Preventing employee burnout

Abstract

Burnout, a condition that is affecting an increasing number of employees in industry today, can transform top-performing employees into indifferent, frequently absent, ineffective workers. What can human resources managers do to help prevent burnout among employees? Authors Susan E. Jackson, assistant professor of organizational psychology in the psychology department at the University of Maryland, and Randall S. Schuler, associate professor of personnel and human resources management in the department of management at New York University, suggest three specific approaches to preventing burnout. One of these, anticipatory socialization programs, is a way of preventing "reality shock" from sending idealistic new employees with unrealistic expectations about a job into burnout. The philosophy underlying anticipatory socialization programs holds that reality shock should be experienced before the individual begins his or her first full-time job- and, further, that it should be experienced in a context that permits and encourages the development of constructive strategies for coping with the unexpected reality.