Study: Burnout more common in the service industry
A hectic pace, lack of job security or overlapping duties can wear out service workers. Photo: Getty Images
Employees in the sectors covered by PAM are more likely to suffer from burnout than teachers and industrial workers, for example. According to a new study, the causes include a lack of job security, short-term employment contracts as well as the large amount of work.
The results of a recent study indicate that many PAM members struggle to cope with their work. Burnout is more common among them than among members of the Trade Union for Education in Finland OAJ, the Industrial Union, or the Trade Union Pro. Among problems, members of PAM cited the increased pace of work and the amount of overlapping duties.
"Burnout is often caused by the work being too stressful. For members of PAM, primary causes of stress are likely to be a lack of job security, short-term employment contracts and an excessive amount of work, all of which are connected. In many services, employees may have more than one job, as work is often part-time or offered through consecutive short-term contracts," explains Saija Mauno, professor of work and organisational psychology from the
University of Tampere, who headed the research project.
"Work autonomy, or enabling employees to plan and schedule their work and to decide how to complete their duties, could be one solution," she suggests.
According to the researchers, this could make the work more engaging, improve employee coping and help employees feel that they are doing meaningful work.
Saija Mauno adds that members of PAM are younger on average than members of other trade unions, which means that some of them may be struggling to find permanent employment, and they may not yet have sufficient expertise afforded by experience. These are also factors that increase stress and may lead to burnout. Young employees are also often at the stage of their lives when they are starting families, meaning that they may be burdened by the
"second shift" or experiencing stress over whether they dare start a family with an unstable work situation, Mauno points out.
Funded by the Academy of Finland, the IJDFIN research project (Managing new intensified job demands through self-regulative resources), conducted by the University of Tampere, studied competence and skill-related stress factors and their significance for occupational wellbeing in several fields, including the service industry. The respondents in the study included 857 PAM members.