Burnout is a common metaphor for a state of extreme psychophysical exhaustion, usually work-related. This book provides an overview of the burnout syndrome from its earliest recorded occurrences to current empirical studies. It reviews perceptions that burnout is particularly prevalent among certain professional groups - police officers, social workers, teachers, financial traders - and introduces individual inter- personal, workload, occupational, organizational, social and cultural factors. Burnout deals with occurrence, measurement, assessment as well as intervention and treatment programmes.  This textbook should prove useful to occupational and organizational health and safety researchers and practitioners around the world. It should also be a valuable resource for human resources professional and related management professionals.