This paper was accepted for inabsentia presentation and subsequent publication as conference proceedings bearing ISBN, in SIMSARC 12 (Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies Annual Research Conference) held during 13-14 December, 2012.

1. SIMS Annual Research Conference
13th & 14th December 2012, Pune, India.
Employee Burnout: A View
Into Education Sector
- Subhojit Chakraborty & Tanusree Bhowmick
Assistant Professors, DSMS, Durgapur.

2. EMPLOYEE BURNOUT – THE CONCEPT
• Burnout is a job related syndrome.
• Concept first introduced by German-American
Psychiatrist Herbert Freudenberger, about 4
decades ago.
• More frequently occurs in human service works
where direct interaction with humans is
experienced, e.g. teaching.
• Presence perceived when an employee is not
performing well any more in the concerned
position like before, implying that the same
employee did use to perform well earlier.

3. BURNOUT DEFINED
• “Burnout is a psychological term for the
experience of long-term exhaustion and
diminished interest.” – Wikipedia.
• The dictionary definition of burnout is
“psychological exhaustion and diminished
efficiency resulting from overwork or
prolonged exposure to stress.”

4. BURNOUT AND THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
• Burnout syndrome is more acute among those
engaged in people-centric jobs for eg. teaching.
• Teachers experience burnout at different stages
of their career.
• Teaching nowadays is a highly professional task
where direct interaction with humans is
experienced.
• The students are rather mal-functioning clients
than normal and the job falling under “people
changing” service category having the highest
workload.

5. BURNOUT – UNDERLYING FACTORS
• Stress: The only difference between stress and
burnout is that stress is normal and often quite
healthy, but when the ability to cope with stress
starts letting people down, then they may be on
the road to burnout!
• Stressors: Due to the presence of any one or a
combination of stressors (Extra-organizational,
Organizational, Group and Individual) a vicious
cycle of stress starts operating, which when not
taken care of in the long run, may push the stress
level beyond a threshold to burnout.

6. BURNOUT – UNDERLYING FACTORS
• Job Demands: The common job demands that
increase burnout in employees are role conflict, role
ambiguity and role overload besides other job
demands like emotional and physical demands.
• Stress Vulnerability: An individual has unique
biological, psychological and social elements which
includes the strengths and vulnerabilities for dealing
with stress. When stress rises beyond the natural
threshold level, humans are no longer able to handle
the stress and burnout begins to occur.

7. Job Burnout as a syndrome of Exhaustion, The Stress Vulnerability Model
Cynicism and Efficacy (Source: http://sydney.edu.au)
(Source: psycnet.apa.org)

8. Objectives of the Study
• To determine the causes and extent of
burnout among teachers.
• To analyze the relationship between burnout
and “intention to leave” among teachers, and
• To come up with effective solutions for the
“Edu-preneurs” to cope with burnout.

9. Research Design, Sampling, Instrumentation
and Data Collection
• A cross-sectional survey of teachers in the private
management colleges in Durgapur was carried out.
• The population of this study being full time confirmed
faculty members teaching in private management
colleges of Durgapur.
• The research is basically exploratory in nature seeking
to establish a cause and effect relationship between
the different variables chosen for the purpose.
• Data have been collected with the help of self-
administered structured questionnaire. A total of 200
questionnaires were distributed to respondents and
180 completed questionnaires were returned deemed
to be sufficiently complete in all respects (yielding a
response rate of 90%).

10. FINDINGS 1
Stress Level and Personality Types (Gender Wise)
60%
52%
50%
40%
Stress Level
30%
20%
15% Male Female
20%
13%
10%
0%
A B
Personality Types

11. FINDINGS 2
Variables (xi) No. of Percentage Probability Rank of
Respondents (Pi) Variables
in favor of
Long Lecture Hours 27 15.00 0.15 3
Heavy Class Loads 40 22.22 0.22 1
Uneven Load Distribution 25 13.89 0.14 4
Traditional Teaching Aids 10 5.56 0.05 7
Biased Performance 30 16.67 0.16 2
Appraisal
Lack of Academic Freedom 20 11.11 0.11 5
Improper Subject Allocation 10 5.56 0.05 7
Interference in work by 18 10.00 0.10 6
superiors
TOTAL 180 100 1 -

12. FINDINGS 3
ITEMS MEAN S.D.
I am seriously thinking about looking for a new job for 3.445 2.147
the last few months
Presently I am actively searching for a new job 3.367 2.122
I intend to leave my present job very soon 3.542 2.180
I intend to join a job of higher dignity and pay package 3.242 2.080
in the near future
I feel the current place of my work is at the root of all 3.823 2.276
problems in my life which might be solved only if I
switch to another job
Total Mean 3.48 2.16
N.B: 1= Strongly disagree, 2= Disagree, 3= Neither disagree nor agree, 4= Agree,
5= Strongly Agree.

13. FINDINGS SUMMARISED
• Teachers with Type A personality are more
susceptible to stress, and moreover, female teachers
have a greater tendency to get stressed than their
male counterparts.
• Heavy Class Loads is the top most priority factor for
teachers, and then Biased Performance Appraisal
and Long Lecture Hours that influences the level of
job stress among teachers.
• The average perceived level of intention to leave the
present job among teachers , mean value of 3.48 on
a five point scale, clearly points out that teachers are
increasingly inclined to leave their jobs in future.

14. CONCLUSION
The private management colleges is in a vulnerable
position owing to increasing employee burnout and
attrition rates which is more likely to increase in the
coming days. If burnout becomes chronic in the
education sector, then the whole society has to suffer
as with increasing burnout quality of education
imparted will fall and consequently the worst sufferers
will be the students and the edu-preneurs. The
employers can play a great role in reducing work
stress and burnout.

15. RECOMMENDATIONS TO EMPLOYERS
TO COPE WITH BURNOUT
• Introducing FLEXI-TIME.
• WORK LIFE BALANCE Audit.
• Family Friendly Policies.
• Employee Counseling.
• RELAX on the GO.