Clockwatching

You are good at your job. You show up every day. You feel almost nothing.

This is not burnout in the dramatic sense — no breakdown, no crisis. It is something quieter and, in many ways, harder to name: the slow disappearance of the feeling that what you do matters.

If you have started counting the hours — not because you are lazy, but because the work has, somewhere along the way, stopped feeling like yours — this book is for you.

Clockwatching is a practical, honest workbook for professionals who are disengaged but don’t know exactly why, and don’t know what to do about it. Drawing on years of organizational consulting and coaching, Daniel Marsh maps the five foundations of professional meaning — competence, contribution, connection, autonomy, and alignment — and shows you precisely where yours have gone missing.

Inside, you will find:

• The Meaning Audit — a diagnostic tool that shows exactly which dimensions of your work have broken down

• A 90-Day Reclamation Plan with concrete, targeted actions that work within your actual constraints

• The Identity Trap — why high achievers find it hardest to leave, and how to separate who you are from what you do

• 30 written exercises designed for real self-examination, not surface-level reflection

• Case studies from real professionals — remote workers, high earners, leaders, creatives, helpers — who found their way back

This is not a book about morning routines or radical career pivots. It is about the specific, targeted changes that actually work — whether that means staying in your current role and making it livable, restructuring what you do, or finally building the clarity to move on.

The clock has always been there. This book is about what you do while it runs.

Also by Daniel Marsh: When the Fire Goes Out: Recovering from Moral Burnout and Finding Your Way Back to Yourself