Burnout Assessment

Burnout is the state of exhaustion that builds up when demands outlast your capacity to recover - a draining of physical and emotional energy that leaves ordinary effort feeling heavy. It is not a bad week or a passing tiredness; it is a persistent depletion often tied to sustained pressure at work or in caregiving. This self-assessment is based on the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), which measures burnout as fatigue and exhaustion attributed to different areas of life.

This is a reflective self-assessment, not a clinical or diagnostic instrument. Burnout is best understood as an occupational phenomenon rather than a formal medical diagnosis, and this test does not detect, diagnose, or rule out depression or any other condition. Its purpose is to give you a structured, honest snapshot of where your exhaustion sits - a starting point for reflection, and, if your results concern you, for a conversation with a qualified professional.

The questionnaire has 19 items and takes about 6 minutes. It asks how often you feel worn out and depleted in general, because of your work, and in your dealings with the people you work with or care for. Your answers are summarized across three areas and placed against reference norms, so you see a profile rather than a single number.

The CBI separates burnout into three areas so you can see where your exhaustion is concentrated rather than collapsing it into one score. Personal burnout is the base rate of physical and psychological fatigue you carry generally; work burnout attributes exhaustion specifically to your job; and client burnout attributes it to working with people - patients, clients, students, or anyone in your care. A person can be heavily depleted by their work yet still find their personal reserves intact, or drained across the board.

Each area is scored on a 0 to 100 scale where a higher value means more frequent exhaustion attributed to that source. Because the CBI measures fatigue and its attribution rather than a diagnosis, your profile reflects how depleted you have been feeling and where that depletion is coming from, not a verdict on your health or your fitness for your role. A high area score flags a source of strain worth attention, and the report reads it as a current snapshot that can shift as demands and recovery change.

The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory was developed by Kristensen and colleagues in 2005 within the Danish PUMA study, as an alternative to earlier burnout measures. Its key contribution is separating fatigue by what the person attributes it to - to themselves generally, to work, and to working with people - rather than the earlier mix of exhaustion, cynicism, and sense of efficacy. It is widely adopted, translated into many languages, in the public domain, and shows good internal consistency and validity across occupations.

Prospective findings from the PUMA study linked its scores to outcomes such as work absence, supporting its predictive validity. What it is not is a diagnostic test: burnout is an occupational phenomenon rather than a formal medical diagnosis, and high scores are not a diagnosis of depression or any condition. A high score signals a source of exhaustion worth attention - a reason to reflect on load and recovery, and if it is accompanied by distress, to seek support. Used here as an educational self-assessment, it is best treated as a mirror for reflection.