Chronic fatigue and burnout: a crisis of faith?

Abstract

Fatigue is a widely recognized hazard to occupational safety and health (OSH). Its similarity with burnout has baffled OSH management. Limited research evidence suggests job burnout precedes chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and ill health. Underlying mechanisms are nevertheless unclear. Job burnout entails a “crisis of faith” or cynicism in the meaning of work which might undermine one’s spirituality. This study aimed to investigate the role of spirituality in the relations between burnout and chronic fatigue and health. A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 283 CFS patients in Hong Kong. Both the mediating and moderating effect models of spirituality were tested with Hierarchical Regression Analysis. The results revealed while both the main effects of job burnout and spirituality on chronic fatigue (β=.426, p<.01; β=-.146, p<.05) and ill health (β=.239, p<.01; β=-.407, p<.01) were significant, neither of the interaction effects between burnout and spirituality on chronic fatigue and ill health was significant (p>.05). Contrarily, spirituality was found to partially mediate the relations between burnout and chronic fatigue (Sobel test=2.258, p<.05) and ill health (Sobel test=5.792, p<.01). Further tests on burnout dimensions showed partial mediating effects of spirituality on the relations between exhaustion and chronic fatigue (Sobel test =3.344, p<.01) and ill health (Sobel test=6.035, p<.01), partial mediating effects of spirituality on the relations between cynicism and chronic fatigue (Sobel test=3.786, p<.01) and ill health (Sobel test=6.226, p<.01), and full mediating effects of spirituality on the relations between work-related efficacy and chronic fatigue (Sobel test=-5.483, p<.01) and ill health (Sobel test=-7.282, p<.01). The research findings suggest that burnout contributes to chronic fatigue and ill health partly through undermining one’s spirituality. Interventions to enhance spirituality at work, such as understanding organization mission and their implications to the meaning of one’s work, are advocated to prevent chronic fatigue and ill health.