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Pursuing the Unachievable: Examining Worker Burnout in Ontario’s Public Employment Services

Resource type
Authors/contributors
Title
Pursuing the Unachievable: Examining Worker Burnout in Ontario’s Public Employment Services
Abstract
This paper utilizes the job demands–resources (JD-R) model to examine how the neoliberal governance of Employment Ontario (EO) contributes to worker burnout. The work of Employment Ontario specialists is governed by neoliberal policies, which are an apparatus of austerity politics mechanized through New Public Management (NPM). NPM places a strong emphasis on performance management, quantitative targets and the marketization of public services. This paper demonstrates how these neoliberal policies contribute to worker burnout in public employment services (PES). EO specialists who deliver PES, are tasked with helping vulnerable jobseekers quickly re-enter the paid labour force regardless of systemic barriers, which this study has revealed as a largely unachievable pursuit within a neoliberal market environment. Utilizing data from thirty-two interviews, our analysis indicates that EO workers/specialists experience burnout due to unreasonable job demands and a lack of sufficient resources, which inhibit their ability to meaningfully support vulnerable jobseekers. Having identified time pressures, work overload, lack of training and development opportunities and job insecurity as some of the stressors experienced by EO specialists, we conclude that prolonged exposure to these stressors leads to burnout.
Publication
Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research
Volume
34
Issue
1
Pages
15 pages
Date
2024
Language
English
ISSN
1923-7081
Short Title
Pursuing the Unachievable
Accessed
8/7/24, 6:43 PM
Citation
Bromfield, S. M., & Kanyogonya, V. (2024). Pursuing the Unachievable: Examining Worker Burnout in Ontario’s Public Employment Services. Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research, 34(1), 15 pages. https://alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/article/view/22559