Thursday, December 7, 2023

Book Review: The Cure for Burnout

Title: The Cure for Burnout

AuthorEmily Ballesteros

Publisher: Dial Press

Publication Date: February 13, 2024

Rating: 5 out of 5

Burnout was a huge corporate buzzword during Covid and remote working. Now that the pandemic is behind and companies have mandated return-to-wrkplace, they act as if burnout has been cured. But that is far from the truth. Burnout lives on in the lives of many workers throughout the US and worldwide. So this book is a great resource for those in the midst of burnout. It is written for the individual, not the manager, but we can all learn from Ballesteros.

The first part of the book outlines modern burnout and goes into the three types. It is interesting but perhaps the least helpful. If you are in the midst of burnout, you don't need to know what it is. You need help. Still, this is good introductory material.

The meat of the book, and what you paid for, is the cure. And that is found in the middle section, which devote five chapters to the five pillars of burnout management: mindset, personal care, time management, boundaries, and stress management. Filled with great illustrations, this is what I enjoyed the most. Each chapter contains tools to add to your toolkit, such as minimums, romanticization, gamification, reminders and accountability for personal care. I particuarly liked the tools for stress management, such as fact-feeling-story, tangible vs intangible list, cognitive reframing and burnout jenga.

The chapters are long but worth reading carefully while taking notes. I loved this book and have a new set of tools I plan to use when I sense burnout rearing its ugly heads.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

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