Burnout Self-Test
Checking Yourself for Burnout
Burnout occurs when passionate, committed people become deeply disillusioned with a job or career from which they have previously derived much of their identity and meaning. It comes as the things that inspire passion and enthusiasm are stripped away, and tedious or unpleasant things crowd in.
This tool can help you check yourself for burnout. It helps you look at the way you feel about your job and your experiences at work, so that you can get a feel for whether you are at risk of burnout.
Self-Assessment Questions
For each of the 15 statements below, pick the answer that best describes you from:
Not at All, Rarely, Sometimes, Often, Very Often.
Answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be), and don’t worry if some questions seem to score in the “wrong direction.” When you are finished, add your scores and use the Score Interpretation Sheet to interpret your score.
Score Interpretation
15-18 No sign of burnout here.
19-32 Little sign of burnout here, unless some factors are particularly severe.
34-49 Be careful – you may be at risk of burnout, particularly if several scores are high.
50-59 You are at severe risk of burnout – do something about this urgently.
60-75 You are at very severe risk of burnout – do something about this urgently.
Note:
This tool uses an informal approach to assessing burnout. While it may be intuitively useful, it has not been validated through controlled scientific tests and must therefore not be used as a diagnostic technique. Please, therefore, interpret the results with common sense. Also, make allowances for any recent events that may have a disproportionate influence on your mood at the time you take the test!
If you prefer rigorously validated tests, then the Maslach Burnout Inventory may be useful. This was developed by Christina Maslach, one of the leading researchers in the field of burnout.