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My Workplace Is Killing Me — the new book by Dr Michelle King

The first book to connect toxic workplace culture with what AI is doing to your people. Based on original research with 4,000 workers. Publishing April 2027.

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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.

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.

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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.

Why it's not personal, it's psychological.

Your misery at work isn’t a character flaw. It’s what happens when your core needs for competence, connection, and autonomy are frustrated. Understanding this changes everything.

What AI
is really doing to you.

Algorithm-driven workplaces aren’t just stressful; they are quietly dismantling your sense of agency. This book is the first to name it, explain it, and give you tools to reclaim it.

How to get your needs met, even in a broken system.

Whether your workplace can be fixed or not, you have more power than you think. This book shows you how to use it.

When to stay and when to leave

It’s is one of the hardest decisions anyone faces. This book gives you the clarity and the framework to make it with confidence.

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Interested in having Dr. King come and speak about My Workplace Is Killing Me!

then get in touch...

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.

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