Depersonalization
Depersonalization, also called cynicism or callousness, is the second dimension of burnout in the Maslach framework: a defensive emotional detachment from the work and the people the work serves. In knowledge work it manifests as cynicism toward stakeholders, dismissiveness about the value of the work, and a loss of identification with the organisation's mission.
The depersonalization dimension is the trickiest to detect and the most diagnostic — emotional exhaustion can be confused with overwork (which has different remediation paths), but depersonalization is a specific psychological response that signals the burnout syndrome has progressed past the early stage. The Maslach Burnout Inventory measures it with items like 'I feel I treat some of my colleagues as if they were impersonal objects' and 'I worry that this job is hardening me emotionally' on a 7-point scale. Engineering organisations that miss depersonalization typically do so because their surveys use single-item burnout proxies that ask only about exhaustion. The most-rigorous engineering-burnout studies use the full MBI-HSS short form precisely to catch this dimension.
Related terms
- Emotional exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion is the first dimension of burnout in the Maslach framework: the chronic depletion of emotional and physical resources from sustained work demand.
- Maslach Burnout Inventory
The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the most-cited clinical instrument for measuring occupational burnout.
- Karasek demand-control model
The Karasek demand-control model is the dominant occupational-stress framework, developed by Robert Karasek in 1979 and extended with Töres Theorell in 1990.