Am I Burnout? A Quiz Based on 15 Symptoms

Do you wonder if you’re working too much and are burnt out? We’ve turned the fifteen most common symptoms of feeling overworked into a self-assessment quiz. By answering the questions on this page, you get to know if and how badly you are exhausted.

Burnout is a state of feeling mentally and physically drained because of external (often work-related) chronic stress. Herbert Freudenberger, a well-known psychologist who specialized in chronic fatigue and stress recovery, coined the term in the 1970s.

Freudenberger described burnout as “a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job.” However, with recent technological developments, psychologists acknowledge that burnout has extended its reach to non-professional settings such as schools.

According to a Deloitte survey, 77% of the American workforce have experienced burnout at some point in their careers. Even worse, more than 50% have reported feeling worn out more than once.

If you want to self-assess your symptoms, look for the following burnout signs:

• You feel cynicism toward your job.
• You are detached from your daily life.
• Your productivity level has decreased significantly.
• You are unmotivated and hopeless.
• You’re facing difficulty concentrating on your job.

Note that burnout is different from depression. A depressed person might go through all symptoms of burnout even when there are no particular stressors or excessive workloads. However, a burnt-out worker could recover from constant exhaustion provided that their workplace conditions are improved. (This is not to say that burnt-out people can’t become depressed or vice versa. The two conditions could be interconnected in most cases.)

The primary causes of feeling burnt out are unwarranted stress, irregular or unbearable workload, and perfectionism. If you have been dealing with any of these issues, take the Burnout Quiz and see if it’s time to take some days off—and perhaps plan a weekend getaway.