It's not you. It's your workplace.
This book is your permission slip to stop blaming yourself for hating your job and discover how to get your needs met, even when your workplace won’t.
“It is essential reading for anyone who believes people, not productivity, should come first.”
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive and former Deputy President of South Africa and Former Executive Director of UN Women with the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Not opinion. Not platitudes. Science backed solutions.
Based on original research with over 7,000 workers across the UK and US as well as 490 references in the book including hundreds of studies.
“Undaunted, Michelle King provides a powerful way forward into a world of autonomy, competence and connection. She proves that work can and must be so much more.”
Stuart Crainer, cofounder Thinkers50.
Real evidence, real solutions.
The first book to connect toxic workplace culture with what AI is really doing to your brain, relationships and motivation.
“Michelle King has done something rare: taken rigorous science and made it feel urgent and personal. I couldn't put it down."
Steven Bartlett, Entrepreneur, BBC Dragon, The Diary of a CEO podcast host
Bad Tech. Bad Bosses. Bad Behaviour. Burnout. Boredom.
Five forces breaking your working life. One book that fixes them.
“Michelle King's research on AI Positive Drift will change how you think about your own capability. This is the book so many of us need right now.”
Dorie Clark, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of The Long Game
It's not you. It's your workplace.
You’re stressed, stuck, and running on empty. Some mornings you can’t bring yourself to open your laptop. You lie awake replaying conversations, questioning your decisions, wondering what is wrong with you.
Nothing is wrong with you.
What’s wrong is the system you’re working inside — and for the first time, science can prove it.
Order today at all major retailers
The book that tells the truth about modern work
In My Workplace Is Killing Me, organisational psychologist Dr Michelle King draws on original research with 4,000 workers to reveal what is really happening inside today’s organisations. Bad managers, toxic colleagues, algorithmic pressure, relentless overwork, these aren’t just unpleasant. They are systematically eroding the three fundamental human needs that drive motivation, performance and wellbeing.
When those needs are stripped away, people don’t just feel miserable. They disengage, burn out, and slowly stop being themselves.
This book shows you exactly why that happens and what to do about it.
The Five B's that break people at work
Bad Tech
How AI is quietly eroding your agency, your confidence and your sense of self. And how to use it on your own terms.
Bad Bosses
The psychology behind toxic management and a practical framework for protecting yourself without losing your job.
Bad Behaviour
How to address incivility, harassment and bullying in a way that actually works.
Burnout
Why resilience programmes fail and what the science says you actually need to recover and protect yourself long term.
Boredom
Why meaningless work is more dangerous than most people realise and how to reclaim purpose from a job that has stopped challenging you.
This is not a book about surviving. It is a book about reclaiming yourself. You will finish it knowing exactly what has been happening to you, why it happened, and what your next move is.
Bad bosses, challenging colleagues and addictive AI are here to stay.
Losing yourself at work is optional.
Listen to the book
Prefer to learn on the go? My Workplace Is Killing Me is available as an audiobook. Perfect for your commute, your walk, or the moments between meetings when you need something that actually helps.
Buy The Fix book
Bad Tech. Bad Bosses. Bad Behaviour. Burnout. Boredom. If any of these sound familiar, this book was written for you. Grounded in original research and packed with practical tools, this is the book that tells you the truth about why work feels the way it does – and what to do about it.
Join the Community
You are not alone in this. Download your free reading guide, connect with other readers, and share what you are learning. Because fixing the workplace is not a solo project.
Interested in having Dr. King come and speak about My Workplace Is Killing Me!
Topics related to My Workplace Is Killing Me! that Dr. King can speak to include:
- Why work is making us sick and what to do about it: Understand the hidden workplace conditions driving burnout, boredom, and disengagement, and what organisations can do to reverse them
- The burnout epidemic: Explore the real causes of burnout beyond workload, and the evidence-based strategies leaders and employees need to recover and prevent it
- Boredom at work is a crisis: Discover why workplace boredom is a serious psychological threat, how it erodes performance and wellbeing, and what organisations must do differently
- Toxic leadership and its human cost: Learn how harmful management behaviours damage individuals and teams, and what it takes to build psychologically safe, high-performing cultures
- AI and the silent threat to human capability: Understand how unchecked AI adoption is quietly eroding the skills, judgement, and motivation that make people effective at work
- Making work work for humans:A solutions-led keynote on what organisations must prioritise to build workplaces where people genuinely thrive, not just survive
- The future of work is human: Discover the capabilities, cultures, and leadership practices that will determine who flourishes in the age of AI
Dr. King can speak to each of these topics in a keynote, fireside chat, masterclass, or board advisory format.