{"id":16600,"date":"2021-04-09T14:26:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T19:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=16600"},"modified":"2021-04-09T14:26:54","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T19:26:54","slug":"end-of-semester-burnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/end-of-semester-burnout\/","title":{"rendered":"End-of-Semester Burnout"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Burning My Candle at Both Ends\" by gfpeck is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even in a typical academic year (which this one was not) we tend to burn our candle at both ends as we work our way from August toward graduation. I don\u2019t know if you have felt it, but I have certainly felt the increased pressure of keeping up the past few weeks\u2014letters of recommendation, student advising, and wrapping up goals for the academic year have all made demands on my time.<\/p>\n

Adding this pressure to an already-stressful year can increase our risk for burnout<\/em>. Burnout has become a popular term during COVID, especially for educators who have had to reimagine their teaching<\/a>. In fact, NPR\u2019s Life Kit<\/em> podcast just did a timely episode on burnout<\/a>, complete with tips to avoiding it.<\/p>\n

Burnout, a concept studied psychologist Christina Maslach since the 1970s, doesn\u2019t just mean we are overwhelmed and exhausted (though exhaustion is at the core). It also includes becoming cynical about our work, which in higher ed can lead to \"phoning it in\" to our classes, complaining about our students or colleagues, and disengaging from our institutional missions. (Salvagioni and colleagues provide a thorough, empirical review of the physical and psychological consequences of burnout<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

However, there is recent evidence that what we have called burnout<\/em> might actually be a form of job-related depression<\/em>. In a meta-analysis, Renzo Bianchi (University of Neuch\u00e2tel, Switzerland) and colleagues looked at evidence from from 12,417 participants in six countries<\/a> and found that characteristics of burnout were more strongly associated with depression than they were with each other. The implications of this data? Burnout is something that both institutions and faculty should take seriously.<\/p>\n

If you are feeling physical or emotional exhaustion or cynicism, I encourage you, in these last fews weeks of the semester, to engage in some of the following that work for you.<\/p>\n