Research
Analyzing Burnout Among Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract: Using a short survey, women’s experiences with burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed to fully understand if and how burnout has changed. Twenty-one women, specifically within the social and human services industry, completed the survey. It was found that the majority of respondents had experienced burnout, and that there was lack of support and leadership during the pandemic. This shows that, with the changing times, leadership needs to change in order to protect from burnout.
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected daily life since March of 2020, which has caused different types of stress to surface. Working relationships have become more complicated as many occupations have had to adapt to a new way of life. Specifically, having to adapt to: working from home, changing living costs, and loss of childcare/daily schooling.
An increase in the stress at home has led to work stress becoming less manageable, thus increasing overall burnout. This study, using a retrospective survey, specifically looked to analyze how women have experienced burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic based on their personal responses.
Research Question: How has COVID-19 impacted burnout among women?
Methodology: In order to analyze the experiences of women during the COVID-19 pandemic, a brief survey was used to reach women in social and human service professions. The survey was created to target certain aspects of burnout including: financial strain, job satisfaction, job efficacy, and job manageability. The initial group of women targeted included police officers, social workers, students, and teachers. Data was collected over two months.
Results:
- 76.2% of respondents reported medium to high happiness with the type of work they are doing
- 71.5% of respondents reported neutral to low satisfaction with their current wage
- 61.9% of respondents reported feeling effective in their job/occupation
- 76.1% of respondents reported neutral to low feelings of support
- 35.5% of respondents reported no information being provided to them about occupational burnout
- 90.4% of respondents reported neutral to low feelings of prevention for burnout by their leadership
- 71.4% of respondents reported safety fears affecting them during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 46.7% of respondents reported having to use emergency funds during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 71.4% of respondents reported high daily pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 85.7% of respondents reported experiencing burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 55% of respondents reported low to no support during their experience with burnout
Findings/Conclusion: Some of the main components of burnout include: workload, control, and reward (Maslach & Lieiter, 2005). After analyzing the collected data, it was found that the respondents were generally happy with their occupation and had feelings of efficacy. This study also found that the respondents were not feeling rewarded, specifically stating that they were unhappy with their wage. Respondents also expressed feelings related to increased pressure and stress, stating that workloads and daily pressures have increased. These statistics lead to the belief that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased burnout in women.
Citations
Implications
Women are experiencing burnout in a huge way. – “COVID-19 has caused burnout for nurses in all areas of healthcare, not just the ICU and ER. It has also caused burnout in other aspects of life and has changed the way I view a lot of people, based on their beliefs about the pandemic.”
Women are having a hard time to find the balance.- “The hardest part for me was working from home and having a kindergartener doing online school, from home. It was hard to find the balance, being a mom, teacher, detective all at the same time.”
Women are not feeling supported through this burnout.- “Dynamic between school and work was hard. Lack of care for stress of world.”
Women are leaving fields that we so desperately need them in. “Many of my colleagues feel the same way and are leaving the profession entirely as a result. I am leaving the classroom in June.”
But women are learning to deal- “I experienced my first burnout during COVID and it led to me seeking therapy for the first time in my life.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has left long term effects on our world and on humanity. In the future, more research needs to be done on the lasting impacts of those affected by burnout during this pandemic. Policy and practice need to continue to change and adapt so we are able to support those that we need the most.