The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It

by Jennifer Moss

In this important and timely book, workplace well-being expert Jennifer Moss helps leaders and individuals prevent burnout and create healthier, happier, and more productive workplaces.

We tend to think of burnout as a problem we can solve with self-care: more yoga, better breathing techniques, and more resilience. But evidence is mounting that applying personal, Band-Aid solutions to an epic and rapidly evolving workplace phenomenon isn't enough—in fact, it's not even close. If we're going to solve this problem, organizations must take the lead in developing an antiburnout strategy that moves beyond apps, wellness programs, and perks.

In this eye-opening, paradigm-shifting, and practical guide, Jennifer Moss lays bare the real causes of burnout and how organizations can stop the chronic stress cycle that an alarming number of workers suffer through. The Burnout Epidemic explains:

What causes burnout—and what organizations can do to prevent it
Why traditional wellness initiatives fall short
How companies can build an antiburnout strategy based on prevention, not perks
How leaders can measure burnout in their own organizations
What leaders can do to develop a healthier culture that prioritizes resilience and curiosity
As the pandemic has shown, self-care is important, but it's not a cure-all for burnout. Employers need to do more. With fascinating research, new findings from the pandemic, and interviews with business leaders around the globe, The Burnout Epidemic offers readers insightful and actionable advice that will empower them to help themselves—and their employees—feel healthier and happier at work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Psychology, Leadership, Self Help, Audiobook, Personal Development

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

At some point you just need to give up the ghost and admit you're just not finishing a book. And it probably seems strange to give a book I didn't finish 5 stars, but here's the thing, in all my reading on burnout, this is the first book that put the onus on burnout squarely where it belongs, the organizations that employ us.

And because this book was shining a glaring light on all the ways an organization can fail it's employees, it also helped me realize that the burnout I experienced was 10% my fault (my fault for not leaving much much sooner), but 90% their fault. At every opportunity my organization failed me, I told HR about sexual harassment, they told me I needed to confront my harasser to ensure I understood their intentions, I told my HR department about an extremely troubling employee who was exhibiting bigoted, narcissistic behaviour, and I was told we couldn't sever them but rather we had to performance manage and help them change (to put this into perspective, I'm an accountant, not a psychologist, and please let me know how many times you've succeeded in changing a person who didn't see anything wrong in their behaviour). I told my organization I was underpaid compared to my male contemporaries, and they fought me on equal pay and title for 2.5 years. I told my organization we needed help and that the current staffing complement wasn't cutting it, and they kept asking for more work with less help. I could go on for days. But here's the thing, just writing this review is making my heart race, it's making me angry, and sad, it's dredging up all the things I'd like to leave behind. So this book gets 5 stars for telling the story the way it should be told about workplace burnout, but I can't finish it, because it breaks my heart to know I left a career I worked 13 years to build, because my employer couldn't see fit to protect me or value me. I hope other leaders read this book and help keep their teams intact.

[Silvia]

natuke ameerikapärane ja vananenud (dafuk on covid-19), aga ei saa öelda, et ma sealt midagi kaasa võtnud poleks.

[Salam Kabbani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was wonderful. Jennifer Moss delves into the root causes of burnout and explains how asking workers to do more self-care activities like practicing yoga is actually harmful because that puts the onus on the employees when in fact it is because of a variety of reasons, usually from the top down that are causing the burnout. She gives the metaphor of having birds in a coalmine coming out all sick. No one would be curious as to what the birds were doing wrong, but rather the question should be why are they in a coalmine and how can we change that? She discusses how systems are failing people and not the other way around. She emphasizes assuming an employee first strategy to avoid burnout. She also talks about crucial topics like certain industries encouraging female employees to participate in egg freezing to not delay any of the company's goals, something that I think is so incredibly abhorrent and absolutely no boss's business. She talks about the significance of making sure any programs put in place are well executed not just well intended in order to truly relieve burnout.

Ultimately, I think this book is most useful in industries that have very high burnout rate and where employees are expected to not ask for help like healthcare and academia (including grade school teaching not just university). I do think that anyone can benefit from listening to this book; however, those are the two arenas that I think would benefit the most.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harvard Business Review Press for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Corrica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burnout is much larger in businesses, academia, and many other places than we recognize. Simple fixes will not make it go away. You cannot self-care away burnout. We have to develop institutional and widespread tactics to battle it. Jennifer Moss does a great job explaining and talking about how to overcome this epidemic.

[Erika RS · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts out strong but gets weaker over time. The introduction and first chapter set out a strong foundation. The highlight how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated burnout, transforming it from a chronic issue into an epidemic. What I liked about the first part of this book is that it clearly frames burnout as an organizational concern with significant human and financial costs, not an individual problem. Burnout is a gradual process, not a sudden occurrence. Under chronic stress, our coping skills slowly erode.

Burnout is presented in the context of dual-factor motivation-hygiene theory. For people to be happy and effective, the organization needs to provide factors which both motivate and which prevent burnout. These factors are not opposites but rather independent. Often the people who are most motivated can be the ones most at risk for burnout. Empathetic leadership that sees burnout as a systemic problem is necessary to combat burnout.

There are six key factors that contribute to burnout. An overloaded workload is the most important contributor. Addressing this requires organizations to scrutinize actual workloads by clarifying expectations, leveraging strengths, providing training, and adequately resourcing projects. They should not resort to superficial solutions, which may simply postpone stress.

A perceived lack of autonomy can be reduced by reducing micromanagement and granting employees more autonomy over their scheduling and task execution. Burnout is exacerbated by a lack of reward or recognition; even when there's monetary recognition, the emotional toll of extra workload is often not recognized. When people have poor workplace relationships, they are less able to handle workplace stress. Leaders can create opportunities for meaningful connection. Burnout can arise from a lack of organizational justice , including bias, favoritism, and unfair policies which further increases the importance of leaders addressing injustice and inequity. Finally, a values mismatch can lead to burnout, so organizations should be honest about their lived values (even when it doesn't match the values they wish they have) and hire for people aligned with those values.

After the introduction and first chapter, the book gets a bit more scattered. It's not that the content is necessarily bad, but more that it feels like a grab bag of observations and techniques rather than an organized framework for addressing burnout. There are a lot of examples of things that worked in different organizations, but not much to help leaders build up a plan that is a good fit for their organization.

The author describes personality factors that can increase the odds of burnout – neuroticism, introversion, and perfectionism. Burnout is an organizational problem, but these individuals can be the canaries on the coalmine. Some industries are more prone to burnout, including medicine, education, and tech. I didn't like how the section on tech spent so much time focusing on women and burnout. Not because it was wrong, but because when burnout is framed as more of a problem for women, some people will conclude that the problem is women, not the organization burning them out.

Other chapters discuss how perks can be problematic if they reinforce the message that life should be all about work, give a detailed discussion of how and why to measure burnout, the importance of curiosity in leadership, creating a culture of empathy, and how leaders can take care of themselves.

Overall, I came away from this book with a "meh." The introduction and first chapter were a great framing of burnout as an organizational problem and its causes. However, the rest of it felt scattered. I came away it a bunch of ideas of things that might help with burnout, but not a clear picture of how to put them together build an organizational culture which reduces burnout.

[Erin Becker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for leaders in the business, but not as many tips/tricks for those who don’t have power over decisions in the workplace. However, there were a lot of good studies and research mentioned that an employee could take to an employer to help them deal with burnout.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jennifer Moss is a workplace consultant specializing in employee engagement and burnout. Her book The Burnout Epidemic is targeted largely at organizational leaders in burnout-endemic industries (i.e., big tech, healthcare) who have the power and resources to change a workplace's norms and culture, as Ross's work on burnout demonstrated that the root cause of work stress are the employer's policies and the organization's culture, not the employees' personal failings. She outlines steps employers can take to measure and nurture engagement -- frankly, these steps are largely common sense and it's a shame we need a book codifying tenets like "treat people how you would like to be treated," "actions speak louder than words," and "people leave managers, not jobs."

My statistics:
Book 246 for 2024
Book 1849 cumulatively

[Traci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was good but honestly, there's a LOT in this book. I was also trying to read it online while on my lunch breaks, which just doesn't work well for non-fiction books. I tend not to retain as much for some reason.

I will say that I very much appreciate the author's stance that it's the *organization* that needs to be at the forefront of preventing burnout. That it can't all be laid at the employee's feet all the time - love that she sees that more as victim-blaming!

I'm seriously thinking about buying a copy of this so I can go through it slowly, refer back to certain sections, delve into the bibliography, etc. I think I could give a more honest review at that point.

[Chel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Timely, relevant, and useful, this book explains burnout, how to recognise the signs and useful strategies around dealing with it, Burnout isn't going to go away, but if we can work out ways to manage it, life becomes a lot easier to cope with. This is a great resource that I recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great examples in both corporate life and academia. A must read for leaders.

[Anneli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raamatus tõdeme, et kõik see mida me täna pakume oma töötajatele on leevendus. Kuid juurpõhjust tööandjana välja ei saa juurida küll aga peame seda teemat rohkem tõstatama. Selliselt, et see ei ole tavaline halb olemine vaid läbipõlemine on tõsine haigus, millel on inimesele elumuutvad tagajärjed.
Paraku lahkuvad töötajad juhtide tõttu, kuna juhid tihtipeale päris tööd tegeva töötaja ülesandeid ei tea. Seetõttu ülesannete kuhjudes, mitte ei olda järelandmatud ning seetõttu peab see muutuma. Muutuma selliselt, et töötaja saaks suuremal määral ise kaasa rääkida ning protsesside automatiseerimiseks sisendit anda. Palju ei pruugi olla vajalikke ülesandeid ettevõtt püsimiseks vaid stiilis...seda on alati tehtud või seda peab tegema. Kuid ilma selgema tagamõtteta ei saa, me indiviidu sundida. Saati kui ei teatda ega pole kaardistatud, kas nimetatud töötaja üldse on piisavalt küps ülesannet iseseisvalt tegema ja nii suurt vastutust võtma.
Oleks soovinud rohkem näpunäiteid või teejuhti, kuidas olla parem toetaja töötajatele ning kuidas kolleegina toetada.

[David Orvek · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important topic, and I think Moss does a good job of putting the blame for this problem on the right people and proposing helpful ways of addressing these issues. I'll say I found after a while that everything started to blur together and I wasn't remembering much. Not sure why this was.

[Kristel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am definitely not the target audience for this book but I did enjoy the empathy and some nuance that shined through. I also believe firmly that burnout is not something that the individual can solve and that change has to come from the companies.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

More so written for leaders and management, but still a good read.

[Tiina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Palju infot, mis mujaltki läbi käinud ja kuidagi vähe juhiseid, kuidas päriselt neid asju muuta avalikus sektoris, kus tiimid ei ole vaid 4-5-inimeselised.
Aga teemaga alustajale hea ülevaade.

[Catherine]

DNF-ing just bc this one’s focused on corporate leaders. I need a burnout book for the rest of us :)

[Liz Norell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is actually probably quite good... IF (and that's a huge if) you're in a position of leadership within an organization. I was not the target audience, and in fact have had a parade of experiences with leaders who desperately (DES.PER.AT.ELY) need to read this book. Finishing it meant spending some 235 pages feeling bereft over how much my own working experiences have lacked the emotionally intelligent, empathetic, and wellness-focused leadership Moss describes. I could not have read this book at a worse time; it picked at the scabs on wounds I'm actively trying to heal. So take that for what you will. My review is a classic "it's-me-not-you" situation.
.
These two lines about how COVID caused many of us to grieve things we lost (including the lives we once lived with carefree abandon) absolutely slayed my heart, and not in the good way: "In the workplace, grief can cause people to be more disorganized, withdrawn, or anxious. Unfortunately, if leaders lack empathy, they miscalculate these behaviors as performance problems instead of analyzing what is going on behind the late arrivals or less-than-perfect work" (p. 189).
.
Hi, trauma. I see you. 😭

[Teri Uktena · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author points out the limited results from trying to solve American corporate employee burnout through modern self-care practices. However, they substitute manager-care instead which is possibly less effective. Businesses and corporations in the United States are driven by market economics so even at the start up level are controlled by financial decisions made by owners, their board of directors, investors and so on. It's not that individual companies can't follow the practices discussed her, but most won't simply because there is little to no reward for it.

The book ignores the bigger picture in all this, which is the cultural economics in which companies function and the broader culture which is their foundation. Japan now has a word for corporate workers working themselves to death literally: karoshi. This is not because middle or even upper management is not aware of burnout or it's consequences, but corporations and the culture more broadly support working extreme hours without enough rest in order to meet unatainable metrics and production goals. South Korea is seeing the effects of a similar cultural value system on corporations and indivuduals which is effecting birth rates since people can't afford either financially or timewise, to have children.

Is it possible to deal with burnout culturally? I would say yes as evidenced by studies of Denmark, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. None are perfect, but a culture which values people first has led to corporations and legislation which fosters healthy work and work/life balance.

With the current American culture and corporate systems, the answer to worker burnout isn't to have middle managers or upper level management try to manage it, but unions allowing workers to speak and act on their own behalf. The rest is just temporary pain relief.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really working to balance reading my fiction with non-fiction and growth-related books. I found this gem based on recommended reading through the Libby digital library app... Jennifer’s balance of defining terms and experiences with sharing studies (and their stats) as well as telling stories to connect the first two makes for a calm read and easy-to-digest book.

How ironic that she was able to share her experience of going through burnout during the writing of a book on burnout. I love that Jennifer doesn’t just say, as an individual, YOU have to do more yoga, YOU should eat healthier, etc. because YOU can control your burnout... No, she places the blame on workplaces and a culture of always doing more, pushing yourself, always being connected, not having any autonomy in your job or processes, not feeling connected, etc.

While I read to grow and hopefully be a healthier friend, family member, leader, co-worker, employee and just in general person.... While reading this book, I was able to pause (more than once) and evaluate if some of the emotions and physical things I have been experiencing are actually stemming from burnout... I even found and took the MBI (she also called Myer Burnout Assessment)... Sure enough, even in the category of Personal Achievement, where I figured I would be okay, I was at a much higher level of burnout than I would have thought, and that was with lowballing some of my answers.

I like that she didn't gloss over the idea of the fear of feedback in places where empathy is lacking or worst, even shamed.... That if you want resilient workplaces, you have to be more empathic and healing.


Themes and trigger warnings: burnout, workplaces, healthy workplaces, mental health, healthy bosses, healthy employees, stress, health, physical health, trust, empathy, stress management

[Gonçalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful representation of a lot of what's generally wrong with most companies today - it's mostly the market and our society that's molding them, but the onus of doing the right thing must be with the companies.
The awful thing is that good people, good workers, usually pull to themselves the responsabilities that should be held by their employers - the same for entreprenours who should rely more on their structure instead of carrying the world on their backs.
It's urgent that we as a society understand the human costs that the corporate life and this kind of always-on, cult-like, networking mania have on society. Companies might gradually change to finally accommodate mental health as a priority, but that alone is just a first step.We have conditioned ourselves to be busy, to hustle because it's easier to deal with anxiety if we have no time to think about it. However, we also need to address the fundamental causes of anxiety. If we don't, everything will likely regress back to its current, concerning state.
Moss has pulled together a lot of important information into what can almost be called a manual of good practices, and I feel like I will reread this frequently. In fact, I am fortunate enough to work at a company where mental health is highly valued, but still, I have dealt with work-related burnout, and it is still a high-risk condition, because even when leaders worry about mental health, they don't always have the tools to take the right action. It's up to the teams and the people within the organization to move along or help direct the decision-makers towards the ways to act about what's wrong – never to withstand bad conditions just because there's a reasonable explanation for them.This book is a perfect starting point, and one that I am sure I will recommend often.

[Jean M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm debating between a 3 and 4 star rating on this one. I found the book to be an excellent assembly of insight and strategy surrounding the important topic of burnout. I very much enjoyed her personal insight, but I was left wanting more from her.

Jennifer Moss does a great job of weaving a storyline curated by her experience in the field as well as that of many other experts. I was so excited with the introduction, including this wonderful analogy about canaries in a coal mine. If a canary enters a coal mine and returns sick from monoxide poisoning, we aren't telling the bird he or she is not resilient enough or even cut out for this job. We're questioning the coal mine. Yet, when it comes to mental health, we rarely do that. Towards the end of the book, she also uses another analogy I enjoyed. When we know a building is burning, we don't send people back in it. Yet, even when we know we have a sick environment, we send people back in anyway. Very good visuals that will stick.

I enjoyed her bringing together the PERMA and HERO theories as well as returning to the basics of Herzberg on workplace hygiene. She mixes in some wonderful exercises, including a simple mindfulness, one that I'll add to my calendar immediately and some interesting empathy focused statements that help you sit with people without seeking to save them from their problems.

I'll be going over my notes in the coming week with an intention of sharing my learning with colleagues at work. I was also very intrigued to look at all the references and source documents that allow me to dig deeper into the pieces that I'd like to know more about.

Easy to read and the type of book one can return to for ideas, references, and guidance when needed.

[Ngaio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't really fault this book for not being what I hoped it would be. Moss does an admirable job of laying out the problem of burnout, its causes and costs. She even provides actionable suggestions for how to address it...as long as you're a manager at white collar company.

Given the overwhelming state of the world right now, I was hoping this book would include more that individuals can do once they're burned out. Generic 'practice self-care' suggestions were cliche and old well before this matter hit a crisis point.

If you're a manager looking for ways to spot, and possibly even address, burnout in your employees this is a great book. It's informative and inclusive. It lays out the economic and business reasons to care about this (for those business people who need human suffering quantified into cost to profit).

However, if you're a person who has burned out, or who is in the process of doing so, this book won't help you. It has some good information about the causes, which is nice to know. But the causes of burnout are a system-wide problem. It's an organizational culture issue. Moss addresses her points at those creating and maintaining those systems. She's not offering suggestions for individuals. I kept waiting for them, but no. Short of changing careers to get away from things like 'values mismatch' you're hooped. It's an honest take, but it wasn't what I was hoping for.

2.5 stars. A good book for business people and managers.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently burnout was already a thing before COVID. If it was then, it most certainly is now. Jennifer Moss takes us to school on the subject of burnout. Interestingly the ICD10 considers burnout a diagnosis, an interesting factoid regarding a syndrome that is so very systemic and awkwardly housed within an individual. How exactly to split the hairs between depression and burn out is not addressed in this book. That being said, Moss covers the 6 primary causes of burnout, the individuals and professions most vulnerable to burnout and delivers solid critiques on the way policies to prevent burnout most often fail. She then suggests strategies she sees as most likely to succeed. We learn about the power of curiosity and empathy, ideal team sizes, the best measures of burnout, how to collect valuable information without fatiguing your workforce and how leaders can provide ideal leadership while preventing burn out among themselves. Overall, I think Moss has provided good value and sound advice in this book. Leaders of companies and government agencies would do well to heed Moss's advice and if they were to do so, they and their organizations would reap the benefits as would their workforce. Avoiding burnout is win win, I only hope the world is ready to take Moss's advice.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I don't think this book will age well - it's very rooted in the pandemic - it raises a number of interesting points and is built on top of a lot of research, so will hopefully survive. There are suggestions here for reducing burnout both individually and at an organizational level, but the key takeaway for me - which, in hindsight, felt like it should have been obvious but wasn't until I read this - is that engagement and burnout are separate spectrums.

Lots of companies run quantitative surveys on engagement, but none I've worked for ever measured burnout well. There's usually some light indicators like whether you feel like you can disconnect outside working hours, but burnout indicators are typically treated as the opposite of engagement. Hopefully this insight will make it easier to understand the data we do have and suggest changes to future measures.

[Courtney Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to present on to my colleagues in a leadership development program at work and found it really insightful! Moss details the root causes of burnout and how to combat them, as well as how to be a good leader through the burnout epidemic. It’s a very important topic that often doesn’t get talked about in corporate America. It personally helped me realize that my low points in the past few years, I was really experiencing burnout, and provided me and my coworkers with valuable information to use in the future.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book's constant reference to relatable events. I found the reader to be soft spoken and sort of strange to listen to. But I appreciated the science based advice with actions to take to avoid burnout in ourself, in our family, in our works teams and within our company. This book really helps give ways to identify burnout in ourselves, others and whole teams. Also it gave me more confidence to ask for the things I need to do my job well and avoid the stress and burnout that I feel all around me.

[Alena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book summarizing the importance of mindfulness, empathy, and happiness in prevention of burnout as it relates not only in professional settings, but to all aspects of life as a whole. I thought a lot of the strategies, examples, and perspectives were incredibly motivating in many ways.

I think any manager looking to improve their habits should read this book, and any person interested in preventing mental burnout should too.

It’s a good book to start the year on! Plenty of great quotes and useful techniques in becoming a more mindful person to yourself and to others.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in preparation for a presentation on burnout to my organization, and it was excellent. It clearly outlined the 6 main causes of burnout, placing the onus on the system, organization, or institution instead of the individual. It did a great job of going into further detail and explaining each of the causes and providing examples. Sometimes the examples didn't necessarily feel like a direct tie to the cause - which is my only complaint about the book. Overall, it gave me a comprehensive textbook knowledge of burnout.

[Hollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful read at a time when I needed it most

The information was helpful and relevant, to the point that I'm trying to figure out how to send a copy to our CEO without potentially offending them. She writes in a conversational tone with such openness that you end the book feeling like you could call her up for a cup of tea and a chat. Thank you, Jennifer, for writing a book that spoke to my needs.

[Dilyana Domuschieva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed it. I love how it is structured and the abundance of examples, cases, great references in the text. I enjoyed the discussion about the recent context and also the personal examples by the author.. On the other hand, I somehow expected it to be a scientific analysis of pros and cons of every thesis and sub-topic. It was not. I found this somehow superficial and less credible. Still, overall - I found the book useful and pleasant to read. Thank you