It's only January. How are we so burned out already?

This is how we make our work matter again

Quit rates are up, burnout is rampant. California is on fire. The country is reconstituting itself. Your boss wants you in the office five days a week. Even if you love your work, it can be hard to like your job right now.

That’s why I asked Jennifer Moss to join me for this week’s episode. Jen is an award-winning journalist, speaker, and workplace culture strategist. She’s the author of six books on work and work culture. Her previous book, The Burnout Epidemic, came out in 2022 and her latest title Why Are We Here?: Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants was released earlier this January.

Many of us play a role in setting the culture for our organizations. I’ve been thinking about this a lot for myself within the context of my own team at LinkedIn. When things are working well, we hit a group flow state. It’s really the best. But it hasn’t felt this way for awhile. The people around me are tired; I feel tired; and it’s January! The month of annual reinvention and renewal! I’ve been trying to put my finger on the reason why, to consider the question of what I might do to inspire a greater sense of energy and purpose for myself and those around me. So yes, this was a selfish conversation: I want to know, is there a formula for a healthy culture?

And here’s the great news: Jen says there is a formula. A healthy culture experiences three attributes: hope, purpose, and community.

In our conversation, Jennifer and I explore the root causes of burnout and why so many of us feel like our work lacks meaning. We dive into actionable strategies to prevent burnout and give ourselves the time and space to rediscover what truly matters.

I hope this conversation offers you tips that you can apply immediately.

Today we make our YouTube video debut!

The audio version of the show has been there all along, but today we introduce a video version. Soon you’ll be able to find it on LinkedIn, too. Many readers of this letter know far more about how to make good video than I do. I welcome feedback!

I Can’t Stop Thinking About This…

Design researcher Jan Chipchase offers up a three-part essay on professional identity and sharing that introduces new ways for me to understand the relationship we establish with each other when we choose to share—and helped me frame my thinking on why this type of sharing is increasingly critical to our professional success. To wit: celebrity is a pre-condition of success in the future job market, and strategic sharing is our path to celebrity. Says Jan: “We often associate the term “celebrity” with attention seekers, whereas my definition is more prosaic: ‘to be celebrated by one’s peers when one is not present’.”

So why exactly is this important to a career? Again, Jan: “The main value of celebrity lies not in attaining an elevated status, but in an ability to attract interesting conversations that lead to near- to medium-term opportunities.” IE: it has replaced the resume as the path to economic opportunity. In the first part of the series, he gets into what audience matters. In the third part, he goes deep on how we construct our professional identities. Particularly relevant for anyone who thinks about social technology.

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