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Burnout Hinges On Fairness, Study Says

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The Washington Post

Published: June 10, 2008

American workers are hurting. The country is in an economic slump, thousands of people are being laid off and hundreds of companies are retrenching. With house values falling in many parts of the country and with gas prices soaring, many people are struggling from paycheck to paycheck.

The unfolding shakeout might ultimately be good for the economy, but it can be extremely painful for individuals. For companies, managing change is important, not only for the well-being of their employees but also because to succeed, they need employees who are engaged, enthusiastic and energized - and not burned out.

A pair of psychologists recently evaluated hundreds of employees at a large North American university that was in the grip of painful change. The researchers wanted to find out whether there were factors that explained why some employees successfully weathered the transition and re-engaged with their jobs, while others spiraled into cynicism and exhaustion - the classic signs of burnout.
Burnout has been long associated with being overworked and underpaid, but psychologists Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter found that these were not the crucial factors. The single biggest difference between employees who suffered burnout and those who did not was whether they thought that they were being treated unfairly or fairly.

"These fairness issues can be huge," said Maslach, a social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. "Issues around fairness are highly linked to the anger and cynicism that are linked to burnout."

Leiter, co-author of the study, said people who sensed they were being treated unfairly were twice as likely to burn out as employees who did not.

Leiter and Maslach were particularly interested in people who showed some risk factors for burnout but not others: people who were enthusiastic but exhausted, for example, or who felt energetic but psychologically disconnected from their jobs.

Leiter, an organizational psychologist at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, said participants in the study were concerned about downsizing and were afraid of being assigned to a job they would not like.

Maslach and Leiter published their study, "Early Predictors of Job Burnout and Engagement," in the most recent issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology.

"When you are treated unfairly or disrespectfully, the organization is excluding you from being a real member of the community," Leiter said. "There is something about that that makes people feel really insecure.

"When loyal employees are treated in a way that is not fair, they feel betrayed in a very deep, emotional way. When you do a lot of work you get tired, but it does not have the same emotional impact as being treated unfairly."

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