The Burnout Generation

By: Anne Helen Petersen

Narrated by: Anne Helen Petersen

Length: 1 hr and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

About This Audible Original

In January 2019, culture writer Anne Helen Petersen set the Internet on fire with her viral BuzzFeed essay diagnosing "millennial burnout"—a chronic state of stress and exhaustion that’s become a "base temperature" for young people today. Now, she continues this generation-defining conversation in a brand-new format, interviewing millennials around the country about their own deeply personal experiences with burnout and the culture that creates it. Listeners will hear about how this issue has affected Petersen’s own life as well as the lives of five very different subjects: Kevin, a musician and Marine veteran; Kate, a first-generation college graduate working to repay her formidable student debt; Haley and Evette, young writers at different career stages in the digital media industry; and John, a pastor and co-founder of a new Baptist church in North Carolina.

The conversations that comprise The Burnout Generation cover everything from debt to social media to the blurred boundaries between our professional and personal lives. In this illuminating and intimate audio project, listeners learn how and why this generation has been conditioned to "optimize" every aspect of our lives (Meal prep for the week! Find a side hustle! But practice self-care! And answer emails in bed!), and most importantly, how the consequences of this phenomenon play out in day-to-day life.  

©2019 Anne Helen Petersen (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.

I loved the topic of burn out. But stopped listening section 2.

I stopped listening at the point where the author, whining about her and others’ staggering student loan debt, mentioned that she was proceeding to get her doctorate In a field where she conceded she would never earn enough to ever be be able to pay back her loans. At least not in her working lifetime.

That is, IMO, crazy.

I can't feel confident in taking the advice of anyone who would do this.

Someone placing ego over common sense, it appears. Don't we have enough of that?

Very irrelevant for people living outside the US

The audiobook is focused on the young american experience, which is ok if you're american. But other people will find it hard to relate to the issues presented in it.
Also, some of the speakers are very hard to listen to.

Needs less emoting, more courageous questioning

A well-produced exploration that misses the mark. There's a lot of emoting and angsting and "sort of" and "right?" here but not much more. And thus, while I found the conversations interesting, the end result feels like a bunch of people safely lamenting instead of courageously questioning. Don't get me wrong. Burnout is a real thing, and I think it's important to look at it and deal with it. But that's the problem here. Petersen seems devoted to lamenting the problem, to talking about it ... but ... not much more. This angle — combined with a lack of definition as to what burnout is — inflate burnout to Goliath proportions as if to say, "This must require a book. And more think pieces. And a TED talk. And a Netflix documentary."

So, to me, the concept comes off as hyped. Burnout is positioned as a huge problem but with no clear definition. It seems Petersen wants you to believe it's lurking behind every corner. Lots of generality and critique, almost zero actual introspection and digging ... though Petersen seems to like the *idea* of introspection and digging. The result, it seems, is that burnout can be almost anything from normal job dissatisfaction and workplace politicking to oppression by systemic racism or sexism.

All of this comes off as a conversation taking place inside a comfortable room with soft couches and coffee — a safe space to journal and lament the difficult world handed to Millenials by the Boomers. My suggestion is this: yes, talk about burnout. Lament it. But first, define it. Then, once defined, venture out of that comfortable room, down into the basement and give the support beams about 10 to 20 strong kicks. See if they hold.

That is, instead of only safely emoting, also courageously question your assumptions. The big ones. Test the foundations.

What if the modern religion of Individualism is toxic and unfulfilling?

What if our consumerism consumes us?

What if education and knowledge are extraordinarily dangerous without humility?

What if meaning can't be found through the scientific method?

What if knowledge puffs up, makes you proud, makes you want to impress yourself and others, and that pride actually paves over your deepest needs and suffocates your heart?

What if burnout is your heart convulsing under all these layers of assumption, error, and expectation?

What if you were created for a purpose and you don't get to decide what that purpose is?

Depressing

The author is seeking empathy and approval from others, it’s very depressing and unhealthy to listen to people like that. Humble opinion skip it!!

An advertisement.

I wanted to listen to a book about people and their struggles with burnout, explain what burnout is, and perhaps offer some solutions. Instead, I got stories about burnout with personal politics laden throughout and constant paraphrasing and interruptions from the author when I would rather have heard the speaker say it for themselves. The author did manage to indirectly explain what burnout is (so long as the definition means "working so much that everything becomes work"), but offered no advice other than "learn more about burnout", which is something that a potential reader could have been told first thing (or done on their own time) so that they would not have to bother with this.
The Author kept referring to some article she wrote about burnout on some site that will remain unnamed, yet couldn't be bothered to have placed it in this body of work in any capacity, forcing anyone interested to give their site free clicks.

This was free with my audible membership. This was the only book this month that looked even remotely interesting, and I feel like I just wasted my time.

So, basically a podcast episode.

As the title says, it doesn't go very deep, and doesn't even define any of the signs and symptoms of burnout. Didn't even deliver something as basic as that.

wow best comedy ever

I don't know whether to blame the parents. Or, to slap my dad. So they get free help? good God. grow up! amazing and best comedy ever. before I heard this book I didn't realize being lazy was a mental health problem!

Falls short

I was expecting to hear an anecdotal account of relatable peers. I found it ironic because one of the opening statements mentions how the older generation perceives millennials as being lazy and entitled, yet the entire discussion then goes on to sound nothing short of lazy and entitled. That's of course when you can actually make any sense of what the interviewees are trying to explain at all in between their unintelligible flow of nonsensical dialogue. I give the author credit because she did draw a reasonable conclusion to wrap everything up, but I just overall couldn't help the feeling that this discussion was the opposite of helpful. It feels like a spiraling echo chamber of the issue that almost serves to tell you to feel somewhat justified in the drowning "burnout" that is apparently all too common in young adults. The constant underlying political and identity politics tone also didn't help at all. I wanted to like this and I am discouraged to have such a critical opinion when I feel the author was well intentioned and did thorough work.

Inflammatory when it should be informative

I was hoping to find reliable information about burnout, not a bunch of anecdotes about people who say they have it without saying anything convincing about how or why they have it. Clear advice about symptoms, how to diagnose it, how to talk to a doctor about it, how to correct unhealthy patterns to avoid it, how to treat it and recover when you do have it, how to help others who have it... I kept hoping they would get to it but eventually gave up. Instead it was a bunch of horror stories to feed off people's hypochondriac tendencies. A good example is how the author "discovered a new type of burnout", with no supporting scientific research or authorities on the subject to weigh in on it. No thanks, not even going to finish this one.

Nothing that adds up to something

A collection of stories, interviews really that all describe a shared experience (being burnt out). A lot of description and talking about a problem, but very little by way of practical advice or solving it. Not worth it if you're looking for more than common sense, but of course there is value in hearing something that resonates with your own experience. But this is nothing more than that.

Really put me at ease about my own burnout

This was a great audiobook, really nice a brief - just what I needed as my focus isn't great at the moment (thanks to burnout LOL!). I loved that there were a variety of guests who all had different experiences and different types of burnout, this was absolutely key is properly assessing my own life, that burnout doesn't always look the same. Really informative, quite comforting as well knowing that people are still going through it, and learning some of the reasons why the millennial generation like myself are burning out so fast and so often.

A good snapshot

A good snapshot of how burnout affects various people. Focused mainly on America. an expansion of the ideas from her original article. doesn't focus on solutions but lays out some of the problems very nicely.

A journalist's view on the subject

An interesting perspective on the matter through the eyes of a journalist. The interviews were insightful though being so specific makes it less relatable. Best "read" it as a docomentary on a current issue.