Feeling Guilty for Hating Your Job? Here’s the Real Problem with Malissa Clark

Smart People Podcast

Smart People Industries

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 736 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’ve ever felt guilty for resenting your job—even one you worked hard to get—you’re not alone. In this episode, psychologist and author Dr. Malissa Clark breaks down why burnout and dissatisfaction aren’t always about hours worked, and why our relationship with work is more complicated than we think. We explore the hidden forces that keep us “always on,” why rest doesn’t always feel restful, and how modern work culture is quietly draining us. Whether you're stuck in a toxic job or just feeling off, this conversation will shift the way you think about work—and yourself. Malissa's book, Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business--and How to Fix It, is available now wherever books are sold! Learn more about Malissa at malissaclark.com. Support the Show - Become a Patron! Help us grow and become a Patron today: https://www.patreon.com/smartpeoplepodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Smart People Podcast, a podcast for Smart People, where we talk to smart people, but not
0:08.9	necessarily done by smart people.
0:15.2	Hello and welcome to Smart People Podcasts, Conversations that satisfy your curious mind.
0:20.1	Chris Stemp here.
0:21.2	Thanks for tuning in.
0:22.8	Have you ever joked about being exhausted from work?
0:27.1	You know, not getting enough sleep.
0:28.7	The grind never stops.
0:30.6	The Sunday scerries.
0:32.6	But really deep down, you kind of know it's not funny.
0:36.3	It's not the life you had imagined. The truth is,
0:39.1	I think we all know we're overworked. We brag about how little sleep we get or how many
0:45.3	hours we grind, but underneath it, most of us are drowning in the same culture. And almost no one
0:50.8	is doing anything about it. You know, we might talk with our friends and joke, but we just keep accepting it.
0:59.0	This week, I sat down with Dr. Melissa Clark.
1:01.5	She's one of the world's leading researchers on workaholism and burnout.
1:05.1	She's also the author of the new book, Never Not Working.
1:09.3	Melissa's going to take us past the surface and into the deeper problem, which is it's not about
1:15.4	the hours.
1:16.8	It's about our culture and how it equates busyness with value, how companies reward unhealthy
1:23.3	behaviors, even if they don't mean to, and how technology has blurred the line between work
1:29.5	and life, leaving us always on. In this conversation, we dig into uncomfortable but important
	...

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