The military police are responsible for the enforcement of public security policy in Brazil and their main activity is characterized by ostensive policing, carried out by uniformed police officers in public places, with a preventive purpose, through observation and inspection, with a vigilant attitude, trying to restrain the action of offenders and avoid the occurrence of criminal acts (Rio Grande do Sul, 1997). The military police are made up of senior-level officers (Colonel, Lieutenant-Colonel, Major, Captain, First Lieutenant) in charge of the command and management of troops that are divided into battalions and by mid-level officers (First Sergeant, Second Sergeant, Soldier) who execute the commands of their leader.

Their daily work is characterized by high dedication and commitment to meeting the demands of the community and by the feeling of public safety (Paschoal, 2022). Furthermore, according to that author, responding to incidents imposes a high burden of emotions and feelings. In addition to the technical preparation of these professionals, their daily lives are marked by emotional demands from different target groups with whom they must interact as part of their work, such as colleagues and superiors, the general population, victims and criminals (Guedes & Gondim, 2020). In many cases, they put their own lives at the service of the State and Civil Society to defend the social collective, to undertake strategic plans, often risky and to articulate the implementation of public safety policies (L. R. Santos, 2022).

Several occupational stressors plaguing police forces are reported in the literature; some are related to the demands of the job position, such as lack of control in the work environment, little professional autonomy, extensive work hours, work demands that are performed on days and hours off (L. R. Santos, 2022; Souza et al., 2022), risks of injuries or wounds resulting from the profession (T. R. B. Santos et al., 2022). Other stressors are related to the working conditions, such as the shortage of human resources, excessive bureaucracy, having to respond to legal proceedings arising from police service, use of equipment inappropriate for the service (T. R. B. Santos et al., 2022), high rates of violence to which these professionals are subjected, excessive hierarchical pressure due to the strict rules of the military setting marked by hierarchy and discipline (J. S. C. Alves et al., 2017; L. R. Santos, 2022).

The devaluation of monthly income (Souza et al., 2022), the lack of infrastructure, and the demands of the media and of part of the organized civil society (L. R. Santos, 2022) should also be mentioned. F. B. Santos et al. (2021) add as stressors the lack of career growth prospects, training deficiencies, the presence of discrimination/favoritism in the workplace, the way tasks are distributed, the type of control, and the deficiency in the spreading of information about organizational decisions.

During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, police officers were considered essential workers and were more affected by the pandemic than the community, because in addition to the direct impact of the disease, they interacted with the population that was experiencing high levels of stress due to social isolation, scarcity of resources, economic insecurity and fear of contagion (Stogner et al., 2020). Furthermore, according to those authors, the military police work was changed due to safety protocols that included the mandatory use of personal protective equipment and by new patrolling routines, shift schedules and working hours that caused stress in the workplace and mental health problems.

Occupational stressors, when persistent, can lead to the Burnout Syndrome. Those chronic occupational stressors arise from a subjective analysis composed of negative cognitions, emotions and attitudes towards the job (Gil-Monte, 2011). The syndrome is the result of the combination of poor working conditions and failures in self-regulation to cope with the workplace stressors (Bakker & Vries, 2021).

Gil-Monte (2005) developed a theoretical model consisting of four dimensions: 1) Illusion of work, characterized by the worker’s desire to achieve his/her job goals and perceived as a source of personal and professional pleasure. Evaluated inversely, low scores in this dimension indicate high levels of Burnout Syndrome; 2) Psychological exhaustion, defined by the emergence of emotional and physical exhaustion resulting from interpersonal relationships established with people who have problems; 3) Indolence, described by the presence of feelings of indifference towards clients, colleagues and the organization; and, 4) Guilt, defined as a social emotion linked to interpersonal relationships resulting from negative behavior and attitudes developed at work towards people with whom he/she has to establish his/her work relationships. The worker believes that he/she is violating some norm derived from the social prescription regarding his/her professional role.

Burnout entails a series of adverse consequences for both individuals and the organizations in which these professionals operate. These consequences are initially of a psychological nature (concentration and memory problems, difficulty in making decisions, reduced coping capacity, anxiety, depression, dissatisfaction with life, low self-esteem, insomnia, irritability and increased consumption of alcohol and tobacco), which, if maintained over time, can cause adverse effects on physical health (musculoskeletal pain, gastric changes, cardiovascular disorders, headaches, increased vulnerability to infections, as well as insomnia and chronic fatigue) and deterioration of behavioral health (job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment, increased presenteeism and absenteeism, turnover intention, reduced performance), which in turn will bear consequences for the organizational objectives (Edú-Valsania et al., 2022).

Specifically in the case of military police officers, one of the professional categories that has been little investigated in Brazil, the numerous stressors in their daily work have caused this profession to bear a high risk of developing Burnout Syndrome (L. Alves et al., 2023; Baek et al., 2022). Military positions are characterized by rigorous routines and long shifts and require the practice of sensitivity and empathy, high diligence and attention (Atias et al., 2022). According to the authors, prolonged exposure to such conditions can cause Burnout Syndrome and affect military policemen’s ability to perform their duties at work.

Military police officers’ Burnout Syndrome has been investigated by Aguwa et al. (2022); Baek et al. (2022). A systematic review carried out by Dias and Andrade (2020) found a high number of military police personnel with a high level of Burnout Syndrome and, as risk factors, longer time in the profession and working for the institution, job dissatisfaction, lack of feedback, overload, and relationship between police professionals and the public. These factors can generate negative results, causing symptoms such as anxiety, low self-esteem, feelings of helplessness on the job, difficulty concentrating, memory loss, poor emotion control, negligence, problems with superiors and subordinates, avoidance of social contact in the workplace, feelings of exhaustion, headaches, fatigue, insomnia, and intention to leave work.

Emotional labor is one of the variables investigated as predictor of the Burnout Syndrome. This is characterized as a process of regulating feelings and their expressions to meet organizational objectives, a concept opposite to emotional harmony, which occurs when the feelings expressed by the individual are congruent with the emotions experienced, rules of feelings and expectations that the worker holds for himself regarding emotional expression (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987).

The work setting helps to inform and to externalize its culture and the way workers should behave (Grandey, 2000). The country’s and the organizational cultures bear a strong implication on the dynamics of emotional labor (Yang & Chen, 2021).

Emotional demand is defined by the frequency of interpersonal interactions and the variety and intensity of emotions expressed. Emotional dissonance occurs when the emotions expression satisfies the feeling rules but clashes with the internal feelings (Hochschild, 1983). Emotional demand is considered its quantitative dimension and emotional dissonance its qualitative dimension (Pujol-Cols et al., 2021).

The emotional demands of the job combined with emotional dissonance can result in even higher levels of burnout syndrome (Zapf et al., 2001). The emotional demands placed on police officers as a consequence of their role, organization and unique culture and emotional dissonance contributes to the development of the burnout syndrome (Schaible & Six, 2016).

The quality of the leadership-subordinate relationship is related to the Burnout Syndrome (Kafetsios et al., 2012; Parent-Lamarche & Biron, 2022). In their daily work, leaders and subordinates express and regulate their emotions, and subordinates need to manage their feelings towards the leader as a result of the influence that those feelings exert on their behavior (Campos et al., 2021).

Workers with Burnout Syndrome feel emotionally exhausted, ineffective, distant, and indifferent to the people they interact with professionally, and other coworkers may experience the same feelings and behaviors (Chullen, 2014). This phenomenon is described by (Hatfield et al., 1993) as the tendency to automatically imitate and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, converge emotionally. Emotional contagion, allows dyads, work groups, and even entire organizations to converge in emotional states, displays, or any other emotional process (Elfenbein, 2023). This process that helps explaining the transfer of affect and emotions in the dialogical relationships is quite common (Herrmann et al., 2023).

In recent years, there has been a growing concern among military organizations’ leaders, the category itself, and researchers about the potential risks of this type of occupational illness (Sentone, 2023). A systematic review conducted by that author highlights that, in Brazil, there has been a significant increase in studies with military police officers. However, there are still few studies that seek factors associated with the burnout syndrome in this professional category.

Although studies have sought to investigate the dyadic relationship between leaders and subordinates, they generally use an approach based on the impact of leadership styles (Scott & Zweig, 2021; Wang et al., 2019). In a recent international systematic review, Kim et al. (2020) identified 62 articles with pure dyadic analysis with samples in pairs, composed of leaders and subordinates, of which only one evaluated the Burnout Syndrome. A search in the main Brazilian databases (Scientific Electronic Library online [SciELO], EBSCOhost, Scopus, Periódicos Eletrônicos em Psicologia [PePSIC, Electronic Journals in Psychology], Scientific Periodicals Electronic Library [SPELL]) did not find any articles with dyadic analysis of leaders and subordinates in which the outcome was the Burnout Syndrome.

Therefore, our study aimed to verify whether emotional labor (emotional demands, emotional dissonance) at the level of the leader-subordinate dyad affects jointly the manifestation of the Burnout Syndrome in military police officers. The hypothetical theoretical model was developed based on the interdependent nature of close relationships and the theory of social contagion. Thus, it is based on two hypotheses: H1) Emotional labor (emotional demands, emotional dissonance) positively predicts Burnout Syndrome in leaders and subordinates; H2) The emotional labor (emotional demands, emotional dissonance) of leaders and the emotional labor of subordinates (dyadic), act jointly to influence the Burnout Syndrome.