I believe strongly that one of the early posts on this blog titled “Overloading of Entry Level Workers: Forewarned Is Forearmed” (Thistle 2012b) clearly remains relevant to the ongoing burnout problem among workers in the museum industry.
Beyond the occupational devotedness of established museum paid staff and volunteers, . . . entry level museum workers [now known as Emerging Museum Professionals (EMPs)] possess strong additional motivations centred on career advancement that exacerbate the tendency to overwork. For emerging museum professionals who use information technology as second nature, also see a recent blog posting [Thistle (2012a); cf. Thistle (2015)] showing how smartphones cause a poor quality of working life. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that many employers treat young workers as ‘dirt cheap and disposable’ (WorkplaceInfo 2005).
Workers in such circumstances remain in danger of burning out.
I concluded my analysis as follows:
In summary, awareness among entry level museum professionals of the dangers inherent in task saturation to one’s physical, mental, spiritual, family, and social health is the first step toward reducing the negative impact of the modern world’s work intensification pressures (Thistle 2012b).
I recommend that readers—especially EMPs!—access my fully detailed & referenced argument in the Overloading of Entry Level Workers: Forewarned Is Forearmed post.
Using the Search function on every page of this blog, readers will find 43 hits resulting from a search for the term “burnout.”
References Cited:
Thistle, Paul C. 2015. “Smartphone Carried in Your Hand, or in Your Pocket/Purse?” Solving Task Saturation for Museum Workers blog posted July 5, 2015 at https://solvetasksaturation.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/smartphone-carried-in-your-hand-or-in-your-pocketpurse/ (accessed 23 April 2024).
Thistle, Paul C. 2012b. “Overloading of Entry Level Workers: Forewarned Is Forearmed.” Solving Task Saturation for Museum Workers blog posted August 21, 2012 at https://solvetasksaturation.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/overloading-of-entry-level-workers-forewarned-is-forearmed/ (accessed 23 April 2024).
Thistle, Paul C. 2012a. “Smartphones & Unpaid Overtime.” Solving Task Saturation for Museum Workers blog posted August 6, 2012 at https://solvetasksaturation.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/smartphones-unpaid-overtime/ (accessed 23 April 2024).
WorkplaceInfo. 2005. “Young SA workers ‘dirt cheap and disposable, says report.” 5 October, North Sydney, NSW, AU: New South Wales Business Chamber at http://www.workplaceinfo.com.au/recruitment/problems-and-challenges/young-sa-workers-dirt-cheap-and-disposable-says-report [<- in 2024, now a dead link. The only Google hit in 2024 is to my 2012 post] (originally accessed 21 August 2012).
Solving Task Saturation for Museum Workers 