Burnout and Decision-Making in U.S. Air Force Maintainers

Despite the critical role played by aircraft maintainers in the U.S. Air Force (USAF), research on the perceived effects of burnout on maintainers’ decision-making remains limited, creating a significant gap in the literature. This paper seeks to address this gap by presenting the results of phenomenological interviews with five veteran USAF maintainers who recently served in this career field and who experienced the effects of burnout on their decision-making capacity and quality. Our analysis of interview data, field notes, and observations revealed five key themes: toxic work culture, job tempo, self-efficacy, leadership support quality, and job satisfaction. These themes are analyzed in the context of existing literature on burnout, decision-making, and leadership to provide insights that can inform future management and leadership practices in the USAF maintainer field, with the goal of mitigating the effects of burnout on decision-making effectiveness.