“I can’t do this anymore. It doesn’t matter how hard I work…I’ll never catch up.” These are the quotes that begin an excellent blog by Jody Michael on burnout in leadership. https://www.jodymichael.com/blog/how-to-avoid-leadership-burnout/ She goes on to describe burnout as “a condition that lives at the intersection of overwhelm and sheer exhaustion.” I am confident that as many of you read this you are thinking – “that’s me!”
Please know that you are not alone. Across a wide swath of occupations, most decision makers with lots of responsibility, have experienced burnout at some point in their career. As a priest you are no exception. On a daily basis you are often faced with unrelenting demands, unreasonably high expectations, and a lack of appreciation for your effort.
Another blog on this topic, https://www.ivyexec.com/career-advice/2019/the-industries-where-people-experience-burnout-the-fastest/, listed seven factors, compiled from a survey of 2,000 people, that routinely contribute to stress and burnout:
- Pressure to be “always on”
- Expectations to get more done than is possible in the workday
- Not making progress in your career
- Boss not appreciating what you do
- A lack of staff to do the work
- Inadequate pay and benefits
- Lack of work-life balance
While the blog was written for secular corporate leaders many of these same factors are present in the daily lives of priests. As a leader, you are often looking out for the welfare of your staff and parishioners. For many priests, this concern for others resulting in a lack of self-care can contribute to frustration, stress and possibly even burnout. Your ministry and your ability to offer effective pastoral care can be compromised or diminished if this is not addressed.
A study was published in Pastoral Psychology (Stephen G. Virginia, 47,49-67, Sept. 1998) on burnout and depression among Roman Catholic priests. They used several well accepted inventories and scales to assess burnout and depression among “secular” (parish) priests, monastic clergy (Cistercian) and religious order priests. There was an excellent response rate (90.67%) and the findings were interesting.
Secular clergy reported a significantly higher rate of emotional exhaustion than did monastic clergy. Secular clergy also had higher rates of depression (72%) than did religious (40.8%) and monastic (39.5%) clergy. Overall, secular clergy experienced the highest rates of burnout and depression, followed by religious priests and monastic clergy being the least affected.
It was concluded that that lack of social support and a sense of isolation, associated more with secular clergy than the others, were key contributing factors. Please see some of our earlier blogs that refer to loneliness and related issues for more information in this regard.
In upcoming blogs, we will look more in depth at this topic on some research that was conducted specifically on clergy (Catholic and other Christian denominations). We will then look at the leadership literature to offer suggestions on how best to address this important issue.