Core and catalyst criteria for disclosing one’s burnout in the workplace

A sample of 142 full-time employees who experienced job burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic completed an online, open-ended survey designed to explore the core and catalyst privacy rule criteria that individuals consider when disclosing or not disclosing their experiences of burnout in the workplace. Participant responses indicate that core criteria consisted of the quality of one’s relationship with colleagues and the organization’s culture. Catalyst criteria consisted of a sense of a shared experience of burnout, the risk of judgment toward the disclosure, and the severity of one’s burnout. These findings suggest that discussing job burnout in one’s workplace can create feelings of vulnerability that can potentially impact one’s job and, thus, employees are careful in choosing confidants and methods of disclosure for job burnout.