- Fatigue and burnout related to technology-mediated practice was the experience of someone I knew. In 2020, my observation of my neighbor that previously enjoyed her job as a radiologist with a local hospital, that worked from home performing image analysis reporting of x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans, and other digital images were concerning. During Covid, her work volume quickly rose and extended working hours took the place of family time. The government’s stay at home orders meant that her husband, also committed to remote work, and three kids, all under seven at that time were also at home. She was granted a shift change from day to evening to accommodate for childcare. This switch came with other challenges, the emotional effects of Covid-19 resulted in exhaustion, her inability to be present for her family, and the demands of stat results reporting by her employer, affected her mental health. In the latter part of 2021, she resigned her position to fully focus on herself and family.
- It is important for me to recognize that the environment I am occupying has caused me to experience the shift from well-being to burnout and stress. Whether it is exhaustion, both physically and emotionally, lack of job-related resources, or no longer feeling passionate about my job, I will consult with my supervisor for an adjustment to my workload as well as my therapist to address my work and personal life related triggers that are contributing to my burnout.
- Human factors related to tech fatigue:
Tech and office – My use of technology in the office will be for the ease of workflow and to connection to clients and various functions for productive outcomes.
Training – I will connect with various forms of training, whether it is peer led discussions, on the job training, continuing education, and, or online classes to be relevant in the process and provide meaningful service.
Clinical care – have a balance of in-person and virtual visits to encourage good therapeutic balance
Human factors – Having a strategic workflow process will deviate from stress and burnout. For example, I will not access work related emails on my off days, monitor my screen time, take breaks away from my desk to disconnect from the work environment, set time schedule for tasks to be completed. These strategies will help to alleviate burnout and job-related stress.
4. This opinion resonated with me “What I miss are face-to-face interactions with colleagues and being able to consult very easily with someone. And just to maintain that kind of warm human contact with your colleagues. And being able to consult with and be around like-minded individuals and get support from or give support.” (MD 9, Kaiser Permanente Northwest). I would love to engage in remote technology mediated practice for a portion of my work week maybe, two days of the week I work from home and the remainder in the office. On remote days I will have the opportunity to sleep later or go to the gym before I start my workday. Remote days will ease the burden of daily commute and omit the stressors of traffic congestion by trying to be at work on time and return home. These examples will help me to find balance on the days I will need to be in the office.
5. Ratcliff’s definitions of burnout addressed all aspects of burnout on the individual. It addresses the relationship between the individual, the workplace and the family/home environment. I have never taken the MBI and currently do not feel the need to because I have set boundaries in my work life balance.
6. Ratcliff mentioned the self-care tools of yoga and mindfulness as a connection to self and existence. In addition to those tools, I would suggest that the social worker participate in any activity that will spark joy and rejuvenate the mind.
I also resonated with the comment about missing real time collaboration with peers in the McDonald article. I am such a collaborative person in my life and work. I want to collaborate and community build with people in every area of my life and I cannot imagine working in a way that does not allow for that.
On the contrary, I know of people who adores remote work and cannot see themselves in an office setting. The one common theme among them is that they were not working in healthcare, the business sector where workers are experiencing burnout at high rates.
Alicia,
Good first answer. It must have been difficult to see your neighbor, who I am assuming is also your friend, go through such a difficult transition. I think there were a lot of us who felt that the movement to remote during COVID expanded our jobs and our work week in monumental ways. It seemed as if everyone thought because we were remote we could actually work even more hours in a day.
In terms of the second response, you didn’t really answer the queston. I still don’t know what of the four areas resonated with you and why. They talk about specific tools and techniques that would be clearrer if you had related them to one of the four areas.
Question three you took on all four of the areas, but I didn’t see you talk about how you might face those issues. You identified the things you would do to avoid the problem, but I don’t have a cleaar idea of how it is a problem for you.
I totally understand your answer to the foruth question – it’s the way we want to have the best of both worlds. I have been surprised that more employers don’t go for this option. I think the issue becomes the ability to coordinate and keep everyone moving in the same direction – at least that’s whay they say when they want everyone to return to the office.
You left out a couple of the questions in 5.
I think it’s easy to assume that the issues of technology burn out are obvious and the solutions clear. But I have found that it is much easier to write them down then it is to actually put them in place.
Dont forget that you are supposed to place your image in the featured image section. On the right side of the blog post editing window, where all the menus are and you select the blog post category, there is an intem call featured image all the way at the bottom. You click on “set featured image” and then upload the image there. That way it is at the top of your blog post and we can see it more clearly.
Dr P