlds were responsible for their weariness. He said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened. And I will give you rest.” He did not say, “Go get exercise. Eat your apples. Go. Go take care of yourselves.” He told people to come to Him. He didn’t reject people the way work environments can reject us.
Jesus saw that many people had tried to do plenty for themselves. They ran to Him because they had already tried everything, including practicing self-care. People needed to hear something that would finally help.
And with our jobs, we need certain things from our employers that can help prevent burnout. In my 17 years of research, I found that things that will stop us from burning out are an empathetic boss who is regularly available, independence, opportunities for promotion, a reasonable workload, feeling clear on what needs to be done, tasks that match our values and vision, and good pay.
Some studies, including one that I conducted, have looked at two styles of coping that are associated with job burnout.
One is called “problem-focused coping.” This involves solving problems concretely through taking active steps to solve the problem, asking people for solutions, a sort of “fix-it” strategy. When people are using problem-focused coping, they are trying to actively solve the problem or reduce stress. Studies have found that when people use problem-focused coping, they have less burnout. People typically use problem-focused coping when they feel they have control over the situation.
The other coping style is called “emotion-focused coping.” People use this strategy when they feel they have no control over their job situation, that they can’t change it. Emotion-focused coping involves things like feeling their emotions, venting, looking for spiritual guidance, or turning to their religion.
We certainly need to practice self-care when we are burned out at work. But more important, we should use emotion-focused coping when we cannot control what happens at work. Coping is directly related to stress. Self-care is not.
A number of us are lucky to have work environments that nourish and fulfill us. But so many people do not. I recommend emotion-focused coping for those of you who cannot change what happens at your work. And one of these coping strategies is God.
Mary Powell, PhD, LCSW, NCPsyA, is a psychotherapist and professor at Fordham University.