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You came back from vacation still feeling hollow. Or maybe it wasn’t vacation at all— it was just a long weekend, and Sunday night arrived carrying the same weight it always does. The thought of Monday sitting in your chest like something you can’t move.
The “am I burned out quiz” below takes 5 minutes and tells you where you fall across the three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism toward your work, and reduced effectiveness. No email required, no generic “see a professional” conclusion— just your score, what it means, and specific next steps based on where you land. Use this free self-assessment to find out how you’re doing right now.
What Burnout Actually Is (and What It Isn’t)
Burnout is a syndrome caused by chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed— defined by the World Health Organization in ICD-11 as having three specific symptoms: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from your job (cynicism or negativism toward it), and reduced professional efficacy. The World Health Organization classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon, ICD-11 code QD85, characterized by these three dimensions.
Burnout is what happens when chronic stress goes unresolved for too long.
It shows up in people who care the most and try hardest to hold things together. The most common burnout symptom is exhaustion, reported by nearly 80% of people with burnout— followed by reduced effectiveness (73%) and cynicism (65%).
The three dimensions are worth naming clearly, because the quiz measures each of them:
- Exhaustion— Your energy is depleted in a way that rest doesn’t fully restore.
- Cynicism— You feel emotionally distant from work that used to matter. Going through the motions without real engagement.
- Reduced efficacy— Even when you finish things, a sense of accomplishment doesn’t follow. You doubt whether your effort is making any difference.
If you’ve been wondering whether what you’re feeling “counts” as burnout— the WHO classifying it as a recognized syndrome should tell you something. “Am I being dramatic?” is almost always how burnout starts to show up: as self-doubt about whether the experience is even real. It’s real.
The quiz below measures all three dimensions. Take it now and score yourself at the end.
The Quiz: 12 Questions
For each statement below, choose the response that best matches how often you’ve been feeling this way over the past two weeks.
Rating Scale:
| Response | Score |
|---|---|
| Never | 0 |
| Rarely | 1 |
| Sometimes | 2 |
| Often | 3 |
| Almost Always | 4 |
This quiz is a screening tool informed by validated burnout research. It is not a clinical diagnosis.
Questions 1–4: Energy and Exhaustion
- I feel physically drained even after a full night of sleep.
- By the end of a workday, I have nothing left— emotionally or mentally.
- I feel tired before the workday even starts.
- I notice physical stress symptoms: tension headaches, jaw clenching, or lying awake at 3am.
Questions 5–8: Emotional Distance and Cynicism
- I find it difficult to care about work that used to feel meaningful to me.
- I go through the motions at work without real engagement.
- I feel emotionally detached or disconnected from my job and the people in it.
- The thought of going to work Monday morning fills me with dread.
Questions 9–11: Effectiveness and Accomplishment
- I doubt my ability to do my job well, even on tasks I’ve done many times.
- I feel ineffective— like I’m putting in effort but nothing is really getting done.
- It’s hard to feel a sense of accomplishment, even when I finish something.
Question 12: Scope Check
- These feelings of emptiness and exhaustion extend beyond work into every area of my life.
Add up your numbers. Keep your total. We’ll use it in the next section.
How to Score Your Results
Add up your responses— each “Never” = 0, each “Almost Always” = 4. Your total falls somewhere between 0 and 48. Here’s what each range means:
| Score | Label | What It Suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–15 | Low burnout indicators | Some stress may be present, but this doesn’t look like burnout |
| 16–30 | Moderate burnout | Real signs of burnout— worth addressing before it deepens |
| 31–48 | High burnout | Burnout is significantly affecting you— this needs attention |
One thing worth noting: the quiz measures three separate dimensions. You might score low overall but notice that your cynicism questions (numbers 5 through 8) scored high. That pattern matters, and that’s more meaningful than the total alone.
These offer a starting point for understanding where you stand. A score of 25 is information you can act on.
Christina Maslach’s Maslach Burnout Inventory has been the dominant burnout measurement tool for over 35 years. This quiz draws on the same three dimensions. A 12-question format is well within the validated range used by credible publishers including Psychology Today. Here’s what each score range actually means— including how to tell if what you’re experiencing might be stress or depression instead.
What Your Score Means
Your score gives you a snapshot of where you are across the three burnout dimensions. Here’s what each range typically looks like— and what it rules in or out.
If You Scored Low (0–15)
This is reassuring. But it’s not complacency permission.
What a low score tells you: you’re tired, but the cynicism and emotional distance haven’t set in yet. That matters. It’s one of the things that separates stress from burnout. WHO ICD-11 draws the distinction this way: stress typically involves high demands with still-present engagement. Burnout is what happens when demand outpaces recovery long enough that the engagement starts to fade.
If your cynicism questions scored high even with a low total, pay attention to that. Emotional distance from work you care about often moves before the exhaustion fully arrives.
If You Scored Moderate (16–30)
This is the most actionable tier.
You’re going through the motions on work you used to care about. Things feel hollow in a way that isn’t lifting, and recovery takes longer than it used to. Here’s what most people get wrong at this stage: they wait. They push harder, or take a few days off, and are surprised when the exhaustion doesn’t clear. Moderate burnout responds to intervention. But it doesn’t resolve on its own.
This is the right time to take it seriously. You’re early enough that it doesn’t have to become something bigger. You can read more about what to watch for in signs of burnout.
If You Scored High (31–48)
If you scored here, something real is happening. This isn’t overthinking or drama.
High burnout looks like the 3am wakeups where your brain won’t stop running inventory on everything undone. It looks like Sunday dread so heavy it starts Saturday afternoon. It looks like the inability to care— even when you know you’re supposed to, even when part of you wants to.
This is serious enough to take seriously. And it’s recoverable. But recovery usually requires more than rest— it requires changing something about the conditions that led here.
This quiz is a screening tool based on validated burnout research. It is not a clinical diagnosis. If you’re experiencing symptoms that affect all areas of your life, please consult a mental health professional.
Is This Burnout or Depression?
This question matters— especially if you scored high, or if your answer to Question 12 was “Often” or “Almost Always.”
The practical distinction comes down to scope. Burnout is occupationally scoped— its symptoms are tied to work, and as Healthline puts it: “Burnout symptoms are limited to occupational experiences and may improve once you’re no longer in that situation.” Depression is different. It affects all life domains, persists regardless of circumstances, and carries symptoms unrelated to work: persistent hopelessness, loss of interest in things outside work, changes in appetite and sleep.
And they can co-occur. Burnout is a documented risk factor for depression onset. The academic relationship between the two is still being studied. Some researchers note that exhaustion correlates more strongly with depression than with the other burnout dimensions. Worth knowing.
If you scored high AND the emptiness extends beyond work into every part of your life, that’s worth raising with a mental health professional. If you’re experiencing persistent hopelessness, loss of interest in activities outside work, or thoughts of self-harm, please reach out to a mental health professional now.
Knowing where you are is the first step. Here’s what to do with the information.
What to Do Next
Knowing you’re burned out isn’t the same as knowing what to do about it. What’s below is that next part: specific steps based on where you scored.
If You Scored Low— Prevention Mode
- Pay attention to which dimension scored highest for you. Even a low total can hide elevated cynicism— and that’s the early warning sign worth watching.
- Look honestly at your current recovery practices. Are they actually working? Rest is a start. But if you’re still drained after rest, something else is happening.
- Check in on what sustainable looks like for you: work-life balance is where to start if you haven’t thought about this deliberately.
The WHO uses the phrase “successfully managed” in its definition of burnout. Chronic stress that’s successfully managed doesn’t become burnout. The word “successfully” is doing a lot of work there.
If You Scored Moderate— Recovery Mode
- Name what’s driving the cynicism or exhaustion specifically. Is it volume? Is it something missing in the meaning of the work itself? The cause shapes the fix.
- Talk to someone about what’s happening— a trusted colleague, a friend, or a therapist. Naming it out loud is part of what moves you out of survival mode.
- Read deeper on mental burnout— the cognitive symptoms often show up before the full burnout picture, and recognizing them helps.
- Look at signs of burnout so you know what you’re managing and what needs to change.
Healthline notes that burnout symptoms often improve when the work situation changes. That’s actually good news at this tier: you’re early enough that something can shift.
If You Scored High— Urgent Attention Mode
- Start by removing what’s removable. Any optional commitments you can defer or decline— get them off the list. The load needs to come down before anything else can change.
- Talk to a therapist familiar with occupational stress. They can help you sort out what’s burnout and what might be depression— and figure out what needs to change beyond just “rest more.”
- Dan’s 90-Day Question is worth sitting with here: “If you had to live your last 90 days on repeat, how happy would you be?” Not what you’d change— what you’d actually feel. If the answer is painful, that’s information about what can’t stay the same.
- Read how to recover from burnout— this is the research-backed guide to what recovery actually involves.
- Read about emotional burnout symptoms— the emotional dimension is often the hardest to recognize while you’re still inside it.
High burnout doesn’t always mean you need to quit. It often means something important needs to change. The quiz just confirms what part of you already knows.
FAQ: Common Questions About Burnout
Here are the most common questions people have after taking a burnout quiz— answered directly.
Q: Can I be burned out if I like my job?
A: Yes. Burnout happens in work you care deeply about— often because high investment without sustainable recovery leads to depletion. Caring about your work doesn’t protect you from burnout. In some cases it increases the risk. MBI research and WHO ICD-11 both make clear that burnout tracks chronic unmanaged stress.
Q: How long does burnout last?
A: Without addressing root causes, burnout can persist for months to years. With intentional recovery, improvement is possible. Timelines vary significantly, and depend more on whether the underlying conditions change than on how much you rest.
Q: Is this quiz clinically validated?
A: This quiz is a screening tool informed by the Maslach Burnout Inventory and WHO ICD-11 definitions— the most widely validated burnout research available. It can’t replace evaluation by a mental health professional, and works best as a starting point for that conversation.
Q: What’s the difference between burnout and stress?
A: Stress is usually time-limited and resolves when the stressor is removed. Burnout is chronic— it involves emotional detachment from your work (cynicism) that doesn’t lift with a weekend off or a vacation. The WHO ICD-11 emphasizes that burnout comes specifically from chronic stress that wasn’t successfully managed. That word (“successfully”) points to the difference.
Q: What if my score is borderline?
A: A score at the upper end of “low” or lower end of “moderate” still warrants attention— especially if you scored high on cynicism specifically. That dimension often moves first, before exhaustion becomes severe. If you’re borderline, look back at your cynicism questions (5-8) specifically. That pattern tells you more than the total. Don’t let a borderline overall score mask an elevated cynicism pattern.
A Note Before You Go
Finding out you’re burned out is information you can use.
Not the end. The starting point.
You came here wondering if what you’re feeling has a name. It might. And if it does, that’s actually clarifying— because named things can be addressed. Unnamed things just keep wearing you down.
The resources on this site exist because burnout often points to something deeper: a gap between what your work asks of you and what you actually need it to give back. That’s worth looking at.
I believe in you.
