4 out of 4 stars
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Are you burned out at work? Do you even know what that means? If you do, do you know what you can do to recover from that? If you don’t know, then do you know you have a higher chance of experiencing burnout at work? Am I Burned Out at Work? is a nonfiction self-help book by Salar A. Khan MD, MBA, that will help you understand burnout.
The author first opens the book by saying he once read an article that said that many professionals, that is lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and the likes, suffer from burnout at work. This made the author find an interest in this issue and see if he can learn and maybe do anything about it. That’s when he came up with the idea of writing this book.
In the introduction, the author says that many workers, when they fail to meet the deadlines, they then start feeling down. They start adopting these negative thoughts about themselves. And the pressure of always being expected to perform well just leads to them experiencing burnout. The author says, currently there is not a universally accepted definition of burnout. He further states, “the root cause of burnout is embedded into your workplace as a physician, medical student, medical resident, or any kind of worker. If you feel overworked and undervalued, you are at a higher risk of burnout due to erosion of your mental capacity, and you will advance to a true state of burnout.”
The first chapter is titled “Self-Assessment of Personality.” Here, the author helps us identify which personalities we have so we can be able to know our strengths and weaknesses, which makes it very easier to know whether you are burned out or not. The second chapter is titled “Burnout Etiology & Research.” Here he dives deeper into the issue of burnout and the research about it so far in the medicine world.
Throughout the book, the author gives out recommendations and advice on how to early detect burnout, how to manage it, and how to survive it.
This is a different self-help book I have read this year. Maybe it is because of its title and obviously its subject. I didn’t know what to expect from it, except the clichés of this genre, which is that the author knows everything, and he is actually doing you and the world a favour by writing this book. But, no, this book wasn’t like that. The author didn’t, even in the slightest bit, come across like that.
He genuinely sounded like he wanted to help because it’s in his nature to help where he can. People are really depressed in their jobs worldwide, and most report having suicidal thoughts, while others go ahead and succeed in taking their own lives. So these issues raised here are very important and should be read by everyone. Even when you are not working, you have people who do. So you might help them when they can’t help themselves.
The tone was very smooth and serene. The author wasn’t condescending, and he wasn’t boasting about his qualifications. When he was talking about them, he was showing us that he is very qualified to talk about this topic.
What I can say I didn’t like about this book is that the author seemed to be shy and not brave to say what he really wanted to say. It was like he was scared he would step on other people’s toes. That’s why he kept on saying, “in my opinion,” whenever he wanted to say something big. I found it unnecessary because we understand that once in a while, there would be his opinions in this book.
Another thing, he sounded like he was telling people, but in not so many ways, to just snap out of whatever they are going through. It all made me cringe, and I think this won’t sit well with mental illness activists and the likes.
But other than that, this was a short and beautiful read. The author did exceptional research. You can tell this by the references he provided at the end of the book. This book seemed to be professionally edited, although I came across a few errors. But they weren’t that many or strong to dilute the quality of the book.
I award this book with a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. It should be read by everyone, even those who aren’t in self-help books. It would surely benefit them in many ways.
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Am I Burned Out at Work?
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I know what you mean. I’m glad the author didn’t take this approach. This sounds like a very useful book—I think I may recognize some of the warning signs I missed in a past work experience. 
