Occupational Burnout Among Employees in Some Service Occupations in Nigeria: Are Health Workers Different?

Studies on occupational burnout among health workers, especially in Nigeria have been at best isolated. No adequate inter-occupationalcomparative study on burnout among health workers, police personnel, and teachers has been conducted. This study, therefore, investigatedthe extent to which health workers were different from police personnel, and teachers in the manifestations of emotional exhaustion,depersonalization, reduced personal accomplishment, and overall occupational burnout. Participants were 455 employees (203 males; 252females) sampled from 3 service occupations (police = 139; health = 159; teaching = 157), whose ages averaged 35.94 years (SD = 7.93).Health workers reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and overall occupational burnout than either police personnelor teachers. Although health workers reported a higher level of reduced personal accomplishment than police personnel, results indicatedthat teachers felt as underachieving as health workers. The findings were discussed in terms of the perceived imbalance in the jobdemands-rewards ratio in the job situations.