Burn-Out

Burn-Out - the sense of fatigue, frustration and loss of energy concerning one's work or activities - can happen to anyone, particularly those in "helping" professions such as mediation. Mediation centers can work to prevent this form of job stress from affecting both staff members and regular volunteer mediators.

There is a wealth of material available on self-help and individual techniques for coping with stress and burn-out. For example, individuals may use various activities to "center" themselves before a mediation and may de-brief with a co-mediator or staff afterwards. This may be particularly useful when volunteers mediate after a full day at their "real" jobs. While these various relaxation and stress relieving techniques are useful to help individuals, mediation centers need to look at their own systems and procedures to be sure they are not contributing to stress.

Most of the academic work on burn-out has involved employees and their jobs -- including the works noted on the reverse of this page. Because staffs of community mediation centers often try to do a lot with few resources, the frustrations, overwork and other factors leading to burn-out are usually present. Thus, the widely available research on employment burn-out is directly applicable to mediation center staff. This includes self assessment inventories for a center as well as other strategies for creating a positive, supportive work environment, e.g.: recognition, job rotation, cross-training, retreats, vacation and sabbatical policies, etc. Because staff in many centers mediate, the comments about mediators below also may be relevant to staff.

In contrast to the substantial material on burn-out among employees, not much attention has been paid to burn-out among volunteers. There seems to be the idea that volunteers will simply stop work when they need to (despite considerable evidence to the contrary). Even centers with large mediator pools may find themselves relying on certain volunteers for particular cases or situations. When scheduling becomes difficult or quick-response cases arise, centers are tempted to return to the same "tried and true" people. Many mediators have a hard time saying "no" if they receive a direct request from a center.

- Pay attention to center operations. Constantly assess how you can reduce "stressors" that increase mediator work load or anxiety. Make sure mediators feel they have adequate support and tools to do their job well. For example, if mediations are held in the evening with limited staff, make sure staff people or experienced mediators are readily on call for questions, emergencies or advice.

- Make it easy to say "No." Give permission to your volunteers to say "no" to staff requests with no sense of guilt or "letting the center down." The center should actively look out for mediators, not simply assume they'll let you know when they're suffering from overload or fatigue.

- Give regulars a break. Many mentors or senior mediators find themselves always "on stage" - serving as a role model for newer mediators. While rewarding, this role can be taxing for many mentors when constantly providing explanations, encouragement and counsel. One solution is to make sure your seniors occasionally mediate with other seniors as well as apprentices. This aids their own professional development as well.

- Provide variety and opportunity. Determine what mediators can do if they want a break or something different. Maintain a menu of volunteer projects at your center. For example, if a mediation cancels and your mediators are already there, maybe they'd just like a cup of coffee and a chance to visit (or leave early), but maybe they'd like to do something useful for the center like file, research, etc. for an hour or two. Honor their time.

- Listen to the mediators. Actively invite mediator input on how to make things work better whether through surveys, town meetings, a mediator development committee, etc. Mediators can best identify the sources of their discomfort and frustration. Trust your volunteers to help improve delivery of services and center operation.

Jerry Edelwich & Arthur Brodsky, Burn-Out: Stages of Disillusionment in the Helping Professions New York: Human Services Press (1980) 14.

"We can use the term "Burn-out" to refer to a progressive loss of idealism, energy, and purpose experienced by people in the helping professions as a result of the conditions of their work. Those conditions range from insufficient training to client overload, from too many hours to too little pay, from inadequate funding to ungrateful clients, from bureaucratic or political constraints to the inherent gap between aspiration and accomplishment.

Christina Maslach, Burnout - The Cost of Caring New York: Prentice Hall Press (1982) 118-9.

"Burnout is fostered by certain types of work environments. The nature of the job - what people have to do, and when and where they do it - are often the source of the chronic emotional stresses they struggle to cope with. But people can do more than just cope with the environment - they can try to change it. Making modifications and instituting improvements are indeed within the realm of possibility...There are several reasons why it is important to push for organizational changes, and not just personal ones. First, although individual coping techniques may be quicker and easier, improvements in the work place may have a more pervasive and long-lasting impact on rates of burnout. Teaching people how to cope with a stressful job is certainly helpful, but it may not be as effective as making the job less stressful to begin with."

See also, Christina Maslach & Michael P. Leiter, The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (1997).

Ayala Pines & Elliot Aronson, Career Burnout: Causes & Cures New York: Free Press (1998) x-xi, 9.

"When participants realize that the most committed workers burn out most severely, it frees them to admit burnout without shame or embarassment. You will probably not be surprised to learn that people admit to higher levels of burnout after being informed about the relationships between burnout and initial idealism...While burnout applies to a wide variety of occupations, it is not synonymous with job stress, fatigue, alientation, or depression...Burnout is formally defined and subjectively experienced as a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in situations that are emotionally demanding."

Peter M Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization New York: Doubleday (1990) 85.

"I recall a good friend who tried fruitlessly to reduce burnout among professionals in his rapidly growing training business. He wrote memos, shortened working hours, even closed and locked offices earlier - all attempts to get people to stop overworking. But all these actions were off set... Why? Because an unwritten norm in the organization stated that the real heroes, the people who really cared and who got ahead in the organization, worked senty hours a week..."

Herbert J. Freudenberger & Geraldine Richelson, Burn-Out: The High Cost of High Achievement New York: Bantam (1981) 13, 158.

"Burnout is...a state of fatigue or frustration brought about by devotion to a cause, way of life or relationship tha failed to produce the expected reward. ...

"One of the ways you can protect yourself from burnout is to acknowledge your feelings. If you find the repetition of tasks monotonous and boring, ...arrange for a rotation of chores. Take a minute during the course of a day to pat someone else on the back. Perhaps it will become a reciprocal pastime. Cultivate friendships so that you can exchange viewpoints and offer each other relief. Talk about your frustrations and disappointments, not in a dumping, whining sort of way, but as as opening for others to participate and get some of their burdens off their chests. Busy as an agency is, time must be made for camaraderie. If it isn't, many valuable people will be lost."

If you have any comments, questions or additional resources to share concerning burn-out or mediator stress, please contact Ben Carroll or the National Association for Community Mediation, 1726 M Street, NW, #500, Washington, D.C. 20036, Tel: (202) 467-6226, Fax: (202) 466-4769, E-mail: nafcm@igc.org