Schoolteachers and full-time house-wives with children at home are (1) the highest-risk groups likely to suffer from burnout, says Michael Lauderdale who began studying (2) years ago. He first noticed symptoms of the condition among human service agency workers, but says the condition affects everyone to a (3) Burnout, he believes, comes when "we have expectations of our jobs, careers, marriages, or lives, and the reality we are experiencing is (4) than our expectations".
"We’re in a time of high ambiguity about what life means in (5) of social roles and in terms of what we’re to do (6) our lives. I don’t think that people have greater expectations now than in the past -I think it’s just harder to keep your experiences in (7) because the times keep changing on you." An example of the rapidly changing times would be a young college student who is advised to get a degree in business. "If you re a sophomore now, by the time you (8) the degree, people with business degrees could be a glut on the (9) . The idea that the private sector could solve most of the world’s problems could vanish by then."
Lauderdale divides the symptoms of burnout into three (10) . First is confusion. The worker may voice general complaints, (11) as "1 don’t feel very good" or "1 just don’t have any pep." Sometimes, chronic backaches, headaches, or colds appear. A worker may seem to lose his (12) of humor. He may seem inattentive in a discussion (13) of the list of things to do running through his mind.
Moderate burnout is characterized (14) more illness and absenteeism, and a "cocoon phenomenon" begins. In that (15) , workers "seem to have gray faces at 3 p.m. in the office, but (16) five, it’s like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. Their voices lilt and they are spontaneous (17) they walk out of the office." The "cocoon phenomenon" is a (18) of people compartmentalizing their lives, Lauderdale feels. Accompanying that is "lots of clock-watching and counting the days until Friday."
In the (19) stage of burnout, which he terms despair, "the person pulls into a shell and minimizes work and social contacts as much as (20) . There is depression and crying, an increase in drinking, risk-taking and drugs. I related a lot of my work with abusing parents as being the third stage of burnout. They are highly burned out as parents.\