Browsing by Subject "burnout"

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    An exploration of the role of toxic workplaces and burnout amongst social workers in Cape Town
    (2025) Manqindi, Zodwa; Swart-Opperman, Christina
    Social Workers in Cape Town operate within high-pressure environments characterised by complex social issues, limited resources, and emotionally intense workloads. These conditions often give rise to toxic workplace dynamics, including poor leadership, lack of emotional support, excessive caseloads and organisational dysfunction (September and Dinbabo, 2008; Matlakala, 2022). The purpose of this study was to explore the role of toxic workplaces and burnout amongst Social Workers in Cape Town. The primary objective was to develop an in-depth understanding of the experiences, challenges, and coping strategies of Social Workers in workplaces where leaders behave negatively, that result in Social Workers experiencing burnout. The secondary objective was to engage practitioners' opinions as to what can be done to mitigate toxic environments in the workplace. A qualitative exploratory research design was employed to achieve these objectives. In-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 18 Social Workers working in Non-profit Organisations in Cape Town. The findings revealed that Social Workers face heavy workloads, fast-paced environments, unsafe areas, inadequate resources, and lack of supervision, all of which impact their Mental Health and Well-being. Common problems included micromanagement, unmanaged caseloads, poor leadership, nepotism, gaslighting, disrespect, and lack of appreciation. Additionally, ineffective leadership characterised by a lack of transparency, unity, and ineffective styles was noted. Participants suggested that founders of private organisations should have social work experience to better support employees. The findings of the study also stressed the impact of toxic workplaces on social workers, including mental health struggles, with many coping through medication, alcohol, or smoking. High turnover rates were attributed to burnout, underperformance, absenteeism, feeling underpaid, and mistreatment. Decisions to stay or leave were influenced by personal circumstances and mental health priorities. In summary, these findings highlight the need for better leadership, support systems, and mental health resources to improve the work environment for Social Workers.
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    TEDI 2 Week 4 - Taking Care of Yourself
    (2019) Couper, Jacqui
    In this video, Jacqui Couper stresses on the need for educators to take care of themselves because it is only when they do this that they will be able to care for and teach the children, as well as positively interact with colleagues and parents of the children. Using an analogy of plants and a water can Jacqui foregrounds the need for teachers to constantly refill their energies through healthy life styles in order to cope with the exigencies of teaching and avoiding burnout. She then elaborately discusses how teachers can do so. This video lecture 2/5 of week 4 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    The relationship between work-family conflict and burnout amongst call center employees: Optimism and a moderator
    (2020) Pillay, Jayde; Bagraim, Jeffrey
    This study examined work-family conflict as a predictor of burnout as well as the moderating role that optimism and pessimism may have had on this relationship. Participants were call centre employees from a financial institution in Cape Town (N = 94). Cross-sectional data was collected via electronic self-report questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated the unidimensionality of work-to-family conflict despite the two-dimensional model that was expected. Bivariate regression analysis showed that work-to-family conflict explained a significant proportion of the variance in both dimensions of burnout – emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Contrary to what was expected, the results of the moderation analyses were not significant. Optimism and pessimism did not moderate the relationship between work-to-family conflict and burnout. The results show that work-to-family conflict negatively affects call centre employees' well-being. The results are discussed and implications for management and suggestions for future research are presented.
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    Understanding the role of appraisal in the relationship between work overload, work engagement and burnout in South African organisations
    (2019) Dzuguda, Hulisani; Mulenga, Chao Nkhungulu
    The objective of the study was to investigate how individual appraisal of high workload as a challenge or a hindrance stressor correlates with work engagement and burnout. The work environment is fraught with high workloads, resulting in stress for employees. The cost of employee stress and ill health to organisations and society is reported to be high due to lost productivity and healthcare costs. The current study used the challenge-hindrance stressor model to determine the impact of appraisal on the relationship between work overload and work engagement/burnout. The current study proposed that employees experience both work engagement and burnout concurrently depending on whether they appraise work overload as a challenge or a hindrance stressor. An explanatory quantitative design was used to survey employees from multiple organisations in South Africa, yielding 144 full-time, permanently employed respondents. Findings from the study indicated that stressors that were appraised as challenges were linked to work engagement, whereas stressors that were appraised as hindrances were linked to burnout. The study also found that employees appraise work overload as a hindrance not a challenge, resulting in a negative relationship between work overload and work engagement and a positive relationship between work overload and burnout. The implication is that when employees have high workloads, their engagement does not increase; their likelihood of burnout increases. The study determined no positive outcomes of high workloads, only the risk of highly engaged employees becoming fatigued and burnt out. Hence, it is recommended that organisations manage the workloads of their employees.