High expectations and unreciprocated effort in societal exchange: Lessons from the pandemic about psychological forces that influence burnout

Frontline workers have worked in extremely challenging conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic, placing them at higher risk of burnout. Novel psychosocial influences on frontline workers’ burnout were revealed during the pandemic that are unaccounted for in existing psychological theory. In this chapter, we focus on two of those aspects relevant to the consideration of burnout and meaning: societal labelling and society-level social exchange. Drawing from the latest available empirical research and interdisciplinary theory, we interrogate these factors in the context of the pandemic and generate learnings relevant to understanding of meaning and burnout in different sectors, roles, and contexts relevant to the future of work. In bringing together learning from existential models of burnout with theories of social exchange, this chapter contributes new knowledge and proposes future research directions relating to the psychosocial factors that influence burnout and the power of labelling in influencing health and wellbeing.