Free Burnout Test (CBI)

Burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, recognised as an occupational phenomenon in the ICD-11 (2019). The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) measures three exhaustion-based subscales: Personal Burnout (the degree of physical and psychological exhaustion experienced by the person), Work-Related Burnout (the degree of exhaustion attributed to the person's work), and Client-Related Burnout (the degree of exhaustion attributed to working with clients). The CBI deliberately focuses on exhaustion across these three life domains, rather than the Maslach framework's cynicism/efficacy structure.

The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) is a 19-item burnout instrument developed by Kristensen, Borritz, Villadsen, and Christensen at the Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment, published in Work & Stress in 2005. It was created explicitly as a freely-licensed alternative to the commercially-licensed Maslach Burnout Inventory. The CBI has been validated in 19+ languages with Cronbach's alpha of roughly 0.85–0.87 across subscales. It is now one of the most widely-used burnout instruments globally — particularly outside the US — because there are no licensing costs, no per-use fees, and no permission requirements.

Two reasons. First, license: the MBI is commercially licensed by Mind Garden, Inc. and requires a paid license. The CBI is freely licensed under terms published by the Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment, with attribution. Second, design: the CBI's three subscales (personal / work / client) cleanly separate where the exhaustion lives — useful when work-related and personal burnout diverge, or when client-facing work is the dominant cost. The Maslach framework's cynicism + reduced-efficacy dimensions are theoretically rich but harder to act on at the individual level. The CBI's exhaustion-focused subscales map more directly to interventions.

Christina Maslach's research identifies 6 primary drivers of workplace burnout (often called the 6 areas of work-life): (1) Workload — sustained excessive demand without adequate resources; (2) Control — lack of autonomy over the work; (3) Reward — insufficient recognition, financial reward, or intrinsic satisfaction; (4) Community — lack of supportive workplace relationships, conflict, isolation; (5) Fairness — perceived injustice in workload, pay, recognition, or treatment; (6) Values — mismatch between personal values and the work or organization. These drivers apply regardless of which instrument you use to measure burnout. Burnout typically results from sustained problems across multiple areas rather than a single factor.

Burnout is recognised in the ICD-11 (2019) as an 'occupational phenomenon' affecting health but not as a mental disorder per se. The DSM-5 does not include burnout as a diagnosis. This creates some ambiguity — severe burnout can produce symptoms indistinguishable from depression (which is a mental disorder), and the two frequently co-occur. The most useful framing: burnout is a work-context syndrome that significantly affects mental health, can develop into clinical depression if untreated, and warrants explicit attention even though it doesn't have its own DSM diagnosis.

The most effective burnout interventions address both individual and structural factors. Individual: therapy or coaching focused on the specific drivers; CBT for the cynicism and reduced effectiveness; mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for the exhaustion; lifestyle interventions (sleep, exercise, social connection). Structural: workload reduction; increased autonomy where possible; addressing the specific work-life areas (Maslach's 6) most problematic for you; possible role or workplace change. Generic 'self-care' is widely criticised as inadequate for burnout — bath bombs don't fix structural workload problems. The strongest intervention is usually a combination of individual support + structural change.

Burnout affects an estimated 23% of the global workforce as of 2024 — rates spiked significantly post-pandemic. The highest-risk fields are healthcare (particularly nursing, primary care, mental health), education, social work, frontline service work, tech (particularly during high-growth phases), academia, and any field involving significant emotional labour. The CBI's separate client-related subscale is particularly useful in caring-profession contexts, where client-facing exhaustion often elevates first.

The CBI takes most people 4-6 minutes to complete. It is 19 items on 5-point scales, plus one gating question that decides whether the 6 client-related items apply to your work. Results appear instantly with a per-subscale breakdown across personal, work-related, and (where applicable) client-related burnout.