The Burnout Challenge: Managing People's Relationships with Their Jobs

by Christina Maslach, Michael P. Leiter

Overview

A Forbes Best Business Book. “Vital reading for today’s and tomorrow’s leaders.” —Arianna Huffington

“Burnout seems to be everyone’s problem, and this book has solutions. As trailblazers in burnout research, Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter didn’t just clear the path to study the causes—they’ve also discovered some of the cures.” —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Think Again

“A thoughtful and well researched book about a core issue at the heart of the great resignation.” —Christian Stadler, Forbes

“Provides the path to creating a better world of work where people can flourish rather than get beaten down.” — Marcel Schwantes, Inc.

Burnout is among the most significant on-the-job hazards facing workers today. It is also among the most misunderstood. In particular, we tend to characterize burnout as a personal issue—a problem employees should fix themselves by getting therapy, practicing relaxation techniques, or changing jobs. Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter show why burnout also needs to be managed by the workplace.

Citing a wealth of research data and drawing on illustrative anecdotes, The Burnout Challenge shows how organizations can change to promote sustainable productivity. Maslach and Leiter provide useful tools for identifying the signs of employee burnout and offer practical, evidence-driven guidance for implementing change. The key, they argue, is to begin with less-taxing changes that employees nonetheless find meaningful, seeding the ground for more thorough reforms in the future.

As priorities and policies shift across workplaces, The Burnout Challenge provides pragmatic, creative, and cost-effective solutions to improve employee efficiency, health, and happiness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674287303
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	791,700
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Christina Maslach is Professor of Psychology, Emerita, at the University of California, Berkeley, and the cocreator of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a widely used metric. In 2020 she received the Scientific Reviewing award from the National Academy of Sciences for her writing on burnout.

Michael P. Leiter is an organizational psychologist and consultant. He has been Professor of Organisational Psychology at Deakin University in Australia and was Canada Research Chair in Occupational Health at Acadia University.

Table of Contents

Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction Part I. The Marathon 1. Working in the Burnout Shop 2. Sounding the Alarm 3. Rethinking the Relationship between Person and Job Part II. The Mismatches 4. Workload 5. Control 6. Rewards 7. Community 8. Fairness 9. Values Part III. The Management 10. Creating Better Matches 11. Making Matches Work 12. Meeting the Challenge of Burnout Appendix: Assessing Your Own Relationship with Work Notes Acknowledgments Index

Editorial Reviews

09/12/2022

A majority of American workers consider their jobs to be mediocre or bad, constituting a crisis in the workplace, according to this no-nonsense survey from Banishing Burnout coauthors Maslach, a UC Berkeley psychology professor, and Leiter, an organizational psychologist. They make a case that such bad feelings toward one’s work manifest as burnout, a miserable trifecta comprising crushing exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and alienation, and a sense of ineffectiveness. Burnout, they write, is the result of “the increasing mismatch between workers and workplaces,” and is not an individual problem but one that comes down to the relationship between an individual and their place of work. Solutions, therefore, must be systemic and structural. The authors break down how burnout affects workplace relationships (it can lead to workers “causing greater personal conflict and disrupting job tasks”) and lay out how organizations can ensure an ideal job-person match, which they posit involves six conditions: a sustainable workload; ample choice and control; recognition and rewards; supportive work community; norms of fairness, respect, and social justice; and well-aligned values and meaningful work. With the Great Resignation looming large, this timely, practical guide is worth a look for business leaders aiming to foster a healthy workplace. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

A legendary and lasting contribution from two luminaries of burnout research. As we face a growing rampage of workplace stressors, this book offers concrete, actionable solutions for leaders at every level, reminding us that meaningful innovation can only occur at the speed of trust.

Thom Mayer

Ultimately, Maslach and Leiter are hopeful. The world seems much more receptive to their research now after the pandemic shredded so many assumptions about the way work happens.

Bloomberg - Jo Constantz

Maslach and Leiter’s crucial insight is that characterizing burnout as a personal issue prevents us from finding lasting solutions. A thoughtful and well researched book about a core issue at the heart of the great resignation. If you want to overcome labour shortage issues, this book helps you create a work environment which does not overwhelm people. Sounds simpler than it is.

Christian Stadler

Aspiring and even experienced leaders often don’t know that in order to make sustainable change for both employees and the overall organization, burnout must be a core focus. From experts in burnout research, The Burnout Challenge offers tips and tools needed to evaluate problems and implement solutions. Vital reading for today’s and tomorrow’s leaders.

Arianna Huffington

Provides a balance of breadth and depth to understand the factors leading to burnout, the signs and stages of those who are on the path to burnout, and opportunities for intervening when burnout is looming…brimming with important insights, interesting distinctions, and practical tools.

School Administrator - Christine Collins-Otto

Maslach and Leiter highlight how the way many people are being expected to work is running them into the ground and that the negative feelings come from six key mismatches…The book then goes on to offer ways to measure and address the problem, providing advice on how to create better matches—redesigning work, for example, using actual design principles, such as balance, unity, and rhythm.

Financial Times

Managing burnout is one of the most important responsibilities of the twenty-first-century leader. Full of practical tips and tools to do just this, The Burnout Challenge is an essential resource for the leaders of today—and the aspiring leaders of tomorrow.

Tasha Eurich

The Burnout Challenge will help managers everywhere better understand burnout…This book serves as a wise canary for workers and managers in any organization.

Current - David Kee

The authors use accessible language, many analogies, examples and cases, a compelling narrative style, and helpful bar graphs. This book is well suited to scholars and practitioners interested in change management, burnout, work–life balance, person–job fit, and engagement in the workplace.

Choice

Provides the path to creating a better world of work where people can flourish rather than get beaten down.

Inc. - Marcel Schwantes

Burnout seems to be everyone’s problem, and this book has solutions. As trailblazers in burnout research, Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter didn’t just clear the path to study the causes—they’ve also discovered some of the cures.

Adam Grant

Maslach and Leiter are the leading scholars on this timely subject, and their research takes today’s necessary discussions about the nature of the workplace to a new level. This outstanding book will make a substantial impact.

Professor Sir Cary Cooper

10/01/2022

Psychologists Maslach and Leiter follow up their book The Truth About Burnout with this guide to the causes of burnout and how organizations and employees can make changes to prevent it. The reality is that only a mere 20 percent of workers are fully engaged with their jobs, and the COVID pandemic has only exacerbated this problem. Organizational pressures such as cutting costs, downsizing, and overwork lead to burnout, defined as a combination of exhaustion, cynicism, and a feeling of ineffectiveness. Many view burnout as a problem with the individual, or even a mental health issue; the authors point out, however, that in 2019, the World Health Organization defined burnout as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical one. The authors propose that the way to prevent or ameliorate burnout is by addressing the mismatches between the workplace and the worker, which can fall into six areas: work overload, lack of control, insufficient rewards, breakdown of community, absence of fairness, and value conflicts. They apply their research alongside real-life examples to provide insightful strategies for both individuals and organizations to avoid burnout. VERDICT This book proposes a thoughtful approach to tackling a common and serious workplace problem.—Rebecca Mugridge

Library Journal

2022-09-07
Strategies for a healthy workplace.

Psychologist Maslach, creator of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Leiter, an organizational psychologist and consultant, offer a well-grounded examination of the causes of widespread job dissatisfaction and burnout along with proposals for solutions. “At a time when leaders extol the virtues of respectful workplaces and engaging teamwork,” they note, “complaints of incivility, abuse, and bullying run rampant.” If workers feel “ignored, limited, manipulated, distrusted, and undermined,” they become increasingly frustrated. Chronic exhaustion, cynicism, and a feeling of ineffectiveness are caused by problems that include work overload, breakdown of community, and workers’ sense of a lack of control—problems that became exacerbated during the pandemic, when working at home eroded boundaries between jobs and private life. Because burnout has been stigmatized as a sign of weakness, workers “are often reluctant to self-identify as having this problem or needing help.” The authors, though, see burnout as “a social phenomenon” that needs to be addressed by organizational solutions. Although a “massive self-care industry” advises getting enough sleep and eating healthy foods, these suggestions alone will not eliminate burnout, which is caused by a mismatch between workers and workplace environments. These mismatches, the authors have found, can be discovered through direct input from workers and managers, surveys, and organizational assessments. In an appendix, they present an informal questionnaire designed for a worker’s self-assessment. Once the area of a problem mismatch is identified, employers should consider ways to pivot to improve the job-person relationship—e.g., creating a sustainable workload, nurturing a supportive work community, and giving workers ample choice and control. The authors’ approach to problem-solving “combines the power of collaboration, customization, and commitment. These ‘three C’s’ all serve to boost participation” and can lead to lasting improvements. “Essential to any pivot,” they add, “is to pose a basic question: What will success look like?”

Thoughtful advice for managers and employers.

Kirkus Reviews