Key Points:
- Individual burnout interventions help reduce burnout, modestly, and mostly impactful for combating the component of extreme fatigue and exhaustion
- Interventions do have a lasting impact, so it is worthwhile to equip employees with specific tools and techniques to reduce burnout
- Individual-level interventions are not enough; burnout is an organizational issue, and comprehensive, systemic interventions are needed to have more significant impact
Introduction
Burnout is a significant occupational issue characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment (or inefficacy). It affects employees across all work contexts and is linked to numerous negative work outcomes such as reduced productivity, absenteeism (see Burning the Midnight Oil for a review of burnout linked to job performance) as well as negative health outcomes. Despite numerous studies examining burnout’s causes and consequences, fewer have focused on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to mitigate burnout.
This study, conducted by Maricuțoiu and colleagues (2016), systematically analyzed prior research to assess how well controlled interventions reduce burnout levels among employees. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following three questions:
- Does the type of intervention influence the effectiveness (e.g., cognitive-behavioral [CBT], relaxation techniques, interpersonal skills training, or role-related skill development)?
- Are burnout interventions effective in improving self-reported symptoms of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment)?
- . Is the time since the end of the intervention important in evaluating its efficacy—is the intervention effective over time or does it diminish after an initial improvement period?
For General Burnout, Interventions Help
Researchers did in fact, find that interventions have a small, yet statistically significant impact on general burnout. With respect to the individual components of burnout, interventions were most effective in emotional exhaustion and had modest effects in other areas. Employees who reported feeling less stress and fatigue indicated that they were better able to manage workplace stressors post-intervention. In contrast, no changes were observed post-intervention for depersonalization—the feelings of detachment from work or others—or personal accomplishment—a sense of competence in one’s job.
Interventions Help Long-term Too
In contrast to prior research, this study found that the effects of interventions on emotional exhaustion lasted more than six months. This is a step forward in reinforcing the importance in equipping employees with tools and resources for stress management and coping skills; however, it calls attention to the need for ongoing work to understand long term intervention impact related to depersonalized and personal accomplishment – at both individual, team, and organizational levels.
Not All Interventions Are Created Equal
Several interventions were examined to understand their impact on addressing burnout mitigation and reduction. As noted, interventions had varying impacts on the unique aspects of burnout:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy was effective but had only a small effect on reducing emotional exhaustion
- Relaxation techniques had the largest effect on reducing emotional exhaustion, yet results were highly variable suggesting that effectiveness on how relaxation is integrated into workplace setting might make a difference
- Interpersonal skills training had a positive impact on personal accomplishment and no effect on emotional exhaustion or depersonalization
- Role-related training had marginal effects on emotional exhaustion and no effect on personal accomplishment or depersonalization
These findings are likely unsurprising, as the recovery from emotional exhaustion may be more within a person’s sphere of influence and control. Interventions like CBT and relaxation focus specifically on individual strategies that target stress-related fatigue, creating new thinking and skill patterns to manage anxiety-provoking situations, etc.
These findings also point to a need in the literature to continue focusing on intervention strategies that help address the other aspects of burnout, interpersonal and motivational components. However, individual-level interventions may be limited in these areas, given that burnout is an organizational phenomenon. While there are certainly many coping skills and behaviors that can be learned for individuals to navigate challenging situations and restore their psychological resources when demands are high, there are many other factors that contribute to burnout in organizational settings (e.g., workload distribution, inefficiencies in work processes, ineffective decision-making, barriers to collaboration, etc.) that often require intervention at levels far out of reach from one individual employee.
To Wrap This Up
While current interventions overall reduce burnout, modestly reduce emotional exhaustion, and in some cases improve the diminished sense of personal accomplishment, they do not significantly impact depersonalization. CBT and relaxation techniques showed the greatest promise, but their effects could be enhanced by addressing interpersonal and organizational factors, especially considering that burnout is an organizational issue.
Takeaways for Practice
Target emotional intelligence. General interventions applied to the workforce are less effective than those that target the emotional exhaustion component for employees who are experiencing high levels of burnout
Make individual interventions more holistic. Help employees mitigate the other dimension of burnout, to improve their feelings of detachment from work and/or increase their sense of achievement, focusing on the interpersonal and motivational aspects.
Integrate systemic strategies. Focusing on individual-level interventions alone is an unrealistic solution to a large, system-level problem and places the burden of solution in the wrong place. More tailored, comprehensive, and systemic
Food for Thought – Interventions for Thriving
In addition to the individual level strategies for reducing burnout that were identified in Maricuțoiu and colleagues’ (2016) research, there are many other practical ways to mitigate and combat burnout and help employees thrive. Additionally, because burnout is an organizational issue it is essential that leaders have strategies to support employees and that leaders work to address the underlying workplace issues (e.g., workload challenges, inefficient processes, unsafe working conditions, unclear roles or decision making, unclear expectations and direction, etc.) that can cause higher demands, increased stress, and diminished motivation, eventually leading employees to burnout. Here are a few more practical strategies, drawn from other research (e.g., Sonnetag et al., 2012; Spreitzer et al., 2012) for both individuals and leaders alike. In order to diagnose what needs to happen at a larger scale, leaders need to focus on supporting their people. When it comes to larger-scale organizational changes (e.g., process re-engineering or job redesign/architecture changes, etc), these will be largely dependent on other factors.
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References
Sonnentag, S., Mojza, E. J., Demerouti, E., & Bakker, A. B. (2012). Reciprocal relations between recovery and work engagement: The moderating role of job stressors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(4), 842–853. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028292​:contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
Spreitzer, G., Porath, C. L., & Gibson, C. B. (2012). Toward human sustainability: How to enable more thriving at work. Organizational Dynamics, 41(2), 155–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2012.01.009
For more reading
Maslach, C., Shaufeli, W.B., & Leiter, M.P. (2001). Job Burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, . 52: 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397
Maslach, C. & Leiter, M.P. (2000). The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It. Jossey-Bass; San Francisco, CA.
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