Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest, usually coming immediately after an extended period of overwork. It is also used as an English slang term to mean exhaustion.

Computer programmers are often prone to burnout. See death march for instance. However, research has shown that it is more likely to affect those in the care industries . Cordes and Doherty (1993), in their study of employees within this industry, found that workers who have frequent intense or emotionally charged interactions with others are more susceptible to burnout. Still, burnout can affect workers of any kind.

Students are also prone to burnout at the high school and college levels.

Burnout is also English slang for a habitual user of drugs.

Burnout is also English slang for spinning the wheels on a car so that they smoke. As in "Do a burnout, mate!"

Burnout is also a game series created by the UK games company Criterion Games , and involves the user to race through things like oncoming traffic, and recently (in Burnout 3) taking down the opposition (referred to as a takedown) to gain burnout points for extra boost to their car in order to win the race.

See also

• stress (medicine)
• The poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay: "My candle burneth at both ends/It will not last the night."

References

• Cordes, C. and Dougherty, T. (1993). A review and integration of research on job burnout. Academy of Management Review, 18, 621-656. Cited in O'Driscoll, M.P. and Cooper, C.L. (1996). Sources of Management of Excessive Job Stress and Burnout. In P. Warr (Ed.), Psychology at Work: Fourth Edition. Penguin.
• Farber, B. A. (1998). Tailoring treatment strategies for different types of burnout. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, 106th, San Francisco California, August 14-18. ED 424 517
• Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burnout. Journal of Social Issues, 30(1), 159-165.

External links

• Understanding and Preventing Teacher Burnout
• Urban School Restructuring and Teacher Burnout
• Staff "Burnout" in Child Care Settings
• Understanding and Managing Stress in the Academic World
• Burnout treatment trough the internet (Dutch)
• Burnout: Signs, Symptoms and Prevention