The study of job burnout has focused primarily on workers who hold human-service jobs, such as teachers, nurses, and social workers. Little extant research, however, has explored emotional communication and job burnout among workers from other industries. The present study used the empathic communication model of burnout to explore how interactions with distressed clients affect real estate agents’ feelings of burnout and thoughts of quitting. A total of 287 real estate agents and brokers completed an online questionnaire about their empathic responses to client distress, communicative responsiveness, burnout, and thoughts of quitting. Results indicate that the empathic communication model of burnout offers adequate explanation for the relationship between empathy, communication, and burnout for real estate agents. Practical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.
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