Project R-10914

Reintegration after burnout: personal experiences of returners (Research)

The aim of this research is to explore which organisational practices are implemented to facilitate the reintegration of employees after burnout and how returners experience this process. This will enhance our knowledge on the reintegration practices that organisations adopt from an individual perspective and will improve our insights on the role of actors involved in this reintegration process. The research uses the concepts of ableism and psycho­emotional disablism to show that disabling practices and social relations occur within the reintegration process and can result in personal experiences of disability in organisations. The study adopts a longitudinal qualitative research approach over a period of 1 year by undertaking a multiple embedded case study. This involves undertaking 120 semi-structured interviews with 60 participants, including employees, supervisors and return-to-work coordinators, for 20 individual cases of returners within the STEM­field (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).The study wants to gain more in-depth knowledge on the interpersonal negotiations in the reintegration process which requires insight from the returner, but also the persons who are responsible for facilitating the reintegration process. The findings of the study will be thematically analysed with the aim of representing as genuinely as possible the needs and voices of individuals with burnout in order to challenge reintegration processes that ignore individual differences.

01 November 2020 - 01 November 2020