(in German)

Background: Due to its consequences burnout is a psychological syndrome that is of relevance for those affected as well as for companies and society as a whole.

Objective: The extent of burnout and its association with psychosocial working conditions were investigated in three professions with high cognitive demands, i.e. software developers, advertising specialists and publicists, in comparison to the general working population in Germany.

Material and methods: Data from two cross-sectional studies were combined (n = 6553). Psychosocial working conditions were assessed with the Copenhagen psychosocial questionnaire (COPSOQ) and burnout with the Oldenburg burnout inventory (OLBI). To determine the relationship between working conditions and burnout, regression models were applied considering possible confounders. Additionally, interactions between occupations and working conditions were ascertained.

Results: The burnout scores in the three occupational groups were not generally higher than in the control group. Female advertising professionals and female publicists had higher but not significantly different burnout scores than female software developers and women in the general working population. Among men, software developers had significantly lower burnout values than advertising specialists. The three occupational groups had lower levels of leadership quality and role clarity as well as higher levels of quantitative demands, but also higher decision authority and social support than the general working population. For men and women, particularly high quantitative demands were positively associated with burnout, while job resources, e.g. leadership quality, were negatively associated with burnout.

Conclusion: In the three professions considered both quantitative demands as well as, albeit partly, quality of leadership and social support had a stronger effect on burnout beyond that of the average effect of the general working population. The specificity of the effects in the three professions implies that both generic as well as specific aspects should be taken into consideration for job design measures for each profession.

This article is published in the Journal "Zentralblatt für Arbeitsmedizin, Arbeitsschutz und Ergonomie", Volume 71, Issue 1, pp 8-18.

Please download the article "Burnout and psychosocial working conditions in professional groups with high cognitive demands" (in German only).

First Online: 12 October 2020