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Michael P. Leiter
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Christina Maslach
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The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships with Their Jobs Kindle Edition

by Christina Maslach (Author), Michael P. Leiter (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 56 ratings
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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.

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  1. Print length
    258 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harvard University Press
  4. Publication date
    November 15, 2022
  5. File size
    4016 KB
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4.1 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • S. Nemecek
    5.0 out of 5 stars Important book on burnout
    Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2024
    This is an important book for anyone leading a team, organization, or small business. Your employees aren't burning out because they are weak. They're burning out because of the work culture they are in. As a burnout recovery coach, I wish every employer, manager, and team leader would take these teachings to heart. My job would be so much easier.
    Sean Nemecek
    Author of The Weary Leader’s Guide to Burnout
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  • Karen Briscoe
    4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration and insights
    Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2025
    Inspiration and insights to achieve a higher level of success by managing people's relationships with their jobs. Make a substantial impact by applying the burnout challenge. Karen Briscoe, author
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  • Robert Morris
    5.0 out of 5 stars The power and impact of a first-person PLURAL pronoun mindset
    Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2022
    For more than 30 years, I worked with the senior-level executives of companies annually ranked among those most highly admired and best to work for. However different these organizations may be in most respects, all of them had -- and continue to have -- a healthy workplace, one within which their people think and behave in terms of first-person PLURAL pronouns. That is the "secret sauce" for accelerating personal growth and professional development, for creating and retaining what Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell characterize as "customer evangelists," for becoming and then remaining more profitable than any of their competitors in the given industry segment. It is also imperative for everyone to be in proper alignment with the work they do -- and WHY they do it -- as well as with their associates.

    Note: During exit interviews of highly valued employees who have "fired" one company (more often than not, they fired their supervisor) in order to work for another, they revealed that [begin itaics] feeling appreciated [end italics] was more important than compensation and career advancement. Loyalty to their employer had become burned out.

    I mention all this by way of setting the proverbial table for the invaluable material that Christina Maslach and Michael Leitner provide in their brilliant contribution to knowledge leadership in burnout research.

    They suggest that there are six areas of job-person match or mismatch and they are not independent of each other. In fact, they can overlap in multiple ways. There are many ways in which mismatches can combine. "The reciprocal interactions among co-workers over time mean that every individual can be affected by mismatches and also contributes to mismatches for others."

    Think in terms of the principle of compounding: both civility and incivility are sui generis, as are empathy and indifference, positive and negative, constructive and destructive, etc. Maslach and Leitner thoroughly explain the WHAT and WHY of healthy and unhealthy workplace cultures. Of even greater value is their knowledge, wisdom, and experience that guide and inform their explanation of HOW to avoid or diminish (if not eliminate) burnout at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise.

    These are among the other passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Maslach and Leitner's coverage:

    o Work Overload (Pages 12-16 and 16-18))
    o Breakdown of Community (20-22)
    o Understanding Mismatches (26-27)
    o Blamingbthe Victim (36-39)
    o The Medicalization of Burnout (40-47)

    o Individual CopingTechniques (47-51)
    o Psychological Fit (64-68)
    o EssentialSteps Toward Good Matches (71-73)
    o Collaborate, Customizer, Commit (80-82)
    o Balanceonthe Job (91-95)

    o Control (104-107)
    o Flexibility (111-114)
    o Appreciation (118-119)
    o Intrinsic Rewards (124-127)
    o Civility (130-133)

    o Managing Workplace Civility (133-138)
    o Respect and Reciprocity (145-147)
    o Equality and Equity (148-155)
    o Identify the Area of a Problem Mismatch (176-180)
    o Use Design Guidelines (188-191)

    o Build in Progress Checkpoints (191-195)
    o URGENT: Why Act Now? (198-200)
    o An Approach to Addressing CommunitynMismatches (204-216)
    o Lessons Learned from Making Better Matches (219-220)
    o Future Change (225-232)

    The challenge is mutli-dimensional: for individuals, to avoid burnout and do all they can to help others to do so. For those with direct reports especially, this book is a "must read" and then re-read. For organizations, whatever their size and nature may be, the challenge is to establish and then sustain a workplace culture within which personal growth and professional development are most likely to thrive. Jim Collins has much of value to say about getting the right people "on the bus" and would be among the first to insist that matching each "passenger" with the most appropriate responsibilities is of equal, if not even greater importance.

    To repeat, Christina Maslach and Michael Leitner share their knowledge, wisdom, and experience when explaining HOW to avoid or diminish (if not eliminate) burnout at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise. They stress the importance of identifying crucial gaps and mismatches while realizing that one positive adjustment is desirable but never enough. Every organization needs a system of continuous improvement, a never-ending process of ensuring that the right people are doing what they do best and enjoy most.

    Workers need to "see" themselves in their jobs and be proud that they have it. Relations with others must be flexible and resilient. Everyone should model and exemplify civility; earn mutual respect and trust, as well as appreciation; "keep the faith" in themselves and others while taking no one and nothing for granted; be patient but persistent; and meanwhile, be "just cautious enough."

    Think of this process as continuous elimination of burnout accelerants.

    Final point: However different they may be in most other respects, all of the companies annually ranked among those most highly regarded and best to work, the same companies that are also most profitable, excel at [begin italics] managing their workers' relationships with their jobs. [end italics] That is NOT a coincidence.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • John W. Pearson
    5.0 out of 5 stars “It might be good if I got hit by a bus.”
    Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2022
    Just when you thought you knew a few things about burnout—and how to fix it—along comes an extraordinary book from Harvard University Press. Someone on your team MUST read “The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships with Their Jobs,” by Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter.

    Confession! I skipped to Chapter 6, “Rewards,” to get a taste of the book—and immediately found value. “Understanding what gratifies and what irritates regarding rewards can save workplaces a great deal of time and trouble.” The authors warn, “People do not automatically embrace reward systems. To resonate with people, it is important that awards or celebrations fit with other aspects of their lives and have credibility.”

    Example: The authors spotlight a university department’s annual spring picnic for the staff. When the staff admitted the event was rather ho-hum (perhaps bordering on irritating!) the new department chair probed further. The result: “…the money was spent on some new carpeting in the staff lounge and one of the employees volunteered her nearby apartment for what turned out to be a more pleasant and delicious lunch for everyone.”

    Brilliantly combining research with mini-case studies, the authors raise the red flag about today’s workplace. Chapter 1, “Working in the Burnout Shop” is must-read. Gratefully, these two psychologists (Christina Maslach is the cocreator of the Maslach Burnout Inventory) allocate more pages to the solutions than to the problems—but don’t skip their thoughtful and alarming diagnosis of our workplaces. Oh, my. "Quiet quitting" is the least of your worries.

    “Rewards” is one of six mismatches that create burnout issues. “In recent Gallup polls, majorities of American workers rate their jobs as mediocre or bad. Globally, the situation is even worse, with only 20 percent of employees reporting that they are engaged with their jobs.” And in Britain? “The only thing they associated with more unhappiness than working was being sick in bed.” (Hmmm. Plan A or Plan B today? Yikes.)

    The six mismatches are Workload Overload, Lack of Control, Insufficient Rewards, Breakdown of Community, Absence of Fairness, and Values Conflict. “Poor alignment in any one of these six areas increases the risk of burnout.” Worth the price of this book is the “Assessing Your Own Relationship With Work,” a 30-item assessment in the appendix. With five questions for each of the six mismatches, the authors invite you to score yourself on three levels:
    [ ] JUST RIGHT. “If things on a given dimension are just right…”
    [ ] MISMATCH. “If a certain dimension is incompatible with your preferred way of working…”
    [ ] MAJOR MISMATCH. “If a quality is a major departure from your ideals…”

    Example: A statement in the “Values” section reads, “The potential of my work to further what I care about.” What response would you check?

    In defining burnout, the authors describe it as a “triumvirate.”
    • Crushing exhaustion
    • Feelings of cynicism and alienation
    • And a sense of ineffectiveness

    They add, “The burnout syndrome occurs when people experience combined crises on all three of these dimensions, most of the time. They feel chronically exhausted; they have withdrawn mentally, socially, and emotionally from work; and they have lost confidence in their capacity to have a constructive impact.”

    When a team member seems to be experiencing burnout, does your shop help or hurt the situation? The section on “Blaming the Victim” is must-read also. If your organization has created a “culture of fear” so that any legitimate push-back on workload is seen as “whininess or evidence of personal weakness,” there are ways you can fix this dysfunction without stigmatizing team members. (Did I mention…must-read?)

    There's so much more:
    • “Remember that popular saying…about people working in adverse conditions: ‘If you can’t take the heat, then get out of the kitchen.’ It is helpful to help people cope by figuring out how to adapt to the heat. But why not also figure out how to turn down the heat to a more reasonable temperature?” (Read “It’s the Canary and the Coal Mine.”)
    • The four significant psychological factors highly relevant to job-person match: psychological safety, fairness, meaning, and positive emotions.
    • And finally…these two thoughtful authors deliver an insightful eight pages on the difference between “equality” and “equity.” The example: the design of public restrooms at large venues. Also, read about the universally hated “distinguished service award” and why administrators missed the deeper impact (issues of moral mismatches, such as fairness and values).

    SING ALONG! The authors mention a workers’ song from the 1800s which I had to google! Enjoy the one-minute YouTube ditty performed by Pete Seeger, “Eight-Hour Day.” Or—depending on your job mismatches, you may prefer Johnny Paycheck’s "Take This Job And Shove It” (7.5 million views), or Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” (58 million views!). Whoa! People hate their jobs!

    And…who would have expected a book on burnout to include the classic John F. Kennedy aspiration to put a man on the moon (and bring him back safely!)? In the chapter on values, the authors note “that Kennedy’s communication of this objective featured four ‘sense-giving’ aspects that enabled NASA’s employees and the many contractors they engaged to see stronger connections between their daily work and NASA’s space exploration purpose." Another must-read chapter!

    Oh, my. There’s so, so much here—like the consultant (high salary in a low ethics firm) who told his wife, “It might be good if I got hit by a bus. I don’t want to die, but I’d like to be injured long enough that I’d have to stop working for a while.” (What are the team members in your “burnout shop” telling their families and friends?)

    This is required reading. Who on your team should read this book first? (And thanks to Harvard University Press for sending me a review copy.)
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Joseph D. Stern
    5.0 out of 5 stars The canaries aren’t sick. It’s the coal mine!
    Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2023
    I purchased this book after hearing Dr. Maslach speak at the Healthcare Burnout Symposium. Just as in her talk, this book is inspiring and full of wisdom. The writers provide clear explanations for burnout as well as remarkably straightforward steps for addressing and preventing it. Their decades of experience and wisdom shine through on every page. This book is a game changer! I read it in a day and plan on re-reading it more than once. Thank you so much for your help and insights. We ignore them at our peril.
    3 people found this helpful
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