Measure Your Level of Burnout with this Simple Visual Scale

Last year, more than half of workers said they were flaming out. Today at least a quarter of the 15,000 people across 15 countries that McKinsey Health Institute surveyed in August said they were experiencing burnout. People are still leaving their jobs because they’ve flamed out, and in some industries, such as education, healthcare, and retail, emotional exhaustion is getting worse, says Jennifer Moss, a journalist and author of the book The Burnout Epidemic.

A researcher from the University of Notre Dame unveiled a visual gauge that should help HR leaders quickly assess an employee’s level of workplace burnout. The assessment tool uses eight images of various levels of burnt matches that end with ashes. It’s akin to the cartoon smiley-face scale used by doctors to determine a patient’s pain level at the hospital and the happy faces used by companies to determine a customer’s satisfaction.

“It’s still very much a real problem for a lot of people,” says Moss. People feel increased pressures around the return to office, more in-person meetings, the wave of recent layoffs, and talk of a potential recession. “People are feeling this level of expectation that they’re supposed to be over it. But they’re still very tired.”