A study in which participate professors of the Master’s Degree in Occupational Health and Safety of the Universitat de València emphasises the factors and burnout symptoms among the workers of the public administration.
13 june 2016
The workstations of the public administration are usually considered as stable jobs with proper conditions. Nevertheless, there are other factors that cause precariousness in some workstations of the employment network of the public administrations. Phenomena such as privatisation of public firms, outsourcing followed by firings and career leave of civil servants cause an added pressure on these workers. Also, they are exposed to constant changes in policies and task planning, transfer and alteration of projects they carry out.
Civil servants are subject to constant changes which cause instability and make easier the appearance of psychosocial problems
This instability can have negative effects in the workers health and trigger, particularly, mental illnesses due to the high psychosocial risk of these factors. This way, a study that had the participation of Pedro Gil-Monte, professor of the Master’s Degree in Occupational Health and Safety of the Universitat de València, indicates that occupational burnout is one of the consequences of these labour problems that appear in the public sector.
Consequences
The study got the participation of a total of 8,000 workers from different public administrations who were submitted to an analysis of different questions about the different effects of occupational burnout. Thus, it can be identified the degree of impact and the influence this problem has in their labour careers. Four effects of this syndrome have been tackled:
- Degree of enthusiasm towards the job: Perspective of the job, development of vocational tasks and personal fulfilment with the labours that workers carry out.
- Psychological exhaustion caused by the stress of instability, uncertainty and the difficulties of facing frequent changes.
- Level of indolence: Many times, psychosocial problems cause the appearance of indolent behaviour from the workers towards colleagues or clients.
- Appearance of the feeling of guilt due to workers who suffer from it believe they are behaving inappropriately at work.
This research confirms the results of other studies that analyse the relationship between the feeling of guilt and the burnout in different working spaces. This time it also shows that the factors that cause this syndrome are manifested in a similar way in the public sector environment.
The authors warn that diagnosis and treatment of public administration workers “are essential” in the early stages of occupational burnout, “since they can avoid the symptoms to intensify and, thus, they can facilitate a quicker recovery.”
