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When Work Hurts: Building Resilience When You're Beat Up or Burnt Out
Sometimes Work HurtsWe might be discouraged, disillusioned, or devastated by our work. We might experience trauma or harassment on the job, or we may have experienced work loss by getting fired. If you've been beat up, burnt out, or brokenhearted by work, you're not alone.The Bible tells us that work will be difficult—filled with thorns and thistles—but no one prepares us for the pain we experience on the job. In When Work Hurts Meryl HerrExplores the emotional, relational, and vocational pain that work causes and helps us rebound and build resilience so we can fully participate with God in his mission,Walks through the biblical story of the Israelites' journey of exile, return, and rebuilding as a framework for spiritual and practical resources for navigating work loss, andShows that we can take comfort in the fact that God is at work in the midst of our work to bring healing and hope."This book is a timely, uplifting resource that speaks to both the heart and mind. With a deep understanding of Scripture and descriptions about her journey, Herr expertly helps readers who want to integrate faith into their professional lives and navigate workplace challenges to reclaim a sense of purpose and hope." – Library Journal Review, February 2025
196 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 11, 2025
8 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Meryl Herr
2 booksMeryl Herr (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the owner of The GoodWorks Group LLC, a consulting firm specializing in educational program planning and evaluation. She previously served as director of research and resources at Fuller Seminary's Max De Pree Center for Leadership, where she conducted research and created resources to help Christian marketplace leaders integrate their faith with their work. Meryl lives with her family near Athens, Georgia.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 5, 2025
It would be hard to find someone who has not experienced hurt at work, be it a poor performance review, being passed over for a promotion, relationship conflict, etc. Experiencing hurt with our work can often carry into other aspects of our lives. In this helpful book, Meryl Herr looks at the various ways we can experience hurt at work and what we can do about it. As she does, she walks us through the story of the Israelites from the fall of Jerusalem, their journey into exile, and back home again. She spends the majority of time in what the Hebrew Scriptures treated as a single book: Ezra-Nehemiah.
The author writes about what it looks and feels like when work beats us up, burns us out, or breaks our hearts. Along the way, she introduces us to several people who have experienced all types of work hurt, including herself. At the end of each chapter, she includes a helpful “Work Hurt Clinic” where you can revisit some of the main ideas and begin to apply some of the practices.
Among the many aspects of hurt we experience with our work that she addresses in the book are disappointment, disillusionment, despair, displacement (vocational, relational, spiritual), vocational discernment, everyday faithfulness, our sense of calling, toxic workplaces and bosses, courage, exploitation, oppression, burnout, overworking, and hope.
The author tells us that disappointment at work is an everyday experience for most of us. This is a helpful book to help us with the hurts we experience with our work.
Here are 10 of my favorite quotes from the book:
• Work isn’t supposed to be fraught with so much disappointment and despair. God designed work to be a delight.
• Difficult circumstances don’t necessarily negate a calling. But they may propel us into a season of discernment in which we have to locate our calling, our sense of purpose, buried in all the rubble.
• To work for the common good doesn’t mean we work for the flourishing of only ourselves and those like us. We work for the flourishing of the whole world.
• Flourishing in moments of displacement is possible. Everyday faithfulness is key.
• To engage in vocational discernment is to attempt to perceive or gain clarity about your vocation, or calling. The goal of vocational discernment is direction, not certainty.
• Sometimes, the best way to recover our sense of calling is simply to show up to the work that’s right in front of us.
• Regardless of how we experience the job market, we learn from the Scriptures that God is with us always, honoring our work of everyday faithfulness and achieving more than we could ever imagine.
• As Christians, we serve others through our work because God has loved us and commanded us to love him and to love our neighbor.
• The essence of calling is that God invites us to follow him and partner in his redemptive work in the world.
• Hope is more than wishful thinking. Hope is believing and watching for God to fulfill his promises. It is future oriented.
The author writes about what it looks and feels like when work beats us up, burns us out, or breaks our hearts. Along the way, she introduces us to several people who have experienced all types of work hurt, including herself. At the end of each chapter, she includes a helpful “Work Hurt Clinic” where you can revisit some of the main ideas and begin to apply some of the practices.
Among the many aspects of hurt we experience with our work that she addresses in the book are disappointment, disillusionment, despair, displacement (vocational, relational, spiritual), vocational discernment, everyday faithfulness, our sense of calling, toxic workplaces and bosses, courage, exploitation, oppression, burnout, overworking, and hope.
The author tells us that disappointment at work is an everyday experience for most of us. This is a helpful book to help us with the hurts we experience with our work.
Here are 10 of my favorite quotes from the book:
• Work isn’t supposed to be fraught with so much disappointment and despair. God designed work to be a delight.
• Difficult circumstances don’t necessarily negate a calling. But they may propel us into a season of discernment in which we have to locate our calling, our sense of purpose, buried in all the rubble.
• To work for the common good doesn’t mean we work for the flourishing of only ourselves and those like us. We work for the flourishing of the whole world.
• Flourishing in moments of displacement is possible. Everyday faithfulness is key.
• To engage in vocational discernment is to attempt to perceive or gain clarity about your vocation, or calling. The goal of vocational discernment is direction, not certainty.
• Sometimes, the best way to recover our sense of calling is simply to show up to the work that’s right in front of us.
• Regardless of how we experience the job market, we learn from the Scriptures that God is with us always, honoring our work of everyday faithfulness and achieving more than we could ever imagine.
• As Christians, we serve others through our work because God has loved us and commanded us to love him and to love our neighbor.
• The essence of calling is that God invites us to follow him and partner in his redemptive work in the world.
• Hope is more than wishful thinking. Hope is believing and watching for God to fulfill his promises. It is future oriented.
February 9, 2025
"When Work Hurts" by Meryl Herr is a great read for anyone struggling with burnout, high stress, discouragement, and other challenges in the workplace. Around 180 pages, the book covers many topics on the subject, including:
1. The frustration with the gap between expectations of and the reality we deal with at work.
2. The importance of resilience (the ability to deal with a tough situation).
3. The vocational, relational, and spiritual struggles we face when losing our job.
4. Suggestions for how we can focus on Jesus when things seem out of control.
5. Having discernment in godly wisdom when in a difficult situation.
6. Ways we can use the gifts God has given us in our job and workplace.
7. What to do when we feel frustrated in our job search.
8. Ways we can change the way we think about our job and workplace.
9. Determining whether to stay in or leave a toxic work environment (indeed, that seems to be a big issue nowadays).
10. Ways we can extend compassion to those who are being used and disrespected in the workplace.
Here's what I like about this title:
Easy to read and covers many relevant topics on the subject of difficulties in the workplace. Very good footnotes for further study on the subject. Smoothly transfers from chapter to chapter (not a choppy read that bounces back and forth and confusing). Written from a Christian perspective. Good end of chapter questions and suggestions for addressing the topic being covered.
Overall, an excellent read and recommended.
I was given a review copy by IVP in exchange for a fair review and appreciate the opportunity.
1. The frustration with the gap between expectations of and the reality we deal with at work.
2. The importance of resilience (the ability to deal with a tough situation).
3. The vocational, relational, and spiritual struggles we face when losing our job.
4. Suggestions for how we can focus on Jesus when things seem out of control.
5. Having discernment in godly wisdom when in a difficult situation.
6. Ways we can use the gifts God has given us in our job and workplace.
7. What to do when we feel frustrated in our job search.
8. Ways we can change the way we think about our job and workplace.
9. Determining whether to stay in or leave a toxic work environment (indeed, that seems to be a big issue nowadays).
10. Ways we can extend compassion to those who are being used and disrespected in the workplace.
Here's what I like about this title:
Easy to read and covers many relevant topics on the subject of difficulties in the workplace. Very good footnotes for further study on the subject. Smoothly transfers from chapter to chapter (not a choppy read that bounces back and forth and confusing). Written from a Christian perspective. Good end of chapter questions and suggestions for addressing the topic being covered.
Overall, an excellent read and recommended.
I was given a review copy by IVP in exchange for a fair review and appreciate the opportunity.
August 13, 2025
Summary: Moving through workplace disappointments and finding healing and hope through Israel’s journey of exile and return.
I’ve reviewed a number of books on vocation and finding work you love. But this is the first book I’ve read to address the uncomfortable reality of when work hurts. Yet for many, their glowing hopes of fulfilling work have ended in disillusionment. You are part of a “reduction in force.” It could be the boss who unpredictably flies off the handle in temper tantrums. Or it can be toxic relations in a work team. Then there are the terrible instances of verbal, physical, or even sexual abuse in the workplace. Finally, in situations stressing productivity over the value of people, relentless hours and stress can result in burnout.
Meryl Herr has experienced many of these in her own work career. In her research as a former director at the Max De Pree Center for Leadership, she has heard many other stories of workplace hurt. In When Work Hurts she names the different wounds people bear from workplace experiences, including the guilt one may feel as a consequence. But she also explores how we might hope again and reclaim a sense of God’s purpose within one’s work. She does this not only through honest discussions of devastating work experiences. She also parallels that devastation with the experience of Israel as Jerusalem is devastated, they are deported to Babylon, make a new life there, and in a later generation return and rebuild. And she follows this story stage by stage throughout the book. and through that, she explores how we can cultivate resilience and hope as we heal.
Herr begins with the devastation of layoffs and firings, when the walls come crumbling down. She explores the experience of displacement, a kind of exile, when one loses a job or is estranged in relationships. Then there is the darkness of disillusionment, the dark nights of the soul when it is unclear what’s next. Herr discusses the everyday faithfulness that seeks peace and the prospering of those around one during such times.
Disillusioned workers often wonder about God’s calling in this “in between” place of displacement. She explores the opportunity this affords to pay attention to God, community, ourselves, and the world around us. Thus, Israel heard God’s call to return when God raised up Cyrus. Then she gets real practical in terms of staying on task in our job search, not unlike the exiles who needed exhorting by Haggai to redouble their efforts in rebuilding God’s house. Part of moving through work hurt is making sense of it all through seeing a bigger picture. This includes job crafting, seeing one’s calling within work, and seeing one’s work within God’s redemptive story.
Yet sometimes, workplaces may still be toxic or exploitative. Herr likens this to the ways Israel was opposed as they rebuilt Jerusalem and how they both prayed and armed themselves. In the workplace, this doesn’t mean physical battle but spiritual armor to stand, act with courage and care, pursuing peace where possible and discerning when one must leave. And sometimes, we cause workplace hurt and must own it.
Through it all, Herr challenges us to remember hope through remembering God’s faithfulness to us and God’s promises in scripture. She also bids us to remember the new Jerusalem, where we will work with unending joy.
Each chapter includes real life stories of both disappointment and how people pressed through to hope. Each chapter also concludes with a “Work Hurt Clinic” helping the reader or groups reflect on their own experiences in light of the chapter. They identify symptoms, causes, pain, and ways to experience care.
This book is a welcome addition to the collection of marketplace books. Where others touch on workplace hurt, Herr looks it in the eye, naming all the forms it can take. Furthermore, Herr shows the way of cultivating resilience, not by pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps. Rather, she treats workplace hurt as a call to ground ourselves more deeply in “exile faith” and in the God who “makes a way out of no way.”
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
I’ve reviewed a number of books on vocation and finding work you love. But this is the first book I’ve read to address the uncomfortable reality of when work hurts. Yet for many, their glowing hopes of fulfilling work have ended in disillusionment. You are part of a “reduction in force.” It could be the boss who unpredictably flies off the handle in temper tantrums. Or it can be toxic relations in a work team. Then there are the terrible instances of verbal, physical, or even sexual abuse in the workplace. Finally, in situations stressing productivity over the value of people, relentless hours and stress can result in burnout.
Meryl Herr has experienced many of these in her own work career. In her research as a former director at the Max De Pree Center for Leadership, she has heard many other stories of workplace hurt. In When Work Hurts she names the different wounds people bear from workplace experiences, including the guilt one may feel as a consequence. But she also explores how we might hope again and reclaim a sense of God’s purpose within one’s work. She does this not only through honest discussions of devastating work experiences. She also parallels that devastation with the experience of Israel as Jerusalem is devastated, they are deported to Babylon, make a new life there, and in a later generation return and rebuild. And she follows this story stage by stage throughout the book. and through that, she explores how we can cultivate resilience and hope as we heal.
Herr begins with the devastation of layoffs and firings, when the walls come crumbling down. She explores the experience of displacement, a kind of exile, when one loses a job or is estranged in relationships. Then there is the darkness of disillusionment, the dark nights of the soul when it is unclear what’s next. Herr discusses the everyday faithfulness that seeks peace and the prospering of those around one during such times.
Disillusioned workers often wonder about God’s calling in this “in between” place of displacement. She explores the opportunity this affords to pay attention to God, community, ourselves, and the world around us. Thus, Israel heard God’s call to return when God raised up Cyrus. Then she gets real practical in terms of staying on task in our job search, not unlike the exiles who needed exhorting by Haggai to redouble their efforts in rebuilding God’s house. Part of moving through work hurt is making sense of it all through seeing a bigger picture. This includes job crafting, seeing one’s calling within work, and seeing one’s work within God’s redemptive story.
Yet sometimes, workplaces may still be toxic or exploitative. Herr likens this to the ways Israel was opposed as they rebuilt Jerusalem and how they both prayed and armed themselves. In the workplace, this doesn’t mean physical battle but spiritual armor to stand, act with courage and care, pursuing peace where possible and discerning when one must leave. And sometimes, we cause workplace hurt and must own it.
Through it all, Herr challenges us to remember hope through remembering God’s faithfulness to us and God’s promises in scripture. She also bids us to remember the new Jerusalem, where we will work with unending joy.
Each chapter includes real life stories of both disappointment and how people pressed through to hope. Each chapter also concludes with a “Work Hurt Clinic” helping the reader or groups reflect on their own experiences in light of the chapter. They identify symptoms, causes, pain, and ways to experience care.
This book is a welcome addition to the collection of marketplace books. Where others touch on workplace hurt, Herr looks it in the eye, naming all the forms it can take. Furthermore, Herr shows the way of cultivating resilience, not by pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps. Rather, she treats workplace hurt as a call to ground ourselves more deeply in “exile faith” and in the God who “makes a way out of no way.”
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
April 27, 2025
I am not the intended audience for this book. However, even though work is going very well for me right now, I wanted to read this book related to some friends' traumatic experiences in their jobs. I also hoped that reading this would convince me that I can survive if work ever stops being great for me. Work is the one sphere of my life where I am truly thriving right now, so it has become more important to me than ever before. This book delivered on my expectations, and also helped me process difficulties in other areas of my life.
When Work Hurts is a helpful guide for people who are dealing with a variety of issues like burnout, dysfunctional workplaces, job loss, harassment at work, or a mismatch between their daily work and their callings. Meryl Herr draws on biblical teachings, sociological research, and personal interviews to explore different issues related to work hurt. She also shares examples from her own life, often in a very witty and self-aware way. Herr never makes light of the suffering that many people experience in their work lives, but lightens the mood at times with funny commentary about herself.
She also weaves in narratives about the Babylonian exile in Jewish history, and uses the story of Nehemiah as a powerful illustration. She draws from multiple different books of the Bible that covered aspects of this story, and she highlights key events and unpacks their broader implications for our lives, especially when it comes to trying to plant yourself, thrive, and do good work in the midst of difficult and oppressive circumstances that you cannot do much to change.
This is a compassionate, helpful guide for people who are struggling with their jobs. The personal stories will validate people in their experiences, and the research, opportunities for reflection, and biblical wisdom will encourage people as they process their situations and pursue what might be next for them.
I received a free copy from the publisher, and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
When Work Hurts is a helpful guide for people who are dealing with a variety of issues like burnout, dysfunctional workplaces, job loss, harassment at work, or a mismatch between their daily work and their callings. Meryl Herr draws on biblical teachings, sociological research, and personal interviews to explore different issues related to work hurt. She also shares examples from her own life, often in a very witty and self-aware way. Herr never makes light of the suffering that many people experience in their work lives, but lightens the mood at times with funny commentary about herself.
She also weaves in narratives about the Babylonian exile in Jewish history, and uses the story of Nehemiah as a powerful illustration. She draws from multiple different books of the Bible that covered aspects of this story, and she highlights key events and unpacks their broader implications for our lives, especially when it comes to trying to plant yourself, thrive, and do good work in the midst of difficult and oppressive circumstances that you cannot do much to change.
This is a compassionate, helpful guide for people who are struggling with their jobs. The personal stories will validate people in their experiences, and the research, opportunities for reflection, and biblical wisdom will encourage people as they process their situations and pursue what might be next for them.
I received a free copy from the publisher, and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
March 11, 2025
Great read! I’m a story person, so I really enjoyed reading all of the different job stories in the book - both the stories of the author and the stories of those she interviewed. I think we can learn a lot from others’ experiences, and that proved true for me when reading this book. The author did a great job of providing reflection questions and such at the end of each chapter to help you process your own work hurt, which was really beneficial for me. I’ve already recommended the book to several friends who I know have endured some really hard work situations (sadly, who hasn’t?!).
An unexpected bonus: I thought I was reasonably familiar with the story of Nehemiah from the Bible (which the author weaves in and out of each chapter), but I was surprised by how much I actually did not know that I was educated on while reading the book. It was cool to see how many books of the Bible actually intersect with Nehemiah’s story and then see how it all applies to (and offers help and hope for) our work-lives.
Definitely worth the read!
An unexpected bonus: I thought I was reasonably familiar with the story of Nehemiah from the Bible (which the author weaves in and out of each chapter), but I was surprised by how much I actually did not know that I was educated on while reading the book. It was cool to see how many books of the Bible actually intersect with Nehemiah’s story and then see how it all applies to (and offers help and hope for) our work-lives.
Definitely worth the read!
August 25, 2025
The most important asset we have in our organizations is our people, and the care and feeding of this asset is perhaps the most influential aspect of our significance in the marketplace. Dr. Herr's book uses real-life stories and a great amount of research and data to help us understand what's really going on in within our teams so we can better address how we can help our teams be all they are made to be. Harris Wheeler, Convene Chair
December 6, 2025
For a person struggling with hurts at work or from work, Meryl Herr provides examples, including her own devastation with work hurts. She also gives a view from ancient times of struggles in work that depend on values and faith in God's help and guidance.
March 27, 2025
I really enjoyed Herr’s insights around work and work hurt. The balance of personal stories with ancient insights was intriguing and offered fresh perspectives.
October 30, 2025
I did not realize this was a Christianity based book. With that being said, there are nuggets of wisdom and sparks of hope embedded in the scripture references.
April 28, 2025
I'd recommend "When Work Hurts" to anyone who's been burned or has burned out at work. Meryl skillfully weaves together stories, biblical insights and practical advice in a way that made me feel seen and hopeful.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews