PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT IN THE ACTIVITY OF SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL WORK SPECIALISTS

Abstract

The relevance of the research is due to the intensification of the professional activity of social and educational work specialists, informational, communicative, emotional overloads, depletion of adaptive resources, which actualize the problem of preserving their physical and mental health. Prerequisites for the formation of professional burnout can be high responsibility, mental overload, high demands on the personality of a social and educational work specialist, the constant need for self-development, improvement of one's skills and abilities. The purpose of the article is to analyze the theoretical aspects of the emergence, structure, phases of development, symptoms, factors of professional burnout of social and educational work specialists.
The research methodology is the results of scientific searches for the essence of the professional burnout, its structure, phases of development and symptoms, causes and factors of its occurrence by such native and foreign researchers as V. Boyko, N. Vodopyanova, S. Vyshnychenko, S. Jackson, H. Dion, L. Karamushki, O. Karpenko, S. Maksimenko, K. Maslach, L. Ren, O. Romanovska, H. Freudenberg, E. Hartman, and etc.
Scientific novelty. It is proven that the professional burnout of social and educational work specialists is a syndrome of physical and emotional exhaustion, which includes both the development of negative self-esteem and a negative attitude to work, as well as the loss of understanding and compassion for pupils.
The professional burnout is a form of the professional deformation of a personality that develops under the influence of a number of factors (external and internal). The external ones include: a chronic tension of psycho-emotional activity, destabilizing organization of activities, increased responsibility for performed functions and operations, unfavorable atmosphere of professional activity, psychologically «difficult» contingent with which a specialist deals. The internal ones include: a tendency to emotional rigidity, intense internalization (perception and experience) of the circumstances of professional activity, weak motivation to give back in professional activity.
The professional burnout includes groups of symptoms that appear together, but since burnout as a process occurs individually for everyone, the symptoms for everyone are expressed differently and have a different combination. The professional burnout covers all areas of a human personality development. Having started in professional activity, the burnout «hits» the very personality of a person, hindering his or her development.
Conclusions. The profession of a social and educational work specialist is considered one of the most vulnerable among socio-economic ones. A great psycho-emotional load accompanies the profession of a social and educational work specialist – this is a manifestation of such professionally important and human qualities as an empathy, patience, ethical attitude, benevolence, humanism, on the one hand, and great energy and psychological costs, which require solving complex pedagogical situations and high level of responsibility, on the other hand. The result of exhaustion from hard work can be the appearance of the professional burnout. The researchers believe that the socially maladaptive factors for this profession are low social security and prestige of the profession, blocking of active social needs, multifunctional socially responsible activity in the information overload conditions, the need for professional interpersonal interaction in situations with a high degree of conflict.
The understanding and awareness of the signs and manifestations of the professional burnout syndrome allow the social and educational work specialists to take timely measures to overcome the negative impact on the specialist’s personality. The issue of the professional burnout prevention of the social and educational work specialists needs further investigation.