Influence of personal and career burnout on female employers’ subjective evaluation of workplace acoustic environment

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Burnout is an increasingly common problem in modern work settings that significantly affects people’s health and well-being. Several studies have emphasized the impact of career burnout on employees’ performance and efficiency. It is unknown whether career burnout mediated by personal burnout may affect employees’ perception of their workplace physical environment attributes. OBJECTIVES: This research aims to understand if personal and career burnout can affect employers’ acoustic environment evaluation of their workplace. METHOD: Considering commonly experienced or highly experienced personal and career burnout among working women, the study targeted female university faculty members. The research involved stratified sampling and employed data from 272 individuals across five public and private universities in Tehran. Collected data were analyzed using SmartPLS (latest release 4.1). RESULTS: The results revealed a significant link between personal and career burnout and the subjective evaluation of workplace acoustic environment. Career burnout mediated the relationship between personal burnout and negative evaluation of the workplace acoustic environment. CONCLUSION: This study provides compelling evidence that experiences of burnout, whether related to personal or career aspects, substantially impact the subjective assessment of the acoustic environment within the workplace. The results underscore the complex interplay between an individual’s degree of burnout and their subjective perception of the acoustic dimensions of their work environment. The findings extend our understanding of how psychological factors might shape our interpretation of the physical workplace.