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The article explains:
- The concept of professional deformation
- “Zones of influence” of professional deformation
- 4 types of professional deformation
- 7 main reasons for professional deformation
- 7 main signs of professional deformation
- Professionals at risk
- Possible consequences of professional personality deformation
- Emotional burnout as one of the manifestations of professional deformation
- 12 tips for preventing professional personality deformation
Often, a person who has worked in his specialty for a long time, along with the accumulation of certain experience, experiences a professional deformation of his personality.
An individual transfers his “working” habits, algorithms of action in specific situations, and even moral standards into everyday life. You can fight professional deformation. But not everyone succeeds in this, as it sometimes requires enormous effort. But it is imperative to try to change the situation for the better, otherwise the consequences can be very negative: both for the person himself and his immediate environment.
The concept of professional deformation
Working in one area allows us to accumulate experience, improve professional qualities, learn more and more new things and bring everyday things to the point of automatic execution. Of course, this is good, because this is how we develop and become professionals in our field. However, this process borders on something else, not as rosy as we would like.
We are talking about professional deformation (translated from Latin as distortion) - this is a type of change associated with work and professional activity. In other words, the individual looks at the world differently, evaluates it distortedly, in terms of any responsibilities, skills or professional preferences.
The concept of professional deformation
At this moment, significant mental transformations occur, due to the characteristics of the work that the person performs. His character, behavior, attitude towards the world, and manner of communication undergo changes. This even affects the family.
PDL or professional personality deformations affect everything that is important to a person, concerns him: this includes his temperament and character, behavioral characteristics, the way he relates to the environment, his values change, even communication with loved ones, relatives, and acquaintances is transformed.
The first talk about PDL arose in 1915. In an article in the American Journal of Psychology they wrote about how the mental characteristics of representatives of certain working professions change.
In 1921, Pitirim Sorokin, a Russian-American sociologist and cultural scientist, coined the term “occupational deformation.” He extended its meaning to people who teach, that is, teachers. In his works, he wrote that teachers remain in one position for a long time and are therefore subject to significant negative influences, as a result of which their personality is also transformed.
In 1937, Belgian sociologist Daniel Warnott focused on how civil servants incorporated work habits into everyday life. He interpreted this as a bureaucratic regime that permeates all areas of life and results in the subsequent inability of people to make decisions for themselves.
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In Russia, recent studies of professional deformation were carried out by Solomon Gellerstein, Ewald Zeer, Rada Granovskaya, and Anatoly Sventsitsky. They noted that people who have some kind of power are most often prone to professional deformation.
Definition
Professional deformation is a distortion of the psyche, which is characterized by the transfer of behavior patterns from professional activities to other areas of life. This occurs due to the consolidation of certain sequences of actions, characteristics of perception and the formation of persistent behavioral patterns.
This term was first introduced by the American sociologist of Russian origin Pitirim Sorokin in the first half of the 20th century. He studied the psychology of teachers and drew attention to mental changes caused by professional activities.
What explains the development of professional deformation? Working in one area for a long time, a person acquires certain patterns of behavior, ways of assimilation of information, and decision-making models. They are fixed in the brain in the form of persistent neural connections, forming branched neural chains. Electronic impulses pass through these circuits easily and quickly. And to save energy, the brain tries to use it as often as possible.
It turns out that the more a person is pumped in one area, the greater the impact it has on all other areas of his life. This is a very important and useful mechanism that ensures the best human adaptability to constantly changing conditions. But sometimes it gets out of control and begins to act to the detriment of a person. This happens under certain conditions. Let's take a closer look at them.
“Zones of influence” of professional deformation
As noted above, the phenomenon of occupational deformation is based on the fact that a person transfers some habits of the work process into everyday life and communication with relatives. But changes are also happening:
- in character;
- in behavior;
- in the motivational side of personality development, in its goals and objectives;
- in perception;
- in values.
Not everyone understands that a profession can significantly affect a person’s personal characteristics, temperament and behavior. Very often we think that this is a standard state of nature. But, in fact, professional deformation requires treatment. It must be removed completely or at least partially.
Summary
Devoting a significant part of our time to our profession, we cannot but undergo psychological changes associated with the specifics of this activity; this is inevitable. But remember that you control your own mood, decide for yourself what to fill your life with, and choose your own ways to achieve a balance between work and personal life. Therefore, be vigilant and responsible, know how to cope with yourself and then everything will be fine.
We wish you success!
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Key words:1Psychoregulation
Professionals at risk
- Teachers
During their work, teachers develop an appropriate manner of communication. As a rule, they speak edifyingly, as in a lesson. However, this is not the entire list. They often show maximum responsibility for the behavior of others, try to take everything under their control, clearly plan their time and try to build a hierarchy in communicating with others. They can be conservative, it is difficult to agree with creative impulses. Bright potential and innovation make them anxious.
Raising teenagers is only possible if a period of professional burnout has not occurred. The Japanese are of the following opinion: after 10 years of work, teachers can no longer teach children. Of course, such a conclusion can be refuted. Even being “aged,” a person can remain an adequate teacher.
- Accountants
Indicators of professional deformation among accountants can also be found. As a rule, they try to organize the space around them and the world as a whole, put everything “on shelves”, structure it into lists, checklists. The main points are similar to the criteria for professional deformation among teachers, namely the desire to control everything and plan. Sometimes such people experience “excellent student syndrome”: they are afraid to go beyond what is permitted not only in work, but also in life.
Accountant
- Doctors
Doctors are no exception either. They are also susceptible to factors of professional deformation. They are often expressed in the desire to quickly assess a person’s level of health. When they shake the other person's hand, they evaluate the pulse, the quality of the skin, and the possible temperature.
By the way, doctors can be quite cynical. This has nothing to do with character. The fact is that they often encounter unpleasant situations, they have a lot of responsibility, and their work is associated with salvation. In this situation, “dark” humor and cold reason come to the rescue. Only this allows you to preserve nerve cells and react to everything calmer.
Possible consequences of professional personality deformation
The results of changes due to professional activities may manifest themselves in different ways. For some they are useful, for others, on the contrary, they have a negative impact, in particular on the personality, its qualities and character.
- Positive impact of professional strain
Sometimes professional deformation can actually be beneficial. For example, in the case of a medical worker: if he is close to the scene of the incident, he will be able to quickly provide assistance. People in leadership positions can transfer their skills to everyday life: quickly organize a family event. But don’t forget that you should separate work and everyday events, use professional skills in everyday life rarely and only when necessary.
- Negative impact of professional strain
The negative consequences of occupational deformation include:
- Managerial erosion
. The leader’s work becomes fruitless, and his behavior resembles a tyrant. - Feeling of super-importance
. An employee, having taken even a small position at work, feels like a big leader and talks down to other colleagues. - Reduced level of adaptability
. The employee believes that he is as knowledgeable as possible in his specialty and is not interested in anything new. - Burnout of the emotional background
. The person is completely immersed in the work process, violating any psychological protection. Subsequently, the person burns out and does not understand what to do next. - Tension in relationships with the environment and deterioration of these relationships
. Behavior at work carries over into everyday life.
As statistics show, professional deformation, as a rule, goes along with quarrels, permanent tension, crisis situations and psychological discomfort. If you solve such emerging difficulties in a timely manner, then in the future this will help you develop painlessly and progressively in the field of work activity and as an individual. If you stop it in time or don’t succumb to professional deformation at all, then you can get rid of burnout in the business area.
Case history, or Why we burn out
What features of our work make this profession a “risk group”? There are six main reasons.
1. The work of an assistant, especially good work, is almost invisible to the naked eye. We make the system work, but often no one knows who had a hand in its organization.
Remember: has it ever happened that you spent a lot of effort planning, for example, a manager’s trip? As a result, the boss goes on a business trip or vacation, happily sits in his favorite seat on the plane, he is met at the airport by a car of his preferred brand with a driver, he checks into the hotel where he likes to stay, his meeting schedule is convenient and logically compiled, the boss feels good, calm, comfortable. And... He doesn’t even think about how it all happened. I can’t imagine that you specially got up early to check the boss in for the flight, raised the ears of his partners’ assistants in order to get him into a comfortable routine, and so on down the list.
Unfortunately, very often the work of an assistant is not properly recognized. Roughly speaking, you try, but you are not praised. And gradually the desire to actually try disappears.
2. The work of an assistant is work without a clearly defined personal result. All our efforts are usually aimed at making others comfortable at work. And therefore, to the question - why am I here, what do you personally get from your actions - sometimes there is absolutely nothing to answer.
3. Constant interaction with people. With the boss, with the team, with partners - it doesn’t matter. We are always in touch. We constantly transmit and receive information, monitor the status of orders and ensure their implementation. Letters, calls, instant messengers, social networks - millions of messages and people. And we need to work with everyone. And nothing can be missed. And everything is important. We almost never have “silence on the air.” Haven’t you noticed that sometimes after a particularly busy day at work you just want to be silent so that no one will disturb you, but the beeping of your phone makes your eye twitch?
4. Tone = stress. We are always on our toes. You must always keep a lot of things in your head and be able to work with them. We remember what, who, when and where needs to be done, how and how many times to repeat it, we can quickly deal with the problem, even if this is the first time we encounter something like this, and the input data is constantly changing. But despite this, we are not supermen, although sometimes we seem like one from the outside.
The fact that we manage not to lose sight of anything and manage to do everything is the result of a high level of self-organization and serious work on ourselves. We simply do not allow ourselves to let go of situations or forget about work moments when leaving the office. Eternal tone becomes constant stress. And even if over time we stop noticing it, nervous tension does not go away and continues to undermine internal resources.
5. Close integration with the manager. The essence of our work and its basis is very close integration with the boss. We often have a much better idea of his schedule, tasks, and status on work and personal matters than we do of our own. Sometimes there are so many leaders in our reality that we can involuntarily begin to perceive ourselves as his shadow, and not as a separate unit. There is a feeling as if we are living someone else's life, while our own is passing by. We regularly have to solve questions and problems of our leaders, often abandoning personal matters or interests, sometimes even forgetting about ourselves. At such moments, we feel especially acutely the missed opportunities.
6. Eternal “war”. Assistants are almost always “at war.” We regularly have to prove to others who and what we are, to defend positions and interests, to achieve results from others, despite their resistance.
This is the case when our status or position, or more precisely, their perception by others, plays a cruel joke. How often do we, assistants, simply be brushed off, promising to do everything “later”, “not now” and “a little later”? Or do they break down because of their own problems that are not at all related to us? Or are they trying to assert themselves at our expense? Constantly. And, unfortunately, very often not only colleagues, but also their own bosses do this. It is because of this that many assistants are always on edge. They expect “war” over any issue. This is not paranoia. This is a habit that is formed due to the specifics of our work.
We face this day after day, almost without a break for lunch or vacation. So what's the result? Wild reluctance to get up in the morning, twitchiness, exhaustion, nervousness. And constant fatigue. We spend much more time completing assignments, lose efficiency (sometimes, however, only in our own eyes) and do not receive any pleasure or satisfaction from the process. Moreover, we begin to irritate ourselves.
Emotional burnout as one of the manifestations of professional deformation
The development of the process occurs due to emotional burnout. The defense of the psyche weakens, and a person cannot resist the factors of professional deformation, as a result, a mechanism of self-destruction is triggered.
For the first time in 1974, the American psychologist Freudenberg described personality burnout syndrome. In his work, he talked about demoralization and fatigue. This was often observed among employees of psychiatric institutions. Today, this syndrome is interpreted as a feeling of exhaustion at the level of emotions and physical strength, intertwined with a feeling of frustration and failure in business.
