Book review: The Burnout Epidemic, by Jennifer Moss

Ben Marshall Dec. 9, 2021

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Burnout.

It's a word packed with a lot of baggage. And it is something that touches many people. Whether you yourself struggle with it, or it's an issue with a friend or loved one, burnout is prevalent in our society right now.

And the pandemic didn't help.

Jennifer Moss, author of The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It,thoughtfully and thoroughly covers the definition of burnout as well as strategies to turn around this epidemic plaguing our workplaces and homes.

Moss doesn't shy away from some of the hard conversations, even talking about how some of the unsuccessful ways leaders have tried to manage burnout in their employees. At times, we as leaders can actually make the problem worse even as we're trying to help. Good intentions don't always equal good ideas.

This book was highly informative. The flow and structure of the book followed a positive progression of defining the problem, talking about real-life examples and highlighting effective and useful strategies backed by research that can help reverse this epidemic of burnout. This alone is worth the price of the book.

Moss does, at times, go into such great detail in some of the examples that the reader can get lost in the weeds a bit. Some of the examples, especially healthcare, went on for what felt like an unnecessary plethora of pages.

The reader gains much insight into the lives of healthcare workers, and it certainly brings about more empathy and understanding for the vast and systemic issues of burnout facing our healthcare system, but the point had been made some pages before the end of the section. The book was rather long as a result, so takes a bit of time to work through.

However, regardless of the length of examples or tangents, the depth of research, quality of writing and content delivered in this book make it worth the read. Specific examples can be skimmed over, but the solutions provided for leaders will help them guide their employees through to the other side of burnout.

Moss writes, "What we find consistently is that burnout from workload is often preventable." Those in leadership can help prevent burnout in others, but only as sustainable paces and work practices are modeled from the top down.

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Ben Marshall is a Pastor at Pathway Church in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He works with teenagers and young adults. He is passionate about leadership and raising up the next generation of biblical leaders. He is a blogger, guitar player and sports enthusiast. Ben currently resides in Beaver Falls with his wife Connie and their two daughters, Aliya and Sophie Learn More »

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