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Working Without Faces: Job Demands, Resources, and Burnout in Anonymous Helpline Workers in Slovakia and the Czech
1Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Košice, Němcovej 32, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia.
Background/Objectives:
Helplines are an important component of mental health support systems; however, limited research has examined burnout among helpline workers. This exploratory pilot study investigated the relationships between job demands, job and personal resources, and burnout within the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework.
Methods:
A cross-sectional online study was conducted among 73 helpline workers. Burnout was assessed using the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT). Job demands were categorized as topic-related, client-related, and service-related. Data were analysed using Spearman correlations and hierarchical regression analyses.
Results:
Job demands were positively associated with burnout (rs = 0.41, p < 0.001), while job resources were negatively associated with burnout (rs = -0.30, p < 0.01). Regression analyses showed that job demands and resources explained 50% of the variance in overall burnout (R2 = 0.50, p < 0.001). Service-related demands emerged as the strongest predictor of burnout (β = 0.70, p < 0.001) and consistently predicted exhaustion (β = 0.60, p < 0.001), mental distance (β = 0.48, p < 0.001), cognitive impairment (β = 0.52, p < 0.001), and emotional impairment (β = 0.61, p < 0.001). Organizational resources were negatively associated with mental distance (β = -0.31, p < 0.01), whereas topic-related demands were not significant predictors.
Conclusions:
The findings highlight the importance of differentiating types of job demands in understanding burnout among helpline workers. Service-related demands appeared to be more strongly associated with burnout than topic- or client-related demands, suggesting that structural aspects of helpline work may be particularly relevant for worker well-being.
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