Vortrag von

• Dr. Irene Houtman, leitende Forscherin bei TNO (Niederländische Organisation für angewandte Wissenschaften), Leiden

The concept of burnout has been studied for over 40 years. Burnout has been defined by the WHO as an "occupational phenomenon" (not a medical condition) as a "syndrome" resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions (1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, (2) increased mental distance from one's job, and (3) reduced professional efficacy (Burn-out an "occupational phenomenon": International Classification of Diseases (who.int). Despite this, there are still disputes about the concept itself, about its causes and its work-relatedness. In most conceptualizations and operationalizations "emotional exhaustion" is often considered as the central or core state or the "primary mechanism" of the burn-out concept. The concept, particularly the "burnout traditional concept" as formulated by Maslach has been criticized heavily, most recently culminating in a new and challenging conceptualization by Wilmar Schaufeli in the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT).

In many countries, burnout or (work-related) mental health is considered a very important and costly phenomenon for workers themselves, for employers and for society. Therefore, much research has been directed at identifying the causes of burn-out and also monitoring burnout(complaints) as well as calculating its' costs.

At EU-level, burnout is not something that is monitored, but several countries have some history in regular monitoring of burnout, often (only) operationalized as emotional exhaustion. Eurofound has measured its "positive counterpart" Work Engagement in one of the last European Working Conditions Surveys (EWCS), which allows benchmarking of countries.

In the presentation a reflection will be provided on the conceptualization of the burnout concept, on the causes identified in the literature. The issue of prevention will be addressed at the individual, organizational as well as national level. As for the (national) policy level, the situation in the Netherlands will be used to show the impact of the yearly monitoring of burnout, which results in some societal unrest since the figures keep on rising for some ten years now. In the presentation attention will also be directed at expectations for future developments in burnout based on the changing "world of work".