Burnout Among Nonprofit Workers: Insight into Nature Breaks as a Resource

Burnout is pervasive in nonprofits and detrimental to organizations’ financial performance and ability to fulfill their mission. The three dimensions of burnout - exhaustion, cynicism, inefficacy - require their own remedies, but organizational approaches can be costly and ineffective, omitting individuals’ agency. They fail to consider burnout’s prevalence among nonprofit workers; indeed, 88% say they are approaching/experiencing burnout. Drawing on the Job Demands and Resources Model, we proposed an Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) study to investigate one type of (free) agentic, resource-generating way to remedy burnout–nature breaks –which can address all three dimensions, especially for those with lower perceived collective burnout. We presented the proposal at a nonprofit conference, gathered feedback, made revisions, and as per the recommendation, are conducting an exploratory pilot study to gain insight into the phenomenon before launching the ESM. We present our preliminary findings.