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Discrimination Among African Americans

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Beginning at the age of 40, Western culture often perceives this as a time of “midlife crisis” because so much change is occurring. Erik Erikson viewed this time of life as an avoidance of self-preoccupied stagnation and an achievement of concern for guiding and nurturing others for the advancement of society (Lesser & Pope, 2011). This could lead to one overindulging themselves in their work which can lead to burnout. It could also lead one to become preoccupied with other factors and responsibilities in their life and add to a sense of depersonalization or detachment from the work they are doing due to a new focus on these other issues. An example of this could be grandchildren who have entered the picture.
When Melanie was asked how experiencing …show more content…
This stress accumulates and can be an added stressor that would affect POC and their experience at work. This can include the energy that is spent on protecting their children and/or grand children from racial discrimination and racially motivated events or violence. Especially today, with the injustice of such a high rate of children of color being suspended from school, incarcerated, and murdered (including by police officers). For example, African Americans face discrimination that impacts self-improvement (Lesser & Pope, 2011). African Americans are more likely to come from poverty which has shown to contribute to various health disorders (Lesser & Pope, 2011). African American men have a higher rate of illness that can result in death at an earlier age compared to while males, leaving more married heterosexual women as widows (Lesser & Pope, 2011). There is no doubt that all of these stressors can carry over to one’s work life and can have an impact on …show more content…
And looking at how burnout affects particular populations and various aspects of life is essential as well. Given all of this information, the next step is to address ideas as to how burnout can be addressed. With the field of social work having such a high rate of turnover due in part to burn out, developing treatments and methods that can help prevent harm to employees and clients is important. At the practice level, it is necessary to develop structural mechanisms to support worker engagement at all levels. Policies and practices that may foster workers to burnout should be evaluated based on the impact on job performance of the employee, client outcomes, and business results. At the same time, it would be wise to develop ways to deal with the conflict of work-family at the organizational level. This could include encouraging workers to express their concerns and emotions and teaching coping skills as a way to increase engagement and deal with stress (Travis, Lizano, & Barak,

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