Burnout is a state distinct from mental health conditions like depression or anxiety, according to Leah Weiss, who researches the issue and teaches a perennially waitlisted class on compassionate leadership at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Burnout can result directly from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”—as the World Health Organization defines—leading to “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to the job.”
In fact, the term originated in the early 1970s to describe why air traffic controllers—frustrated by increased congestion, user-unfriendly machine interfaces, and generally tedious work—began making more human errors, causing a spike in collisions.
But while burnout is sometimes seen as a binary state—you either are, or you aren’t—Weiss argues that’s not the case. It’s a spectrum, and your place along it can be measured by a simple, six-question quiz, courtesy of the team at 360Learning.
