Figure 1: Modified Burn Out Inventory (Freudenberger & Maslach)

See a theme? If you found yourself marking “sometimes” or “yes” for the majority of the questions above, you may be displaying early symptoms of burnout. Psychologist Herbert Freudenberger worked with nurses and doctors in free health care clinics and noted that “the dedicated and most committed” are the persons most likely to leave the profession (Freudenberger, 1974, p. 161). This led him to research and define what he termed burnout, or the phenomenon of persons who “work too much, too long, and too intensely” until they leave the profession. The definition was later expanded by Maslach, Jackson, and Lieter (1986) to include three central characteristics: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion, or unsuccessful coping with stressors, is the fatigued feeling that develops with drained emotional energies. Depersonalization within education is a teacher’s indifference, negative or cynical attitude, or complete ignoring of his or her students. Finally, reduced personal accomplishment is a sense of distress that teachers experience when they negatively self-evaluate their abilities. This manifests itself in a feeling that they have failed and, even to the extreme, are a failure. 

The problem of burnout within education is rampant. An estimated 90% of all teachers have experienced some level of burnout (Maslach, Jackson, & Lieter, 1986) with 25% of teachers currently experiencing it (Bas, 2011). Since educators who score high on the full Maslach Burnout Inventory are correlated with low student academic achievement, this becomes a problem for teachers who remain in the field without adequate support to mediate their feelings of burnout. In fact, many teachers cite the symptoms of burnout as a major decision to leave the profession: one out of four teachers will leave within their first three years of teaching. By year five, the number jumps to one out of every two (Lloyd, 2012; Ramsey, 2000). Employee turnover leads to institutional instability because of the financial and time investment to find, train, and keep employees. Being able to avoid burnout and mitigate its symptoms becomes a matter of student achievement, institutional stability, and mental health support for employees. 

Within the online environment, early research suggests burnout is especially high among online educators. Most studies point to a central culprit: higher workloads. Online educators are more likely to have higher student enrollment in courses, more assessments to compensate for less face to face instruction, and spend more time evaluating assessments due to the asynchronous submission rates (Kolowich, 2011). Additionally, online instructors report lower levels of institutional support and increased role ambiguity compared to their on-campus counterparts (Fives, Hamman, & Olivarez, 2007). Being off campus means increased isolation (Hogan & McKnight, 2007) which can in turn lead to feelings of being less competent or perceptions of less success (Timostuk & Ugaste, 2010). There are several characteristics that are not identified as causes of burnout including the years of experience teaching online, the gender of the instructor, their highest level of educational attainment, and level of academic training (McCann & Holt, 2009). The authors point out that the greatest predictor of teacher burnout is whether the instructor teaches online, not a personal demographic factor. This makes the problem one that all institutions with online instructors have an equal stake in—whether a two year or four year, private or public, vocational or doctoral granting institution. 

In this summation of the literature, there are recommendations at the institution, course, and instructor level to prevent burnout and mitigate its existing impact. 

Institutions, schools, divisions, and individual programs may see the symptoms of burnout in varying degrees: low percentage of returning adjuncts, poor student evaluations for online courses compared to face to face counterparts, and feedback from focus groups of online instructors. But, what can deans, department chairs, and program coordinators do to attract and keep instructors while preventing instructors from burning out? 

The first two weeks of an online course can be hectic—students adding and dropping, finalizing syllabi, and troubleshooting technology issues. The constant barrage of emails, questions, and tasks can be overwhelming and, if not done well, can lead to depersonalization of students who become a series of email requests rather than individual people. Here are some recommendations to prevent burnout during course management:

Finally, there are self-care recommendations to mitigate burnout. 

Burnout is not reserved for the educators at the end of their careers or the overburdened who have taken on the workload of several people. Burnout is common and currently affecting at least one out of every four educators; more so in the online education field. It is not a problem for the individual it effects, but a consequence of institutional and personal decisions that caused an educator to feel emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. It is also the job of institutions and educators to ensure burnout is prevented and mitigated to support online instructors, students, and institutions. 

 

Abel, M. H., & Sewell, J. (1999). Stress and burnout in rural and urban secondary school teachers. Journal of Educational Research, 92(5), 287. 

Freudenberger, H. (1974). Staff burnout. Journal of Social Issues, 30(1), 159-165. 

Hogan, R. L, & McKnight, M. A. (2007). Exploring burnout among university online instructors: An initial investigation. Internet and Higher Education, 10,  117-124.

Kolowich, S. (May 2011). Built for distance. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/05/16/online_faculty_burnout

Maslach, C, Jackson, S., & Leiter, M. P. (1986). MBI: The Maslach Burnout Inventory: Manual. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.

McCann, J. & Holt, R. (2009). An exploration of burnout among online university professors. Journal of Distance Education, 23(3), 97-110.

Moore, J. D. (2010). Running on empty: Exploring online educator burnout. American Military University. 

Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2009). Does school context matter? Relations with teacher burnout and job satisfaction. Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of Research and Studies, 25(3), 518-524.

Timostsuk, I. & Ugaste, A. (2010). Student teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of Research and Studies, 26(8), 1563-1570.  

Leah Panther is a doctoral student at the University of Missouri Kansas City where her research focuses on disciplinary literacy instruction, religious urban education, and high leverage literacy practices. Her journey has included middle school educator, college instructor, graduate research assistant, and advocate for culturally sustaining instruction in urban contexts.