Deconstructing Burnout at the Intersections of Race, Gender, and Generation in Local Government

Abstract

In recent years, there have been multiple calls for public administration scholars to adopt an intersectional approach to the study of diversity within public organizations. This paper empirically examines the simultaneous influence of multiple dimensions of individual identity on employee burnout. We advance a better understanding of disparities in individual well-being outcomes for public servants. Using conservation of resource (COR) theory and applied intersectionality, we systematically measure and model differential vulnerabilities to emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and loss of personal accomplishment for individuals at the intersection of gender, racial, and generational identities. Using survey data on local government employees across two neighboring large cities in California, we use ordinary least squares and ordered logit models to estimate the impact of intersectional identities on different dimensions of burnout. Our results show that younger generations of women of color are particularly vulnerable to burnout, but the experience of burnout is not uniform across groups, with each dimension of burnout revealing different vulnerable groups. These findings highlight the importance of deconstructing burnout into its discrete dimensions to better understand the experience of different socio-demographic groups of employees and develop culturally competent strategies to better support an increasingly diverse public workforce.