Five Professions at Risk of Job Burnout
Are you at risk of job burnout? While anyone with a job can experience burnout symptoms, there are a few careers that are at an increased risk. These tend to be the helping professions, as they are constantly taking care of other people, rather than themselves. These are some of the highest burnout careers.
Medical professionals
Medical professionals put a lot of time, dedication, and money into their education. Once they graduate, they spend another couple of years interning and acting as a medical resident. By the time they reach full employment, they are still expected to work long hours to enter into the industry. Many physicians? start out in emergency medical care, which can be stressful and extremely overwhelming. Physicians aged 35 and under have a burnout rate of 44%. This is a very high rate, especially for someone that still has many years of employment left.
Mental health professionals
Mental health professionals such as psychologists and licensed counselors are tasked with helping others. In fact, one of the tasks of mental health professionals is to help with job burnout. While they are professionally trained in the signs of job burnout and burnout treatment methods, some fail to apply them to their own lives. It is easier to look at someone else?s troubles and assist them in improving them than it is to look at your own problems. Self care is taught in mental health educational programs, but this gets pushed to the back of the mind during the career.
Teaching professionals
Many people do not realize the amount of stress that comes with a teaching position. Sure, teachers usually get summers and weekends off. But, that doesn?t mean that the time they are working isn?t very stressful. Teachers are also known for very low income levels. They are expected to teach the leaders of tomorrow, on limited resources. This leads to many contributing their own incomes to required resources. Many times, they are placed in social work and mediator roles, often dealing with children from problematic backgrounds. Teachers can get very frustrated at job expectations when they are not given an environment that is conducive to effective learning.
Legal professionals
Lawyers are another profession that requires a lot of education. By the time a lawyer reaches practicing on their own, they have spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on college. Most have high student loan payments and hope to find employment that covers them. Lawyers have non traditional work schedules and there is often a lot of pressure placed on them to win a case. When first starting out, they may be expected to take free cases, which take up a lot of time, without the promise of an income. All of these stressors can lead to an increased amount of signs of job burnout.
Executive business professionals
Have you ever noticed that executives frequently jump from one business to another? This is often due to different signs of job burnout. High expectations are placed on CEO?s and presidents of businesses. They cannot always control the success of the business, especially with fluctuating economies. This often leads to the pursuit of better employment. Many executive business professionals experience signs of job burnout on a daily basis. However, these signs of job burnout are often attributed to having a stressful job.
Two thirds of both men and women say work has a significant impact on their stress level. One in four employees has called in sick or taken a mental health day as a result of work stress. Lawyers, medical professionals, mental health professionals, teachers, and executive business professionals are at an increased risk of job burnout.
