Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. You remember that movie 500 Days of Summer?

There's that famous scene where Joseph Gordon Levitt goes to the party at Zoe de Chanel's place,

and it cuts into a split screen of expectation versus reality. On the left, there are chemistry clicks,

and they hook up, and it's quite literally fantastic. And on the right, he's just, you know, kind of angry and bitter about it,

not turning out like he expected. That gap between expectation and reality can also apply to our

jobs and can even contribute to burnout. That's according to writer Jonathan Malesc,

who's written a book called The End of Burnout,

Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives.

And he tells NPR's Michelle Martin that jobs, even dream, ideal jobs,

are, at the end of the day, just jobs.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The numbers tell the story. According to a Labor Department report released last week,

4.5 million Americans quit or changed jobs in November, and that's higher than at any other time on record.

And while a lot of attention has been given to so-called knowledge workers, people leaving in

search of more fulfillment or something more in line with their true desires, it turns out the

biggest churn happened among restaurant and bar workers, retail workers, hospitality workers, and

other jobs which typically

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