Elderly caregivers and social workers as professional helpers are highly vulnerable to burnout syndrome, chronic job stress, emotional and physical exhaustion due to failure to cope with stress, as well as depersonalization, cynicism and declining performance (Maslach, 2003). During our research we targeted this occupational group. The study, which is based on the first author’s, a HR student’s thesis defended in 2015, investigates an international non-profit organizational working group from Bihor county, Romania, specialized in taking care of elderly, concerning burnout and the risks of its onset.
In the study, 34 members of the working group consisting of 37 members altogether, took part. It was carried out in two phases. The first step consisted in the completion of a survey related to characteristics of burnout, self-esteem, mechanisms of stress management, workplace anxiety, satisfaction with life and workaholism in the studied population. This was followed by a series of interviews conducted by using the technique of semi-structured interviews, in which 5 employees of the organisation participated.
The findings show that in the case of the studied employees there is no burnout syndrome, the value of life satisfaction is high, while workplace anxiety is low. It is worth noticing that the value of selfesteem (in the case of 90% of the group members) is low and work overload is present in 30% of the members. During the interviews, we were given some valuable suggestions concerning the introduction of feasible burnout prevention policies within the organization.
Keywords: burnout, prevention, elderly caregivers, social workers
