Burnout Self-Test
Checking Yourself for Burnout
© iStockphoto
AVTG
Are you at risk of burning out?
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.
Checking Yourself for Burnout
Instructions
Note: This assessment tool is private and your score is not recorded or accessible by your instructor. It is for private personal reflection and to help you find areas where you are strong, and others where you can improve.
For each statement, click the button in the column that best describes you. Please answer them as you actually are, rather than how you think you should be, as this will give you the most accurate feedback. You can redo this assessment as many times as you want over time to reassess your progress. When you are finished, click the "Score my Assessment" button at the bottom.
Rate these Statements about Yourself |
Not at All | Rarely | Sometimes | Often | Very Often | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 I feel run down and drained of physical or emotional energy. | ||||||
| 2 I have negative thoughts about my job. | ||||||
| 3 I am harder and less sympathetic with people than perhaps they deserve. | ||||||
| 4 I am easily irritated by small problems, or by my co-workers and team. | ||||||
| 5 I feel misunderstood or unappreciated by my co-workers. | ||||||
| 6 I feel that I have no one to talk to. | ||||||
| 7 I feel that I am achieving less than I should. | ||||||
| 8 I feel under an unpleasant level of pressure to succeed. | ||||||
| 9 I feel that I am not getting what I want out of my job. | ||||||
| 10 I feel that I am in the wrong organization or the wrong profession. | ||||||
| 11 I am frustrated with parts of my job. | ||||||
| 12 I feel that organizational politics or bureaucracy frustrate my ability to do a good job. | ||||||
| 13 I feel that there is more work to do than I practically have the ability to do. | ||||||
| 14 I feel that I do not have time to do many of the things that are important to doing a good quality job. | ||||||
| 15 I find that I do not have time to plan as much as I would like to. | ||||||
Score Interpretation
| Score Range | Advice about your Score |
|---|---|
| 15-18 | No sign of burnout here. |
| 19-32 | Little sign of burnout here, unless some factors are particularly severe. |
| 33-49 | 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 |
See our article on Avoiding Burnout if you think you might be at risk of it. See our article on Recovering From Burnout if you think it might already have occurred.
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. Copies can be purchased at this site.
Warning: Stress can cause severe health problems and, in extreme cases, can cause death. While these stress management techniques have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress, they are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if they have any concerns over stress-related illnesses or if stress is causing significant or persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.