Role Swapping: An Antidote to Professional Burnout

Abstract

The personal and professional gains experienced when a counseling practitioner from a university counseling center and a counselor educator at the university traded aspects of their jobs for one semester are discussed. The benefits agencies and departments receive from job swapping are also reviewed. Potential problem areas (e.g., the need for careful negotiation and definition of job descriptions in the trade‐off) are described. We conclude that professional renewal by role swapping for short periods of time gives counselor educators and counseling practitioners personal insight into the ways each spends their time, as well as strengthening the ties between them.

Burnout among Special Education Paraprofessionals

“…This stress has been attributed to such factors as professional stagnation (cf., Romero & Pickney, 1980), lack of opportunity for career advancement (cf., Kaiser, 1981), inadequate training, poor organizational structure, and undefined role descriptions (cf., Bundy, 1981). Other variables that might be influential include lack of support from authority figures (cf., Moracco & McFadden, 1981); misconceptions about the roles of others (cf., Romero & Pickney, 1980); poor salaries; and lack of recognition by peers, administrators, and the general public. If these factors are indeed responsible for burnout among professionals, then there is a strong probability that special education paraprofessionals may be even more affected.…”

The integration of ethnicity and gender into clinical training: The UCLA model.

“…One method may be through role swapping (Romero & Pickney, 1980). In many university settings, ethnic minorities, although not in tenure-track psychology slots, can be found in service-provider roles or staff positions in the university's counseling center, health or medical school, placement center, or special programs as academic counselors.…”

Relationships of Leadership Style and Burnout to Counselors' Perceptions of their Jobs, Themselves, and their Clients

“…"Concern for variables outside the individual counseling session such as organization ... practices" as they relate to the burnout phenomenon were recognized by Romero and Pinkney (1980), and the interaction of leadership concerns and burnout among teachers was a major theme in a recent front-page story in the Chicago Tribune (Yuenger, 1981). Relationships between leadership styles and self-reported burnout among counselors in schools have also been reported (Cummings & NaIl, 1982).…”