Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Empathy fatigue and emotional exhaustion

Empathy fatigue and emotional exhaustion:
How does sustained empathic engagement contribute to emotional exhaustion?

Overview

Figure 1. An emotionally exhausted Aelin at the end of the work day Scenario Aelin, a 23-year-old social worker employed at headspace, works with approximately 20 clients each week. Many of these clients have experienced rough living conditions. During Aelin's first six months in the role, they feel highly motivated and are excited about helping people. They are an excellent active listener, and can easily remember details about their clients' lives. During their sessions, Aelin recognises when a client is distressed and adjusts their body language to warm and understanding. As Aelin works in the role for longer, their caseload increases, and they are exposed to clients with increasing complexity and past traumas. Aelin wants to provide the best possible outcome for all of their clients, and begins to take their work home with them in the evenings, but finds it starts creeping into their weekends as well. After several months of working this way, Aelin begins to notice they feel exhausted every morning - even before the workday begins. After a few months of working this way, Aelin notices a change in how they start responding to people, including clients. Instead of feeling engaged and actively listening, they feel detached and find their thoughts feeling more frustrated than empathetic. After finishing the work day, Aelin is drained and has no energy for friends or family. With increasing irritability, Aelin begins to worry that they won't be able to continue working as a social-worker.

Aelin is experiencing emotional exhaustion from a sustained empathic response.

Due to the nature of Aelin's work, they are constantly engaged in an empathic response. Empathic responses require cognitive and physical resources to sustain. Because Aelin is taking their work home and not resting on weekends, they do not have a chance to rest. It is important for Aelin to recognise what is happening and why. Not actioning the problem has led to empathy fatigue and emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is one of the key aspects of burnout, a long-term condition of existing in a constant state of high stress.

Psychological science can support Aelin in recognising and mapping the symptoms they are experiencing, understand coping strategies to minimise the current and future effects to improve their wellbeing. Understanding the symptoms will also support their role as a social worker, providing more tools for the people they support on a day-to-day basis.

Focus questions Why do we become emotionally exhausted? What is the relationship between empathy fatigue and emotional exhaustion? What role does emotional labor play in emotional exhaustion? What can we do if we're experiencing emotional exhaustion? How can we use our understanding of emotional labor and empathy fatigue to reduce the effects of emotional exhaustion?

Emotional Exhaustion

General introduction/definition of emotional exhaustion

• Talk about stress and its role in emotional exhaustion
• How would you recognise that someone is emotionally exhausted (symptoms)
  • Emotional exhaustion as a symptom of burnout (De Beer et al., 2024)
  • Introduce theories of emotional exhaustion

Conservation of resources stress model

• Psychological stress occurs when individuals lose valued resources (Halbesleben et al., 2014; Hobfoll, 1989)
  • Discuss what resources are (e.g. social relationships)
  • Discuss how losing resources leads to increased vulnerability to stress
  • discuss gain and loss spirals

Job Demands-Resources model

• Talk about Job demands and job resources (Demerouti et al., 2001)
  • Why do we actually feel exhausted after a sustained empathic response?
  • Job demands require sustained physical or psychological effort
    • Empathic response can be a job demand
  • Job resources support achieving work goals or reduce job demands
• Discuss how the model looks at prolonged job demands depleting energy leading to exhaustion/burnout (Schaufeli, 2017)
• Discuss how the model treats job resources as a mediating factor for reducing the negative effects of job demands

Empathy Fatigue

• Before understanding empathy fatigue, define what empathy is (what are the theories behind empathy? Why do we have empathy? What theory am I using)
  • Individual ability to imagine or understand another person's feelings and/or emotions (Riess, 2017; Shao et al., 2024)

What are the types of empathy?

• Affective empathy - emotional reaction to someone else's mental state (Shao et al., 2024)
• Cognitive empathy - understand someone's feelings or emotions (Cui et al., 2022)
• Integrating the two - "affective component is the essence of empathy, and the cognitive component is a process through which that essence comes into being" (Bošnjaković & Radionov, 2018)
  • (Author's note: change quote into paraphrasing)

What is compassion fatigue? (theories of compassion fatigue)

• Distinction between empathy and compassion fatigue
• Compassion fatigue is closely related to Secondary traumatic stress usually found in healthcare professionals (Figley, 2002)
  • Compassion fatigue is to Empathy fatigue as emotional exhaustion is to burnout

• Make it clear that Aelin is experiencing Compassion Fatigue vs Empathy fatigue (they are the same but different)

(Author's note: include an update to the scenario here!)

Empathy fatigue questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit":

1

Surface acting is when the observer actually feels the emotion:

	True
	False

2

Compassion fatigue and empathy fatigue are synonymous:

	True
	False

Emotional labor as a mediating factor between Empathy fatigue and emotional exhaustion

What is emotional labor (Hochschild, 2012)

Types of acting

• Surface acting
  • This is where emotive dissonance comes into play
  • Leads to emotional exhaustion

• Deep acting
  • People who 'deep act', as in genuinely change the way they feel (match the feelings they have with the feelings that they need to display) often report positive relationships with emotional labor

Discuss the differences in gender norms and expectations in relationships

The mediating effect of emotional labor

Surface acting does not mediate the effect (high surface acting leads to emotional exhaustion) whereas the inverse is true for deep acting (Wrobel, 2013)

Emotional contagion

If space/time permits discuss the role of emotional contagion

• Emotional contagion (Panksepp and Lahvis, 2011)
  • emotions can spread (expand, combines empathy and acting)
  • “the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person’s and, consequently, to converge emotionally.” (Elaine Hatfield, 1993)

Strategies for combating Empathy fatigue and emotional fatigue

• Talk about emotion regulation (Gross, 1998) and mood regulation strategies as a way to deal with coping (Wrobel, 2013) (Author's note: need more research/references for this section)
• Talk about breaks
  • Rest and downtime from not performing emotional labor regenerates
• How do we reduce the amount of emotional labor we're performing (Jeung et al., 2018)
  • Communication/boundaries
  • Reducing surface acting (allowing ourselves to feel how we actually feel and reduce emotive dissonance)

Strategies in the workplace

• Discuss types of strategies that are available in the workplace (organisation models)
• SCARF model (Aplin-Houtz, 2025)
  • Link back to COR and JDR models e.g. praise could be a job resource vs criticism could be a job demand

Figures (for reference before final assessment)

Figure 2. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.

• Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
• Figures can show photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, etc.
• Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
• Caption figures (use Figure #. and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
• Images must be embedded from Wikimedia Commons
• Images can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons if they are openly licensed
• Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)

Learning features (for reference before final assessment)

Interactive learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter.

Scenarios

• Scenarios, case studies, or examples describe concepts in action
• Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citations
• Can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
• Present using feature boxes

Feature boxes

• Highlight key content using feature boxes, but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
• Consider using feature boxes for:
  • Scenarios, case studies, or examples
  • Focus questions
  • Tips
  • Quiz questions
  • Take-home messages

Embedded links

• When key words are introduced, use interwiki links to:
  • Wikipedia articles (e.g., "An early psychological view dreams) of dreams was provided by Sigmund Freud") or
  • Related book chapters (e.g., "If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about writer's block")

Tables

• Use to tables to organise and summarise information
• Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
• Tables should be captioned
• More example tables which can be adapted

Table 1

A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g.,

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

	Known to self	Not known to self
Known to others	Open area	Blind spot
Not known to others	Hidden area	Unknown

Quizzes

• Using one or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
• Quiz conceptual understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as take-home messages
• Ask easy rather than hard questions
• Different types of quiz questions are possible; see Quiz

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click "Submit":

1

The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:

	True
	False

2

Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:

	True
	False

Conclusion

• Summarise what empathy fatigue is, and why people become emotionally exhausted (+ the role of emotional labor)
• Summarise the symptoms and how to recognise them in yourself and someone else
• Emphasise and summarise psychological strategies to support someone going through emotional exhaustion
• Summarise ways to prevent emotional exhaustion from happening
• Overall message is:
  1. What is emotional exhaustion
  2. how do you recognise it
  3. how do you treat it
  4. how do you prevent it

• Link back to the focus questions

See also

• Metacognition and emotional regulation (Wikiversity)
• Conservation of resources theory (Wikipedia)
• Job demands-resources model (Wikipedia)

References

Aplin-Houtz, M. (2025). Unraveling the SCARF: How dimensions of the SCARF model influence the relationship between workplace exclusion and turnover intentions. Journal of Management & Organization, 31(6), 2699–2725. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2025.10026

Bošnjaković, J., & Radionov, T. (2018). Empathy: Concepts, Theories and Neuroscientific Basis. Alcoholism (Zagreb), 54(2), 123–150. https://doi.org/10.20471/de..2018.54.02.04

Cui, F., Huang, X., Jing, Y., Luo, Y., Liu, J., & Gu, R. (2022). How resource sharing resists scarcity: the role of cognitive empathy and its neurobiological mechanisms. Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991), 32(23), 5330–5342. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac017

De Beer, L. T., van der Vaart, L., Escaffi-Schwarz, M., De Witte, H., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2024). Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey. European Journal of Psychological Assessment : Official Organ of the European Association of Psychological Assessment, 40(5), 360–375. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000797

Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The Job Demands-Resources Model of Burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499

Figley, C. R. (2002). Compassion fatigue: Psychotherapists’ chronic lack of self care. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(11), 1433–1441. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.10090

Grandey, A. A. (2003). When ‘the show must go on’: surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Academy of Management Journal, 46(1), 86–96. https://doi.org/10.5465/30040678

Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271

Halbesleben, J. R. B., Neveu, J.-P., Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., & Westman, M. (2014). Getting to the “COR”: Understanding the Role of Resources in Conservation of Resources Theory. Journal of Management, 40(5), 1334–1364. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314527130

Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional Contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science : A Journal of the American Psychological Society, 2(3), 96–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770953

Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of Resources: A New Attempt at Conceptualizing Stress. The American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.3.513

Hochschild, A. R. (2012). The managed heart  : commercialization of human feeling (Updated, with a new preface.). University of California Press.

Jeung, D.-Y., Kim, C., & Chang, S.-J. (2018). Emotional Labor and Burnout: A Review of the Literature. Yonsei Medical Journal, 59(2), 187–193. https://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2018.59.2.187

Lavelle, J. J., Rupp, D. E., Herda, D. N., Pandey, A., & Lauck, J. R. (2021). Customer Injustice and Employee Performance: Roles of Emotional Exhaustion, Surface Acting, and Emotional Demands–Abilities Fit. Journal of Management, 47(3), Article 0149206319869426. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206319869426

Panksepp, J. B., & Lahvis, G. P. (2011). Rodent empathy and affective neuroscience. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(9), 1864–1875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.05.013

Riess, H. (2017). The Science of Empathy. Journal of Patient Experience, 4(2), 74–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373517699267

Schaufeli, W. B. (2017). Applying the job demands-resources model: a “how to” guide to measuring and tackling work engagement and burnout. Organizational Dynamics, 46(2), 120–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.008

Shao, M., Li, L., Li, X., Wei, Z., Wang, J., Hong, M., Liu, X., & Meng, J. (2024). The effect of top-down attention on empathy fatigue. Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991), 34(1), Article bhad441. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhad441

Wharton, A. S. (2009). The Sociology of Emotional Labor. Annual Review of Sociology, 35(1), 147–165. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-115944

Wrobel, M. (2013). Can empathy lead to emotional exhaustion in teachers? The mediating role of emotional labor. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 26(4), 581–592. https://doi.org/10.2478/s13382-013-0123-1

External links

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• Six top tips for writing a great essay (University of Melbourne)
• The importance of structure (skillsyouneed.com)

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