TEACHERS’ BURNOUT AND THE TREATMENT OF IT IN SUPERVISION
GROUP
Erzsbet Petroczi
Szeged University
Institute
of Psychology
petroczi@vnet.hu
Usually, building interpersonal relationships plays a large part in
human sphere. Under normal circumstances if it is not
burning with a blazing intensity but rather it is a
smoldering amber. If it goes down sharply, we may talk
about burnout. Of course, it is not necessary to be burned
out. Syndrome is being developed or not, it only depends on
the personal qualities of the individual. As specific
psychosocial parameters are decisive, obviously these
factors either facilitate or block the development of the
syndrome. On the one hand burnout is an occupational hazard
, but on the other it is caused by exhaustion.
Symptoms:
·
to some extent physical and emotional
exhaustion,
·
social behavior problems, especially
alienation among co-workers,
·
mental impairment: the individual takes
strong, negative feelings towards himself or herself,
·
organizational inefficiency due to the
cut down achievement and depressed black mood,
Burnout can compare with acid: it not only burns a hole in
the pot, but also burns everything else that is connected
with.
The description of burnout: first of all there are thoughts
and feelings such as anxiety, frustration, anger, apathy
and so on which derive from the effect of events and
experiences, and afterwards come psychological responses:
the alarm and exhaustion phase in the conformity process.
Finally, the typical symptoms of burnout set in: such as
lack of respect for others, cynicism, less attention to
family and job, absence from work, to change job status etc.
According to Pines and her colleagues burnout is a physical
fatigue, mental and emotion exhaustion. The individuals are
physically in a state of fatigue, in addition they feel
completely helpless, loss of hope and end up depleting
their energy and losing touch with themselves and others.
They show a very negative attitude to their work and life.
Burnout arises from the feeling of unhappiness ,
disappointment and useless hunting after pretty high
expectations. In extreme cases, the individuals can not
communicate their ideas to other people and do not have a
good relationship with them. All members of helping
professions (including teachers, social workers, nurses
etc.) are in danger who are expected to take on other
people’s problems and responsibilities for a long time.
During their work they cannot achieve notable successes
quickly. In some respect people work under enormous stress
in the education sector because it is to be expected they do
their work without errors. A strong emotional involvement is
typical of their relationships with students, parents and
clients. Burnout is the result of permanent and repeated
negative emotions, which is connected with long lasting and
intensive relationships with other people. The base of
burnout is the realization, they can not help children any
more, they can not give them anything and they had depleted
their inner resources. Burnout is not an self-insulated
syndrome: many people suffer from it. It has harmful
psychic effects and contributes to create bad mood. In the
“burned out” individual is growing up a low self-respect and
a negative attitude towards his or her job. In some cases,
empathy and deep feelings are becoming antipathy and
unpitying feelings towards clients and students.
Supervision in practice like one possible
way the prevention and treatment of job burnout
The aim of supervision should be to facilitate of learning by sharing
everyday experiences. Learning about the profession and the
process of personal development happen during all stages of
life. A therapist treats work experiences with a
supervisee’s help that causes great stress and in this way
it is capable of maintain and recreate human and profession
integrity day by day, so supervision blocks burnout.
There were that kind of teachers in supervision group who worked in
different workplaces and they were at different stages of
burnout. Four of them were in the early stages and three of
them were in the intermediate stages of burnout. None of
them were in a crisis situation. They all had been faced
with a serious behavioral problem they could not solve and
found frustrating. One of the teachers told us a concrete
issue after thinking of it in every detail. The group
participated in exploring and clarifying the issue. The
members of the group were allowed to put questions in order
that we could understand the background on the conflict.
They might make suggestions for how to sort out the issue.
The members of the group were able to participate in case
processing as long as they imagined themselves in teacher’s
position. It was vitally important that issue has been
explained in the fullest detail and teacher’s feelings have
been described faithfully. During the processing teacher’s
position was analyzed and organizational development was
also introduced.
One of the teachers always worked as an educator at
a dormitory. She tried to teach only once for one year. She
taught math and geography at that secondary school of which
dormitory she works at presently. Although she spent less
time at school than at dormitory, she had to prepare her
lessons a lot and she had discipline problems as well. After
one academic year she turned back to the dormitory where
she had worked. She loved her job and liked dealing with
children who often asked for her help at math. She did not
agree on everything with the school of management. According
to her, it would be worth changing many things, but the
principal did not interested in anything and later he
became ill and missed a lot of school because of sickness.
He was obliged to retire because of his long absence. Local
government invited applicants for the principal job. There
were four applicants. One of them was the teacher’s
colleague with who she got on well and who has already
directed issues at school. Most of the staff voted for her
and shared her opinion in many cases but some of the
technical co-workers did not agree with her because she gave
them the cold shoulder. Of course, the supervisee would have
liked that if her colleague had won the application but
their no small surprise such a man got the job who he has
never worked at dormitory. He had previously taught
technical subject at a secondary school. He got most of the
votes because he had a few acquaintances among the local
government representatives. Maybe they contributed to his
success. He was introduced in a staff meeting at the
beginning of the academic year by one of the
representatives. He was well-known as a teacher by his
colleagues because some of the students attended the same
school where he taught. They did not have a high opinion of
him.
The entrusted principal was named as the deputy principal by
the new principal “because of her earlier success”. School
staff were disappointed with the situation, including the
supervisee. She tried to console her colleague who got
grecians. These students were unmanageable. Most of them
would have liked to recompense “unfair marks” that got some
time from present principal. During these months there had
been a lot of debate among the deputy principal and the
principal that influenced the teacher. Owning to the black
mood the deputy principal resigned ,became ill and got sick
pay. So the teacher was named as a deputy principal, but she
did not want to fill the vacancy because she could hardly
endure conflicts so far. By the way she also was in the
deputy principal’s bad book because nobody stood up for her
while she was struggling with the principal. She know that
if she took the job, she would have been a bone of
contention. In spite of these facts, she took the job
because she needed more money. She brought up her child by
herself and did not get alimony either. While she was
working as an deputy principal, the previous deputy
principal came back to school and restarted to work as an
educator, of course. As time went by…the supervisee felt
worse and she did not keep her listlessness and frustration
bottled up. She was on sick-leave because she was suffering
from headaches, stomach aches and she couldn’t sleep in the
evenings. She was considering changing her job. She would
have liked to handle the situation, but at that time she
couldn’t cope with it. The educator, who was in supervision
group, started her new job in difficult circumstances.
Obviously, these warnings were the symptoms of burnout. Her
index number was: 3,8 in a question form which made by
Pines. After breaking the ice, she talked quite freely about
herself. All group members imagined if they were in her
position , what would they do. They tried to understand her
feelings and experiences. During the supervision
relationship between male and female was examined carefully,
which brought out she was dominant in her married life.(her
marriage broke down because of it) As a supervisor, maybe
I managed to push the thoughts out of her mind and direct
towards wishful thinking. I always offered recommendations
without showing the possible solution. An essential goal of
supervision is to help supervisee in such a way that she
will be able to learn from own experiences and could explore
every possible way of dealing with the problem. As negative
responses to supervisee’s work stimulate shame, humiliation,
and anxiety which, in turn, diminish the atmosphere of
safety in the group. Therefore the supervisor’s attitude of
compassion and empathy and a setting of positive tone in the
group is essential. This helped her to surface and reduced
her feelings of insecurity, anxiety, and frustration. It was
surprising for me how the relationship developed between us,
among the supervisee and her colleagues and the students. An
unconditional relationship built up among the colleagues and
students. As a matter of fact she only got a possibility
that she can get closer to herself end her problem. During
the supervision (I hope )I managed to “ set her off ” the
right way and she will be able to get her own way in the
future.
Some aspects of the psycho-dynamics of the problem were
exposed, but I intended to reach that the analysis of the
supervisee’s personality helps her work. The analysis of
organizational hierarchy explored her personality’s problem:
the lack of self-esteem. She could not establish new
relationships and she couldn’t adapt herself to
surroundings. Moreover, she did not have a good relationship
with her teenager. Having revived her parents’ and teachers’
attitude in her reminiscences, she did treat children in the
same way. And now she is the authoritarian teacher. She is
unsure of herself.
Although most supervision is on an individual basis, most of the
supervisors prefer a group setting because it provides
support, encouragement, and an opportunity to see how others
struggle with clients. Providing concrete suggestions
typically helps to resolve the former problems. Supervision
helps supervisees make interventions which are congruent
with their own personalities. This approach helps to
integrate the supervisees’ educational, life and supervisory
experiences. In the presence of supervisees of different
orientations, each supervisee widens his or her range of
interventions and is able
to become more accepting of differences in their own and
others' feelings and approaches. As supervisees become more
congruent and flexible in their interventions, they become
more at ease with deeper layers of emotional conflict and
expression and therefore more effective in dealing with
individual clients, couples and participants therapy as well
as their colleagues.
Needless to say job burnout which is manifested physically,
mentally or emotionally not only the individual’s, but also
the employer’s and the management’s problem. We all need to
deal with stress management and burnout prevention. To
prevent or treat burnout, we must become familiar with its
symptoms.
Copyright ©
2005 International Association of Individual
Psychology
