Working Happy! How to Survive Burnout and Find Your Work/Life Synergy in the Healthcare Industry
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Working Happy! How to Survive Burnout and Find Your Work/Life Synergy in the Healthcare Industry by Roger Kapoor, MD, MBA, is a groundbreaking book that offers fresh insights and new solutions to the growing crisis of burnout in the healthcare workplace.
The book takes an innovative, hands-on approach toward the two most important causes of employee burnout: workplace environment and personal attitude and behavior.
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Whether you are seeking to find happiness in your present job, leaning toward changing jobs in the same industry, switching careers altogether, or even striking out on your own as an entrepreneur, this easy-to-read guide covers every contingency. Kapoor explains emotional resilience and provides powerful tools you can use right now to address burnout. Above all, the book encourages you to find your true purpose in work and life, let the money take care of itself, and develop your ikigai, or “life value.”
The book identifies the two central causes of workplace burnout: the workplace itself and your own attitude toward your job.
Each of the 10 chapters covers a different aspect of burnout and work/life synergy.
Chapter 1, Unhappy Workers and Employee Burnout sets the stage for the book and explains the problem of workplace burnout.
Chapter 2, The Two Sources of Burnout explores the two main causes of burnout: workplace environment and personal attitude and behavior.
Chapter 3, Finding Work/Life Synergy introduces the concept of work/life synergy and explains how it differs from work/life balance.
Chapter 4, Path #1: Find Happiness in Your Present Job helps readers analyze and reflect on their present job and provides actionable strategies to reduce stress and achieve work/life synergy.
Chapter 5, Path #2: Change Jobs explores the possibility of making a bigger change, such as changing jobs or exploring new horizons.
Chapter 6, Path #3: Change Your Career discusses the reasons people change careers and offers insight from people who have done just that.
Chapter 7, Emotional Resilience offers practical tips for achieving a positive work/life synergy in any work environment.
Chapter 8, Self-Help Strategies: Make Small Changes is a handy reference guide outlining powerful, practical steps readers can take every day to reduce their feelings of burnout.
Chapter 9, Your Purpose in Work and Life, helps readers find their true purpose in work and life and introduces the Japanese concept of ikigai.
Finally, chapter 10, Keep Working Happy! provides guidance on how to maintain work/life synergy and prevent burnout over the long term.
Unlike many business management books, this author has the trifecta of a solid academic training (an MBA), front-line clinical experience (as a practicing MD), and front-line administrative experience in solving the problems he talks about as a leader of a major health system.
Readers will feel the satisfaction of identifying the source of their burnout or stress and taking action to make a positive change. Everyone deserves to be happy, but we don’t know how to achieve it; this book shows you how you can change your working life and be happy.
Working Happy is filled with practical advice and actionable strategies that readers can implement right away. With its innovative approach and fresh insights, Working Happy is sure to become a classic in the field of healthcare workplace burnout and work/life synergy.
About the author
Roger Kapoor, MD, MBA, is the senior vice president of Beloit Health System in Beloit, Wisconsin, a community-based nonprofit hospital with approximately 23 service locations.
A Harvard-trained dermatologist who also holds an MBA from Oxford University in England, and who has authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles published in professional journals including The New England Journal of Medicine. He was the recipient of the Wisconsin Medical Society’s Kenneth M. Viste Young Physician Leader of the Year Award and named one of the top 25 Emerging Leaders in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare.
Kapoor has been credited with re-engineering the delivery of healthcare to his community, resulting in a dramatic rise in patient satisfaction at his institution from a stagnant 16th percentile to an astonishing 88th percentile in less than a year.
He concurrently ushered in transformative results in quality, leading teams to achieve three consecutive “A” ratings from the national watchdog group Leapfrog, a 4-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Quality Star program, and numerous quality of care pathway accolades.
As a practicing board-certified dermatologist, he has built a successful medical and cosmetic dermatology practice using advanced techniques to help patients live happier, healthier lives.
Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. Unhappy Workers and Employee Burnout
- The Creeping Malaise
- A Global Burnout Epidemic
- Chapter 2. The Two Sources of Burnout
- Your Stressful Workplace
- Having Little or No Control Over Your Work
- Lack of Recognition
- Lofty Goal Setting / Performance Expectations
- Monotonous or Unchallenging Work
- Chaotic Environment
- Toxic Culture
- Your Own Lifestyle
- All Work and No Play
- Lack of Close, Supportive Relationships
- Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
- Not Enough Sleep
- Perfectionistic Tendencies
- Need to Be in Control
- Unreasonable Rigidity
- Survivor’s Guilt
- Chapter 3. Finding Work/Life Synergy
- Is It Your Job or Your Career?
- Look Beyond Today’s Paycheck
- Ask Yourself What You Would Do if Every Job Paid the Same
- Identify the Source of Your Pain
- Chapter 4. Path #1: Find Happiness in Your Present Job
- Make Changes Within Your Company
- Working Happy Through Adversity
- Make Changes Within Yourself
- Become an “Organization Person”
- Chapter 5. Path #2: Change Jobs
- Finding a Company You Like
- Google Them!
- Glassdoor
- Indeed
- Chapter 6. Path #3: Change Your Career
- The Four Reasons Why People Change Careers
- They’re Burned Out
- They’ve Gone as Far as Their Current Career Can Take Them
- They “Age Out” of a Successful Career
- They Need New Challenges
- Add a Side Venture or Productive Hobby
- Know Your Desired Future State
- Look at the Big Picture
- Money and Training
- An Unsatisfied Affinity: The Career Journey of Vera Wang
- Chapter 7. Emotional Resilience
- Optimism
- Emotional Intelligence
- Self-Awareness
- Self-Management
- Social Awareness
- Relationship Management
- Internal Locus of Control
- Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being
- Perseverance
- Sense of Humor
- Willingness to Face Your Fears
- Rest and Recover
- Take a Time Out
- Make a Personal Checklist
- Chapter 8. Self-Help Strategies: Make Small Changes
- Free Yourself from Distractions
- Exercise Your Right to Disconnect
- Be Kind to Yourself
- No More Workcations, Wolidays, Bleisure Travel…
- Manage Expectations
- Keep It Real
- The Power of Gratitude
- Better Inputs = Better Outputs
- The Company You Keep
- The Power of Words
- Chapter 9. Your Purpose in Work and Life
- Your Purpose
- A Word About Money as a Motivator
- Overcome Your Fear of the Future
- Ikigai — Your “Life-Value”
- Chapter 10. Keep Working Happy!
- Your Diet, Weight, and Health
- Meditation
- Exercise
- Lifelong Learning
- Volunteer in Service to Others
- Thank You!
- References
Words of praise
I am a physician. My comments are directed at physicians alone. I am acutely aware that "burnout" is everywhere, especially in healthcare. The AMA and multiple medical societies and healthcare systems have spent almost two decades discussing and studying physician burnout. Yet, there has been little progress made in presenting solutions for the physicians. Dr. Kapoor's book actually succeeds in doing so. He clearly articulates a way through the stresses of home and work. Achieving "Synergy". Dr. Kapoor's book makes you think. He gives you important tools and different ways at looking at your life. I was very impressed with the book and will read again. I recommend having a highlighter handy when reading. You will definitely use it more than once. Enjoy the journey. Thank you Dr. Kapoor.
I am at the last chapter of reading this book and it is worth it. It will help you understand how to overcome your fear, the values of your life and optimism for your environment, empower to create your happiness. Strongly recommend to read.
Dr. Kapoor offers a compassionate approach and optimism in this compelling read. By acknowledging the struggles of medical professionals and offering a roadmap to resilience, "Working Happy....." stands as a beacon of hope in the fight against practitioner burnout. This book is not only essential reading for health care workers but also for policymakers, administrators, and anyone invested in the well-being of those who dedicate their lives to healing others. The health care system can be frustrating and patient collaboration can be challenging but people like Dr. Kapoor help us figure out how to make it better while making the best life for ourselves in the health care sector.
