Meanings of being a female co-worker to a person developing burnout

Burnout is dramatically increasing in many industrialised countries. Burnout is mainly studied from the perspective of the burnout person although it has been confirmed to affect co-workers as well. This study aimed to illuminate meanings of being a female co-worker to a person developing burnout. Fifteen interviews with nursing and medical staff were performed, tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim and a phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used to interpret the text. One meaning of being a female co-worker is struggling, on the one hand to understand and help the person developing burnout and on the other hand to manage their work and survive oneself. This means to be torn between helping the workmate and managing their work. Co-workers are filled with contradictory feelings, from deep concern to aversion and when the workmate finally goes on sick leave, co-workers' feelings of shortcomings and failure emerge, along with troubled conscience. This study reveals a picture of the difficulties of being a female co-worker to a person developing burnout that it is crucial to be aware of.