522 Police Officer Burnout

Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement by Kevin M. Gilmartin, Ph.D. is a book that seeks to inform and instruct those seeking to be in law enforcement, law enforcement professionals and their families of the realities of a career in law enforcement- professionally and personally. And how to best prepare for emotional survival of “on-duty and off-duty” life. It also compares and contrasts what happens to officers at the beginning of this journey and what typical happens to officers overtime; focusing mainly on what happens to officers that don’t know the techniques of emotional survival. Though it

The implied message is that therapists should always be aware that they could become tired of helping people, because after so long with helping numerous clients, they can start to feel wore out. The appeal being used is pathos, because therapists must use strong emotions with their clients to help their outcomes become successful. This book discusses the main causes of burnout, as well as several techniques used to keep burnout from happening. This book is an informative read, and really reaches into the deep issues of burnout in therapists, which will help me with plenty of ideas for my

7) The need to be in constant emotional control. Law enforcement officers have a job that requires extreme restraint under highly emotional circumstances. They are told when they are extremely excited, they have to act calm. They are told when they are nervous, they have to be in charge. They are taught to be stoic when emotional. They are to interact with the world in a role. The emotional constraint of the role takes tremendous mental energy, much more energy than expressing true emotions. When the energy drain is very strong, it may make the officer more prone to exhaustion outside of work, such as not wanting to participate in social or family life. This energy drain can also create a sense of job and social burnout.

There are many stress categories that law enforcement will face when it comes to performing their occupational duties. The first stress category is internal or individual stress. Stress can happen at any time especially on the internal side as there is always a chance of an “officer worrying about the competency to handle an assignment. “If the assignment they are working on is causing individual stress the feelings of ‘helplessness and vulnerability” starts to happen when they feel the pressure of trying to finish an assignment. Officers start to feel the internal stress that everyone is counting on them to get the assignment they are working on in perfect working order. Since crime never sleeps the assignments that make officers internally stress over each assignment critical which can lead to more time being spent on-duty rather than off-duty. “The dearth of time for personal development can translate into divorce, suicide, alcoholism, or burnout”. The stress of the job and having a family takes its toll but those who can cope with the internal stress of their job and family are the one that can have both at the same time. Although there are some factors of internal stress that can lead officers to eventually “end their career with no family, no friends -other than a few cops-and no outside interests” Officers that have internal stress can have feelings that their “trapped in their profession” because the internal stress of being a law enforcement officers is just to

Maslach and Schaufeli (1993) argued that when professionals are burned-out, job performance quality is jeopardized. They also indicate that burnout is not limited to the police service, as they state that “burnout has been extended beyond the traditional borders of the human services”. They may concur, for the reason that burnout is not limited to policing, that stress should not be proclaimed as inherent to the police service.

In the article “Stress and burnout among counselor educators: differences between adaptive perfectionists, maladaptive perfectionists, and nonperfectionists” the authors Moate, Gnilka, West, and Bruns were interested in investigating how stress and burnout in counselors can affect their success at work. For this, they looked at the causes of these issues by examining the differences between adaptive perfectionists and maladaptive perfectionists. They focused their study on counselor educators and their effect on future

Burnout and low retention rates are well-known problems in the police force (Burke & Deszca, 1986). There are consistent patterns in the research that have led us to hypothesize those female police officers with higher levels of burnout could be more likely to resign (Akinlolu, Dotun, & Nneka, 2013). The most effective way to decrease burnout is by addressing long-term stressors reported by female officers. Among many other stressors already mentioned, the police force has been slow and tentative in their progress toward fuller utilization of female police officers (Garrison & Grant, 1990), which is stressful for female officers. The future of women, although hopeful, is full of potential barriers, which could either help or lock female officers

Burnout is a gradual onset with symptoms coming on over time slowly. Burnout symptoms may include physical exhaustion, hopelessness, negative self-concept, having difficulty leaving home, and inability to concentrate are just some of the symptoms. Due to the gradual onset of symptoms, it is often hard to detect early (Dass-Brailsford, 2007). In McCann and Pearlman’s article they discuss burnout as a, “psychological strain from working with difficult populations” (McCann & Pearlman, 1990).

All analysis will be conducted sequentially, with the findings from one research method informing the analysis of data from the other (Creswell, 2009). A statistical analysis of burnout, perfectionism and resilience in the survey sample and other hypotheses using the survey data will be conducted and finally a return to the interview data as means of explaining the quantitative results by using the interview data to illuminate broad perceptions in regards to burnout, perfectionism and resilience. In examining factors driving academics burnout, the researcher will conduct multivariate and path analyses of the survey data to test hypotheses from the existing literature and then supplement this with the interviews to clarify the quantitative

Even though there is not a lot of empirical research assessing the effectiveness of stress management programs for correctional officers, several authors have suggested ways to reduce stress and burnout among officers at the individual

Any work environment can have stressful aspects that can negatively affect the employees’ performance and may lead to burnout. Oftentimes when employees are stressed or burnout their commitment at the job may begin to weaken and they may lose satisfaction. Many organizations have recognized that workers burnout is the result of aggravated chronic work stressors and embodied by enervation and inefficacy. This author will discuss the impact of stress and worker burnout on organizations. Moreover, this author will consider the implication of stress and worker burnout on the employee, as well as the short- and long-term productivity of a business.

There are many mixed attitudes and emotions surrounding employee burnout; although, two reoccurring attitudes are usually anxiety and exhaustion. Employees that feel burnt out at work experience a high level of exhaustion both in and out of the workplace. When it feels as though an employee can’t catch a break even when they are supposed to be off-the-clock, exhaustion takes over and causes problems. Anxiety is also a present attitude involving burnout because employees may feel as though they have no escape from work,

Burnout is a combination of factors, including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and the reduced sense of personal accomplishment (Maslach, 1982). Emotional exhaustion is accompanied with a lack of compassion and motivation to work, while depersonalization leads to irritability.

performance, Kingshott, Bailey, & Wolfe (2004) concluded that POs deemed psychologically entitled held lower levels of job satisfaction and more contempt toward supervision. Further, Osborne (2014) provided additional support for such findings in a study centering on police cynicism. It was determined that elevated levels of cynicism were retained by lower ranked, degreed POs assigned to patrol; however, the author also adduced that as lower ranked officers are promoted, the obviation of said feelings may occur. Forsyth and Copes (1994) discovered comparable interactions in a sample of 102 POs. In a related vein, an examination of self-performance ratings of POs demonstrated that degreed officers rated themselves significantly higher in key performance areas (e.g., stress coping and leadership qualities) (Kakar, 1998); reflecting educated POs’ confidence in their level of mastery and leadership capacity. While the author did not elaborate, it was also found that better educated POs reported less job satisfaction and more occupational frustration (Kakar, 1998).

According to Elkin and Rosch (1990) workplace related stress in a major problem in the U.S. and it creates a major expense for corporations. Koeske, Kirk, and Koeske (1993) indicate that all jobs have some level of stress but jobs that are in the human services have additional stressors because they “derive from intense involvement in the lives of others”. (p.319). They also refer to the type of stress experienced by individuals working in human services as “burnout” (Koeske, Kirk, and Koeske, 1993, p.319). Another factor that can influence our stress level is how we handle life’s demands. There are different ways of reacting to the situations we face every day of our lives. We have all heard of expressions such as ‘road rage’ and ‘going postal’. These are terms that we have come to identified with violent reactions to stressors caused by situations all of us face every day. How many of us have experiences in the road that