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Are you burnt out at work? Ask yourself these 4 questions

Updated: Sep 30, 2019


burnout at work
Are you burnt out at work?

Courtesy of Michael Musker (Senior Research Fellow, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute)



It’s normal to feel stressed at work from time to time. But for some people, the stress becomes all-consuming, leading to exhaustion, cynicism and hatred towards your job. This is known as burnout.


Burnout used to be classified as a problem related to life management, but last week the World Health Organisation re-labelled the syndrome as an “occupational phenomenon” to better reflect that burnout is a work-based syndrome caused by chronic stress.

The newly listed dimensions of burnout are:

  • feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion

  • increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job

  • reduced professional efficacy (work performance).

In the era of smartphones and 24-7 emails, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to switch off from the workplace and from those who have power over us.

The new definiti