New Challenges: the Importance of Mindfulness Interventions on the Perception of Burnout in Public Employees: A Longitudinal Study

Using the Job Demand-Resource theory as a framework, this study deepens the knowledge of the process and consequences of a mindfulness intervention on the perception of burnout in public administration employees. This mindfulness intervention was developed with an intervention group and a control group, where a pretest and post-test measurement of the analyzed variables was performed. The sample is made up of 72 employees of the administration staff of a public organization located in Spain. The results confirm that a mindfulness intervention improves the dimension of observing while reducing the perception of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization of the burnout variable in the experimental group. These improvements do not occur in the individuals associated with the control group, and despite varying their perceptions, these are not significant. This manuscript demonstrates how in work contexts with job demands, mindfulness interventions in the work context help to improve attention monitoring skills and suggest positive effects on self-regulation and self-exploration that reduce emotional exhaustion and depersonalization associated with burnout syndrome in public employees.