Burnout-Free Working: Your Expert Guide to Thriving in a Stressful Workplace, by Dr Richard Duggins, is a memoir-cum-guide that offers a timely and accessible contribution to the evolving landscape of workplace mental health, especially in the identification and management of work-related stress. There is a need for evidence-based guidance for clinicians, managers and organisations, and the book attempts to fill that niche.

The book opens with a description of burnout and its cardinal features, including emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal efficacy. These symptoms are situated within the job demands–resources framework developed by Demerouti and Bakker, with common occupational risk factors such as excessive workload and work demands, role ambiguity, interpersonal conflict and micro-management identified and discussed. An emphasis is placed on optimal prevention at the organisational rather than the individual level, and the notion of burnout as an individual moral failing is firmly rejected.

The discussion of the psychological mechanisms underlying burnout, together with the overview of commonly used psychotherapeutic modalities for its management – including cognitive–behavioural therapy, interpersonal therapy and coaching-informed interventions – are particularly well presented, with the material remaining accessible to the non-specialist reader.

There are some minor limitations, including repeated references to Dr Herbert Freudenberger as the first person to describe burnout, which occasionally interrupts the flow; however, these issues do not detract from the overall quality of the book.

Looking ahead, contemporary shifts in the labour market such as the progressive individualisation of employment relationships, combined with the probable transformative effects of artificial intelligence on work organisation, may disproportionately affect younger and early-career workers, a cohort already identified as being at elevated risk in the Mental Health UK Burnout Report (2025). This group may face compounding vulnerabilities, including reduced job security, erosion of work–life boundaries and diminished exposure to the informal occupational socialisation that historically served as a buffer against workplace stress. These developments represent an area that a future edition could usefully address more directly.

In conclusion, Burnout-Free Working is a thoughtful and evidence-informed guide that would make a valuable addition to any professional or personal library. It is likely to offer genuine utility to readers seeking a deeper understanding of burnout and the practical strategies for addressing it, particularly managers who wish to move beyond superficial well-being initiatives.