Research Article: Job Burnout Recovery

Author: Krista Regedanz, Ph.D.

Abstract: Little focus has been given to the experience of successful burnout recovery offering researchers a missing link in intervention creation and mobilization of resources for clinicians in treatment planning. The primary purpose of this study was to discover themes in participants’ subjective experience of successful job burnout recovery.

A purposive sample of 21 people was selected. Participants were between the ages of 25 and 54, had suffered from job burnout, and recovered successfully within the last 5 years, as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Interviews were conducted in person and over the phone, transcribed, and analyzed by the researcher using a thematic analysis procedure. Burnout recovery themes of successful strategies used, situational and personal factors, the experience of the recovery process, and shifts in participant meaning attributed to work were isolated by the researcher. Participants reported using 11 strategy themes and 15 situational and personal themes. Recovery was found to be a process that was ongoing, changed, and was made possible with time.

Process themes dealt with reflection, time, transition, and space created. Significant shifts in sense of meaning were discovered. The transpersonal frame allowed the researcher to consider these 4 themes of burnout recovery and how they relate to each other in order to come up with 5 findings. The data in this study suggest that the burnout recovery experience involves:

1. a recovery process,
2. an existential shift,
3. a sense of empowerment,
4. increase in self-referencing, and
5. relationship change.

The findings of this research suggest that the chronic distress that is experienced through burnout can turn into a positive precursor for growth. This research also suggests that the experience of increased efficacy is integral to job burnout recovery.