Beyond Burnout

Each year thousands of people enter one of the helping professions. The work they do affects how we live, how we feel, even who we become. Yet an increasingly critical public believes that many of these professionals lack idealism and commitment. This work explores the source of this problem. Based on an in-depth, longitudinal study, it follows a group of social workers, teachers, psychologists, nurses and lawyers over a period of 12 years, beginning with their first year of practice. These professionals describe in their own words what happened to them when their idealism collided with the realities of their work. The process of burnout is described as well as the factors that allow professionals to recover from it. The text charts the changes that occurred in the professionals’ attitudes and values, and the resulting positive and negative effects. It also suggests practical policy changes to enhance professional caring in the human services.

Author Biography

Cary Cherniss is Professor of Applied Psychology at Rutgers University. He is the author of ProfessionalBurnout in Human Service Organizations and Staff Burnout:Job Stress in the Human Services as well as numerous articles on burnout.