Dismantling burnout: Insights from a public relations practitioner’s autoethnography

Abstract

The field of public relations is inherently stressful, and burnout, a progressive occupational syndrome marked by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and a sense of ineffectiveness, is a significant issue within this context. This autoethnographic study addresses the research question: “How do individual and organisational factors in the public relations sector contribute to burnout, and what role did these elements play in the first author’s personal experience?” Using analytical autoethnography, we explore the first author’s lived experience of burnout within a government public relations role in Australia. By combining the Three Dimensions of Burnout framework which emphasises emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and feelings of ineffectiveness with insights from the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this paper analyses how burnout manifested through both micro-level individual responses and macro-level organisational factors. Key stressors included excessive unrelated tasks, limited autonomy and inadequate organisational support. Moreover, this study introduces “confusion” and “frustration”, otherwise “confrustion”, as a combined additional proposed dimension of burnout, capturing the disorientation often associated with this condition. Ultimately, this paper advocates for changes in public relations education and workplace environments, emphasising the importance of balancing job demands and resources to protect professionals from burnout, promote workers’ rights, and encourage sustainable work-life balance.