Teacher’s emotional exhaustion: self-endangering work behavior as novel concept and explanatory mechanism

Abstract

In a recently published article, Baeriswyl, Bratolic, and Krause (2021) introduced prolonging working hours as a coping behavior used by teachers, and using self- reported questionnaire-based data from 560 teachers in Switzerland, they demonstrated that it is related to emotional exhaustion—the core component of burnout. This Mini Review summarizes the most important findings from this focal article, embeds prolonging working hours into the concept of self-endangering work behavior (SEWB), and introduces the latest deliberations on SEWB. It outlines possibilities of measuring SEWB that may serve as a starting point for targeted activities in workplace health promotion in both schools and other occupational settings.