Burnout Symptoms Checklist: Self-Check & When to Get Help

What burnout is, in one paragraph

In the ICD-11, the WHO describes burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It's classified as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition, and it refers specifically to work, not to stress in other areas of life. It has three dimensions: exhaustion, growing mental distance from your job, and reduced professional efficacy. The checklist follows those three, plus a fourth group of physical and behavioural signs that often come with them.

The checklist

For each item, ask: has this been true most days for the past two weeks or more? A bad Tuesday doesn't count. A bad month does.

Exhaustion

• I feel drained before the workday has started.
• A normal night's sleep doesn't leave me rested.
• Weekends and time off don't restore my energy, or the effect is gone within a day.
• Small tasks feel disproportionately hard to start.
• I have nothing left for people or things outside work in the evening.

Mental distance and cynicism

• I feel detached from my work, as if I'm going through the motions.
• I've become cynical or negative about my job, colleagues or customers.
• I care less about work I used to care about.
• I dread checking messages or opening my laptop.
• I'm more irritable with people at work than I used to be.

Reduced effectiveness

• I'm getting less done, even though I'm working as many hours or more.
• I struggle to concentrate or make simple decisions.
• I make mistakes I would normally catch.
• I feel that my effort doesn't make a difference.
• I've lost confidence in things I'm usually good at.

Body and behaviour

• I have more headaches, muscle tension or stomach trouble than usual.
• My sleep has changed: trouble falling asleep, waking early, or sleeping much more.
• I get ill more often, or take longer to recover.
• I rely more on caffeine, alcohol or other things to get through the day or wind down.
• I've pulled back from friends, hobbies or exercise.

How to read your answers

There's no official scoring, and any number you come up with here isn't a diagnosis. But a few patterns are worth noticing:

• Ticks in all three of the first groups is the pattern most associated with burnout: exhausted, detached, and feeling ineffective, together.
• Mostly exhaustion, little cynicism can point to overwork or poor recovery that hasn't turned into detachment yet, or to something non-work-related. That's the stage where changing habits helps most.
• The same signs outside work too, with low mood, loss of interest in everything, or hopelessness, needs a professional opinion rather than a work fix. Burnout vs stress vs just tired explains why the distinction matters.
• Getting worse over time matters more than the count on any single day.

If you'd rather answer questions than read a list, the burnout test asks about your work habits and your strain signals separately and takes about two minutes. It's a self-check too, not a diagnosis, but it's useful for seeing which habits feed the strain.

Things that look like burnout

Exhaustion, poor concentration and low mood have many causes, and several of them are easy for a doctor to check. Among the common ones:

• Depression and anxiety, which share many symptoms with burnout but aren't limited to work.
• Sleep problems, including sleep disorders you may not know you have.
• Physical conditions such as anaemia or thyroid problems, which commonly cause tiredness.
• The after-effects of an illness, which can leave you tired for weeks.
• Life outside work: caring responsibilities, grief, money worries. Real, draining, and not burnout by the WHO's definition, even when they make work feel impossible.

That's the practical reason not to self-diagnose: if you assume it's burnout and it isn't, the fix you choose may not help.

When to get help, and what to say

Your GP or family doctor is a good first stop. If your employer has occupational health or an employee assistance programme, those are confidential options too. In the appointment, it helps to bring:

1. Which signs from the list you've noticed, and for how long.
2. What's changed at work or at home in that time.
3. How you're sleeping, eating and drinking.
4. What you've already tried, and whether it helped.

You don't need to arrive with a label. "I've been exhausted and detached from work for two months and rest isn't helping" is exactly the kind of sentence a doctor can work with.

If it's early: what to change

If you ticked a few exhaustion signs but little else, and the pattern is recent, you may be catching it early. That's when habits make the biggest difference:

• Break up long sessions. Short, frequent breaks away from the screen. The break calculator builds a schedule for your day.
• Give the day an end. A fixed stop time and a short shutdown ritual make it easier to stop thinking about work in the evening.
• Protect time off. Evenings and at least one full day a week with no work, not even email.
• Check your habits honestly. Ten signs you're overworking covers the ones that creep in without feeling like a problem.

Habits aren't the whole story. Burnout is tied to working conditions, and workload, lack of control and lack of support are things to raise at work, not only to fix in yourself. But they're the part you can change this week.

Frequently asked questions

This article is general wellbeing information, not medical advice, and the checklist is not a clinical instrument. If you're worried about your health, please talk to a doctor.