Burnout self-check
Thirteen questions on how worn out you have been lately. Using the personal and work-related burnout scales of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), you get a 0–100 score for each. If you are not working right now, answer the work questions about your main role, such as studies or caregiving. It is a check-in for reflection, not a medical diagnosis.
About 2 min · 13 questions · For self-reflection, not diagnosis · Results stay in your browser
How often do you feel tired?
Before You Start
What burnout is, how the two Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) scales and their 0–100 scores work, and where to start on recovery, based on published research.
Useful For
Useful when rest no longer clears your tiredness, you feel drained before work even starts, or you have no energy left for people after hours. It separates exhaustion in life overall from exhaustion linked to work.
Answer Honestly, Read Carefully
Answer with the last few weeks in mind rather than just today. If you are not working right now, you can answer the work items about the role that takes most of your time, such as studies or caregiving, keeping in mind that the original scale was written for people in work.
How to read your results
Overview
Burnout is a deep exhaustion that sets in when, for a long time, more energy goes out than comes back. In its ICD-11 classification, the World Health Organization describes burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, and classifies it as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition (WHO, 2019).
This test uses the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), developed by Danish researchers (Kristensen, Borritz, Villadsen & Christensen, 2005). The CBI treats prolonged fatigue and exhaustion as the core of burnout and splits it into three scales according to what people attribute that fatigue to: personal, work-related and client-related burnout. Its authors released the questionnaire for free use.
mind.io uses the personal burnout (6 items) and work-related burnout (7 items) scales. Client-related burnout is meant for jobs that involve caring for or serving people, such as patients, students or customers, so it is left out of this check.
How It Works
The six personal burnout items ask how often, as in “How often do you feel tired?”, with five answers from “Always” to “Never or almost never.” Of the seven work-related items, the first three ask to what degree, from “To a very high degree” to “To a very low degree,” and the other four ask how often.
Following the CBI scoring, the five answers are worth 100, 75, 50, 25 and 0 points, and each scale score is the mean of its items. “Do you have enough energy for family and friends during leisure time?” is positively worded, so it is reverse-scored (“Always” counts as 0). Scores are rounded to whole numbers.
The two scale scores are shown separately, and the result headline uses the higher of the two bands, since one high scale is already a signal that recovery is needed. Item-level answers stay on this device; a shared result carries only the two scale scores and the band.
Score Interpretation
mind.io shows each scale in three ranges: below 50 “low burnout,” 50–74 “moderate burnout” and 75 or more “high burnout.” A score of 50 or more has been used as the mark of high burnout in the CBI developers’ norms document, which reports the Danish PUMA study (Borritz & Kristensen, 2004), and splitting 50–74 from 75 and above is another convention seen across studies. They are research yardsticks, not diagnostic criteria.
The gap between your two scores is a clue as well. If work-related burnout is clearly higher, adjustments on the work side, such as workload and how much say you have, may matter most; if personal burnout is higher, look first at demands outside work, such as caregiving, health or big life changes, and at your recovery time.
Burnout is not a personal weakness. Maslach and Leiter point to mismatches between people and their work as its main drivers: excessive workload, lack of control, insufficient reward, breakdown of community, unfairness and conflicting values (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). That is why recovery often needs a conversation about workload and ways of working, not just individual effort.
If you scored high, protect sleep and breaks first, set a clear end to your workday, and tell someone you trust or a workplace support service how you are doing. If you scored low, notice which habits protect that margin so you can lean on them in busier times.
Limits
This check uses the CBI’s personal and work-related burnout items with their published English wording. Your score can shift with your workload and rest over the past few weeks.
Burnout is not a medical diagnosis in itself, and this result cannot diagnose depression or other health problems. If exhaustion comes with lasting low mood, a sense of hopelessness, sleep problems or physical symptoms, talk to a doctor or counselor. Similar fatigue can also come from other health issues.
References: Kristensen, Borritz, Villadsen & Christensen (2005), Work & Stress 19(3); Borritz et al. (2006), Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 34(1); Borritz & Kristensen (2004), Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: Normative data from a representative Danish population on Personal Burnout and Results from the PUMA study on Personal Burnout, Work Burnout, and Client Burnout, National Institute of Occupational Health, Denmark; Maslach & Leiter (2016), World Psychiatry 15(2); World Health Organization (2019), Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).
Guides to read alongside
- Burnout symptoms: four core signs research has found, plus sleep and body signsBurnout symptoms from the WHO definition and research: exhaustion, mental distance, trouble concentrating and managing emotions, plus sleep and body signs.
- Burnout test accuracy: what research says and why your score changesCan you trust a burnout test? What research says about the questionnaires, why there is no agreed diagnosis to check scores against, and why your score changes.
- How to recover from burnout: a realistic step-by-step planRest alone often does not fix burnout. A realistic recovery plan: cut the load, rebuild sleep, switch off after work, renegotiate your workload, get help.
Frequently asked questions
Which scale does the burnout self-check use?
It uses the personal and work-related burnout scales of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), developed by Danish researchers. Each is scored from 0 to 100, so you can tell whether the exhaustion comes from work or from life more broadly.
How long does the burnout test take?
It has 13 questions, takes about 2 minutes and is free. There is no sign-up, and answering with the last few weeks in mind rather than today gives a truer picture.
What counts as a high burnout score?
CBI research commonly treats 50–74 as moderate and 75 or more as high burnout (the result page uses the same ranges). These are research conventions, not diagnostic cut-offs, so look at which of the two scales is higher and how things have changed recently, not just the number.
Does a high burnout score mean depression?
A high score does not mean depression. This scale asks about fatigue and exhaustion, while depression centers on low mood and lost interest. If your mood stays low even on days off, or things you used to enjoy no longer interest you, talk with a doctor or counselor.
How can I tell whether I am recovering?
Retake it two to four weeks after a break or a change in workload and compare on My Results. Noting how your sleep, meals and rest changed alongside the scores makes it easier to see what helped.
What are the common symptoms of burnout at work?
The World Health Organization describes burnout by three features: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, mental distance or cynicism toward your job, and a drop in the sense that you do your work well. The CBI used here treats exhaustion as the core and measures it in life overall and at work, as a check on how worn out you are rather than a diagnosis. If low mood or lost interest has lasted more than two weeks, try the PHQ-9 depression check-in as well and talk to a doctor or counselor.