Burnout

Christina Maslach identified three core dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation (or cynicism), and reduced personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion manifests as a sense of being drained and chronically fatigued. Depersonalisation involves a distant and cynical attitude toward clients or colleagues. Reduced personal accomplishment reflects feelings of incompetence and low productivity. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) remains the gold-standard instrument for its measurement.

In 2019, the World Health Organization included burnout in the ICD-11 as an occupational phenomenon — not as a disease, but as a factor influencing health status. This classification represented an important institutional recognition of the syndrome. The WHO definition emphasises that burnout refers specifically to the occupational context and should not be applied to other areas of life. This recognition has spurred debate about organisational responsibility for burnout prevention.

Helping professions — such as medicine, nursing, social work, and psychology — show particularly high rates of burnout. Constant exposure to others' suffering, excessive workloads, and lack of resources contribute to this vulnerability. Maslach and Leiter argued that burnout is primarily not an individual problem but an organisational one, identifying six key areas of mismatch: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. The most effective interventions combine individual self-care strategies with structural changes in work organisation.