Chapter 11: Processes of Emotion in the Workplace

This week’s lecture made me reflect upon my life as a final year degree student while juggling other roles; daughter, friend, club president, confidant, etc. Although I have a firm belief that emotions should not disrupt one’s professional instinct; in other words, no matter how bad our day is, we should always “paste a smile” when at work.

No matter how tough things get; just keep smiling (Angelyn)

The topic of ‘burnout’ particularly caught my attention. Defined as a ‘chronic condition or “wearing out” due to daily work pressures’ Miller (2008, p.205) burnout consists of three interconnected dimensions:

• Emotional exhaustion: when an individual is too fatigued to carry on with the task at hand
• Lack of personal accomplishment: when employees’ are plagued with the notion of being incapable to accomplish their work as per required
• Depersonalization: happens among people whose job requires them to communicate with others regularly. Such employees tend to ‘develop poor opinions’ of certain individuals, ‘expect the worst from them’ and end up ‘actively disliking them’ Miller (2008, p.206)

Stressors that lead to burn out could be ‘role conflict’ when there is a clash between the various roles one has to play or ‘role ambiguity’ where the individual is uncertain or confuses the role requirements. Prolonged burnout could result in mental and physical diseases; therefore, I plan to be more conscious of my well being.

References:

Miller, K 2008, Organizational Communication: approaches and processes, 5th edn, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, MA.