Examination of the relationship between professional burnout and empathic tendencies in Ministry of Family and Social Services employees: Adana province case

This study investigated the relationship between professional burnout and empathic tendency in the Adana Provincial Directorate of Family and Social Services professionals. The study sample consisted of 166 professional staff in Family and Social Services in Adana in 2021. We used The Personal Information Form, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Empathetic Tendency Scale to collect data. Data analysis was performed by IBM SPSS 21.0 Windows package program. Study findings suggested an intermediate level of professional burnout manifested by a moderate level of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization in addition to a low level of personal accomplishment. Age, marital status, having a child, work department, service type, participation in professional development activities, and professional seniority were not associated with professional burnout and empathic tendency. While there was no difference between the genders regarding occupational burnout, female professionals' empathetic tendency levels were higher (<.05). The empathic tendency levels showed significant differences regarding the graduated department in the college (p=.002). Education level, choosing a profession of his own will, the type of assignment, work department, and the legislation regarding job status were related to emotional exhaustion (<.05). Depersonalization levels were differed regarding education level and choosing a profession, his own will. The sense of personal accomplishment was less in those who were assigned against his will (<.05). The empathic tendency was negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion (r=-.30) and depersonalization (r=-.42) and positively associated with a sense of personal accomplishment (r=.45) (all of them; p<.001). Our results indicate that empathic tendency is closely related to occupational burnout. The empathic tendency should be considered a component in interventions targeting occupational burnout in family and social workers.