The Mediating Role of Burnout in the Anxiety and Work Engagement Relationship

Pandemic-related pressures and responsibilities increase the likelihood of burnout for all health care professionals. The consequences of burnout are significant, as it has been linked to high anxiety, increased turnover, decreased employee morale, higher absenteeism, and lower quality of service. To date, most research explores burnout’s relationship with these variables in isolation. This study explores the anxiety, burnout, and employee engagement relationships among community pharmacists during the global pandemic. Pharmacists in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan completed an online questionnaire that asked questions related to their levels of anxiety, burnout, and work engagement among other control variables. The relationships among the variables were explored via SPSS and the moderation and mediation PROCESS macro. The findings suggest that burnout fully mediates the anxiety and employee engagement relationship, suggesting that anxiety alone is not enough to reduce employee engagement. The results confirm burnout’s relationship with anxiety and lack of engagement and provide a more specific understanding of burnout’s antecedents and consequences, offering important insight for academics and practitioners. Due to the positive implications of eliminating burnout and the importance of employee engagement to organisational performance, managers should seek to reduce workplace stress to avoid burnout and disengagement.