Burnout at the Supermarket: Testing the Relevance of Personality and Stressful Situations

The well-known burnout syndrome includes psychological facets that have been analyzed with respect to professions with systematic and persistent social contact. However, the context is just one side of the coin, albeit important. There might be some differential vulnerability to the development of the syndrome (the other side of the coin). The study reported here is based on a previous research that observed high levels of the syndrome in cashiers of several supermarkets. Going one step further, here (a) 13 cashiers were compared with 13 workers from other sections of a supermarket, and (b) the personality traits considered by the Big Five Model were measured for estimating the efficient use of knowledge and skills required for achieving social goals (P factor). These were the results: (a) no group differences in the syndrome between cashiers and other sections, and (b) negative correlations between the P factor and burnout scores. It is concluded that individual differences in personality might interact with the occupational context for promoting (or preventing) the burnout syndrome.