Psychological characteristics of emotional burnout among freelancers

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Psychological characteristics of emotional burnout among freelancers

Relevance of the problem: The relevance of the given topic is stipulated by the fact that recently the problems connected with high stress that accompanies fulfillment of professional duties by the representatives of certain professions have been actively discussed in the society and in scientific circles. In spite of the fact that emotional burnout syndrome is thoroughly studied in a psychological science, most of researches are focused on representatives of quite limited range of professions (doctors, pedagogues, social workers, journalists, law enforcement). At the same time, the above-mentioned fact of freelancers' increase predetermines the necessity to study this group of subjects as well.

Aim of research: to define the characteristics of emotional burnout syndrome manifestation among freelancers.

Methodology and sample: the sample consists of 31 freelancers (26 women and 5 men aged 24 to 56, self-employed from 1 to 30 years) and 31 full-time employees (25 women and 6 men aged 23 to 57, full-time employed from 1 to 30 years). The material for the study was collected on the platform https:77m.facebook.com in the communities "Freelancers, unite", "Translation, Freelancing, Organizational Issues" and "Freelancer", "Ukrainian translators", "Freelancers in Ukraine". All the participants of the study perform their full-time or freelance activities on the territory of the CIS.

Results and conclusions: Differences in the level of burnout phases formation among full-time employees and freelancers as well as some statistically significant features offreelancers' experience of this syndrome in comparison with full-time employees have been determined. It was found out that freelancers have lower formation of some phases of emotional burnout, however the analysis revealed the following features of freelancers' burnout: freelancers have more expressed indexes of the symptoms of cornering, dissatisfaction with themselves, inadequate selective emotional reactions. The emotional alienation symptom indicator is also high. The high level of professional achievement reduction in the freelancer group, as determined by the MBI questionnaire, indicates a possible tendency to devalue one's own achievements.

Ключові слова: burn-out, freelancers, tension, resistance, exhaustion, depersonalization, reduction of professional achievements.

Психологічні характеристики емоційного вигорання фрілансерів

Антон В. Поденко,

доцент кафедри психології,

Харківський національний педагогічний університет імені Г.С. Сковороди, Україна freelancer tension resistance exhaustion

Актуальність теми дослідження обумовлена тим, що останнім часом у суспільстві та у наукових колах активно обговорюються проблеми, пов'язані з великою напругою, що супроводжує виконання представниками певних професій своїх професійних обов'язків. Незважаючи на той факт, що синдром емоційного вигорання ретельно вивчається в психологічній науці, більшість досліджень спрямована на представників досить обмеженого кола професій (медики, педагоги, соціальні працівники, журналісти, правоохоронці). Водночас, вище зазначений факт збільшення кількості фрілансерів зумовлює необхідність дослідження також ї цієї групи суб 'єктів.

Мета дослідження: визначити особливості прояву синдрому емоційного вигорання у фрілансерів.

Методи дослідження: теоретичні (аналіз і систематизація наукових відомостей за проблемою синдрому емоційного вигорання у фрілансерів); методи збору емпіричних даних (методика діагностики рівня емоційного вигорання В.В. Бойка, Опитувальник «вигорання» МВІ за редакцією К. Маслач та С. Джексон, в адаптації Н.Є. Водоп'янової); методи математичної статистики (описові статистики, U-критерій Манна-Уітні).

Результати і висновки: Визначено відмінності як у рівні сформованості фаз вигорання у штатних робітників та у фріласнерів, так і окремі статистично значущі особливості переживання цього синдрому фрілансерами в порівнянні зі штатними працівниками. Було з'ясовано, що фрілансери мають меншу сформованість окремих фаз емоційного вигорання, втім, аналіз з'ясував такі особливості вигорання фрілансерів: фрілансери мають більш виражені показники за симптомами загнаність у кут, незадоволеність собою, неадекватне вибіркове емоційне реагування.

Ключові слова: вигорання, фрілансери, напруга, резистенція, виснаження, деперсоналізація, редукція професійних досягнень.

Introduction

The processes of globalization and modem socio-economic conditions, the gradual departure from the concept of a traditional career towards a multivariate one, the improvement of means of distance communication and the erasure of territorial boundaries, the need to search for new formats of interaction, prompted by the pandemic, the popularization of ideas of acquiring one's own destination and the like have led to an increasing number of self- employed workers, whose way of organizing activity, on the one hand, is almost a standard of freedom and independence, on the other hand, is characterized by a high level of personal uncertainty and professional stress, which in some cases leads to the appearance of emotional burnout syndrome in this category of people.

The relevance of the given topic is stipulated by the fact that recently the problems connected with high stress that accompanies fulfillment of professional duties by the representatives of certain professions have been actively discussed in the society and in scientific circles. In spite of the fact that emotional burnout syndrome is thoroughly studied in a psychological science, most of researches are focused on representatives of quite limited range of professions (doctors, pedagogues, social workers, journalists, law enforcement). At the same time, the above-mentioned fact of freelancers' increase predetermines the necessity to study this group of subjects as well.

Freelancers are independent and autonomous employees, and their work activities are organized in a different way compared to the organization of the activities of full-time employees of companies and enterprises. The specificity of the professional activity of freelancers is characterized by a flexible work schedule, the ability to independently determine the total amount of workload, the ability to choose customers and projects, each time discussing and setting working conditions, which gives opportunities for planning and control over working time, opportunities to combine work with family responsibilities and personal interests (Strebkov & Shevchuk, 2019). Therefore, the working activity of freelancers has a rather high level of autonomy. At the same time, the so-called "autonomy paradox" is described in relation to freelancers, which manifests itself in the propensity to intensify their work, which leads to the deterioration of subjective well-being among subjects endowed with autonomy. Some authors consider a high level of independence and responsibility as one of the main factors of emotional burnout (Zaitsev, Burdaeva & Letyagina, 2018).

Freelancers often have to work at non-standard hours (evenings and nights, weekends and holidays) due to economic necessity and cyclic fluctuations of workload caused by various reasons, such as general economic conditions and seasonality in the activity of customers, the cycle of an individual project with uneven distribution of work at different stages of its implementation, idle periods interspersed with periods when several projects have to be performed simultaneously. In addition to the direct execution of orders, freelancers need to solve various administrative and marketing tasks, improve their professional level, independently choosing the direction and volume of this training, promote and advertise their services (Strebkov & Shevchuk, 2019).

The successful performance of freelancers largely depends on the ability to make a first impression on new clients and not to disappoint regular clients in order to keep a steady flow of future orders and receive favorable feedback and recommendations. Therefore, freelancers are forced to be constantly in touch with clients, often performing urgent tasks, which affects the ability to implement their own plans outside of their chosen professional activity and to arrange a convenient work schedule. In scientific research, this dependence on clients has been defined as "client colonization" (Gold & Mustafa, 2013). Among the complicating factors for freelancers also note the lack of a clear guarantee of receiving the promised profit for the work performed, the need to constantly control cash flow (Ulanov & Patsuk, 2015).

It should be noted that freelancer's work is also characterized by absence or weak representation of social support from colleagues, almost complete absence of professional community that could provide support rather than act as competitors, which also significantly contributes to the development of emotional burnout. In addition, among the factors of emotional burnout of freelancers there is the pressure of the family, dissatisfied with the specifics of their work (Zaitsev, Burdaeva & Letyagina, 2018). At the same time, researchers have found that professionals who receive social support are less exposed to emotional burnout because they can better counteract stressful influences. Instrumental, informational and emotional support is especially important in conditions of role conflict and high workload (Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1997).

If the organizational factors that can lead to emotional burnout among freelancers are sufficiently expressed, special attention should be paid to the definition of personal characteristics that can act as factors of burnout occurrence or prevent it.

In general, among the personality characteristics of specialists which may act as factors in the occurrence of emotional burnout are external locus of control, stress resistance style, low self-esteem, anxiety, high neuroticism (Orel, 2005), tendency to avoid conflict and problematic situations, deformation of attitude (Vodopyanova & Starchenkova, 2008), low emotional stability, impulsivity, tendency to feel guilt, shyness, suspiciousness (Skugarevskaya, 2002), desire for recognition by others, aggressiveness, weak personal endurance, which is understood as the ability of the individual to be highly active every day, to implement control over life situations and flexibly respond to any changes.

Based on that emotional burnout can be considered as a mechanism of stress coping or as one of its components in its structure, personal factors of emotional burnout are low tolerance to frustration and stress, high emotional lability. In the study of L. Matvienko and K. Kuzin among the personal characteristics of freelancers, acting as resources of stress-overcoming behavior, the expressed self-control and volitional regulation of behavior, which are shown in such personal characteristics as predictability, responsibility, persistence, neatness, understated curiosity in search of impressions, emotional stability, self-sufficiency, self-confidence, emotional maturity (Matvienko & Kuzin, 2020), are determined.

The risk of emotional burnout syndrome among freelancers is caused by a number of organizational factors, including a high level of independence and responsibility, irregular working hours, cyclic fluctuations of workload, the need to constantly perform various tasks, stressful communication with clients, lack or weak support from colleagues and family pressure due to the specifics of a freelancer's work activity.

The aim of the research: to define the characteristics of emotional burnout syndrome manifestation among freelancers.

Research methods: theoretical (analysis and systematization of scientific data on the problem of emotional burnout syndrome among freelancers); methods of empirical data collection (methods for diagnostics of level of emotional burnout by V. Boyko; Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaire by K. Maslach and S. Jackson, adapted by N. Vodopyanova); methods of mathematical statistics (descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test).

The research base: the sample consists of 31 freelancers (26 women and 5 men aged 24 to 56, self-employed from 1 to 30 years) and 31 full-time employees (25 women and 6 men aged 23 to 57, full-time employed from 1 to 30 years). The material for the study was collected on the platform https://rn.facebook.com in the communities "Freelancers, unite", "Translation, Freelancing, Organizational Issues" and "Freelancer", "Ukrainian translators", "Freelancers in Ukraine". All the participants of the study perform their full-time or freelance activities on the territory of the CIS.

The results of the study

It was found that the majority of workers have not formed the phase of tension - 57%, but 22% are in the stage of formation and 21% of the phase is formed. Indicators of the tension phase among freelancers, show that 15% of freelancers have the phase formed, 17% are in the stage of formation, and 68% have no indicators of the formation of the specified phase. In the group of full-time employees, the symptom of experiencing psychotraumatic circumstances is the most pronounced, being present in 56%. Symptoms of anxiety and depression are also observed in 18%, represented by the extreme point of formation of the stress phase. In the group of freelancers it is possible to notice that the symptom of stalemate is pronounced - 33%. The indicators of dissatisfaction with oneself 11% and experience of psychotraumatic circumstances 15% have close values.

The analysis of the formation of the resistance phase among full-time employees and freelancers discovered that 40% of full-time employees have a formed phase. 48% of full-time employees are in the formation phase, while 22% of full-time employees have no signs of formation. The findings on freelancers show that 35% of freelancers have an established resistance phase. 29% are in the formation phase and 36% have no symptoms of this phase.

The symptom of inadequate selective reaction is formed among 67% of respondents, emotional-moral disorientation and expansion of the sphere of economy of emotions is represented among 15%, the reduction of professional duties is formed among 63% of respondents.

The analysis of indicators of symptoms of the resistance phase in the group of freelancers showed that there is a significant symptom of inadequate selective response, which was formed for 78% of the sample, emotional and moral disorientation as a symptom manifested in 19% of the sample, expansion of the sphere of saving emotions was formed for 15% of individuals, reduction of professional duties was formed for 30% of the sample.

Let's focus on the phase of exhaustion, accompanied by a decrease in general energy tonus, weakening of the nervous system and reduction of mental resources, psychophysical advantage of the subject, emptiness, leveling of own professional achievements, violation of professional communication, development of cynical attitude to those with whom it is necessary to interact on work issues, development of psychosomatic disorders. It was determined that for 27% of full-time employees phase is formed, while among the freelance group this figure is 14%. There are 37% of full-time employees and 28% of freelancers in the formation phase. While the remaining 36% of full-time employees and 58% of freelancers are not in the formation phase.

The most pronounced in the group of full-time employees is the symptom of emotional alienation, which turns out to be a complete exclusion of emotions from the sphere of professional activity; it was formed for 33% of the sample. Symptoms of alienation, psychosomatic and psycho-vegetative disorders are formed for 25% of the sample. Emotional deficit was found for 22% of the sample in the group.

When considering the symptoms of the exhaustion phase among freelancers, we can note that there are no indicators of psychosomatic and psychovegetative disorders in this group, which means that freelancers are less susceptible to illnesses at the level of physical and mental well-being. The most pronounced symptom is emotional alienation for 30% of the sample. Emotional deficit is formed for 15% of the sample, personal detachment, expressed in a change of values of the person for 11% of the sample.

Further let's concentrate on the results of the levels of emotional burnout according to the method "MBI" adapted by N. Vodopyanova in the following groups: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduction of professional achievements.

Employees and freelancers 15% in both groups have low level of emotional exhaustion. However, the indicators of the average level of emotional exhaustion are higher for freelancers (48% of the sample) than for office employees 41%. The high level of emotional exhaustion, on the contrary, is higher for office employees and amounts to 44% of the sample, and for freelancers this indicator is 37% of the sample.

Analyzing the indicators of depersonalization level showed that 18% of the sample of full-time employees and 33% of the sample of freelancers have a low level. The average level is characteristic for 19% of full-time employees and 22% for freelancers. High level of depersonalization was found for 63% of full-time employees and 45% for freelancers.

While analyzing the distribution of indicators of reduction of professional achievements of the group of full-time employees, it was found that the low level is observed in 30% of the sample. The average level of individual achievement reduction was observed in 48% of the sample, and a high level in 22% of the sample.

When considering these indicators of freelancers group the following results were obtained: 26% have low level of reduction of individual achievements, the average level is typical for 26% of the sample, high level of formation has 48% of the sample.

When summarizing the results of the MBI methodology adapted by N. Vodopyanova, we can note a number of different indicators in the examined groups:

1. In the group of full-time employees the indicators of formation of emotional exhaustion are 7% higher and make up 44% of the group. Based on these data, we can assume that office workers are more susceptible to high overwork, apathy, and emotional exhaustion in connection with professional activity.

2. Indicators obtained on the level of depersonalization in the group of full-time employees is higher and formed for 63% of respondents, i.e. full-time employees are more often involved in stale formal relationships with colleagues and other subjects of activity.

3. The high level of reduction of personal achievements is noted in the group of freelancers, almost half of the respondents 48%, which indicates the tendency to devalue their own professional achievements.

Thus, based on the results of descriptive statistics, the following conclusions can be made: according to V. Boyko methodology, the indicators of formation for all phases, namely tension, resistance, and exhaustion, are higher for full-time employees. However, freelancers have more significant indicators of the symptoms of corneredness, dissatisfaction with themselves, and inadequate selective emotional reactions. The index of the symptom of emotional alienation is also high.

Table 1 shows the differences in the indicators of the tension phase in the studied groups.

Results of the comparative analysis of the indicators of the formation of the tension phase in the studied groups

Table 1

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