Overrun Place
Reading. Load is weakest. The hours take more than recovery gives back.
This test scores conditions you experience at work. It does not diagnose a workplace, a person or you, and it is not HR, legal or medical advice. Unlawful harassment is a legal standard that depends on a protected characteristic and conduct severe or pervasive enough to be abusive; if you think that applies, contact the EEOC in the US, ACAS in the UK, or an employment lawyer. If you are exhausted to the point of physical symptoms, see a doctor. In the US, call or text 988 in a crisis.
Your weakest condition is Load. Your normal week does not fit the hours you are paid for, evening and weekend messages are expected, and one heavy stretch runs into the next with no time to recover. This test calls that reading Overrun Place. It names a condition of the place, and it needs separating from a condition of you.
Read your score first. Over 60, the place is broadly healthy and the load is its weak spot. Between 40 and 60, the hours are taking more than the job gives back. Under 40, conditions are thin everywhere and load is the thinnest.
Burnout and culture are different problems, and they need different fixes. Burnout is what happens to a person. Nobody feels well after 70 to 90 hours a week, however good the culture is, and exhaustion makes every other condition look worse than it is. Culture is what the place expects. If your other three conditions score well, the place may be decent and the load unsustainable. If they score badly too, the load is one symptom of a wider gap.
Is it the place, the boss or the week? A launch, a year end or a staffing gap with an end date is the week. Load that one manager adds, with messages at night and deadlines that did not need to be deadlines, is the boss. Load the whole place treats as normal, where recovery is read as weakness, is the place.
If you are exhausted to the point of physical symptoms, see a doctor. That comes before any of the rest.
What to do this week. Write down your actual hours for one week, including messages outside work. Then take the leader burnout test, which separates depletion, the wrong seat and the environment. Which one you are dealing with decides whether the fix is rest, a different role or a different place.
What to do with this result
If you do not manage people
Your Monday one on one. Bring the numbers, not the feeling: here are my hours for the last week. What should come off the list, or which deadline can move? Ask for a decision, not sympathy.
The three columns. Leave, if the load is the place's normal, the other three conditions are weak too, and your health is paying for it. Stay and act, if one manager or one project drives it and a decision can shrink it. Stay and wait, if the heavy stretch has a real end date.
If you are looking. In every interview, ask what a normal week looks like, and ask someone on the team, not only the hiring manager.
If you manage people
If you manage people, your hours set theirs, whatever you say about balance. Messages you send at night are read as expectations. Stop sending them, or schedule them for the morning, and protect recovery after every heavy stretch the way you protect a deadline.
The leader burnout test tells you whether you are depleted, in the wrong seat, or in a place that is wearing you down, and the span of control calculator checks whether your own load is structural. The 5 Minute Leader is a five minute daily rhythm, not another hour.
Next step
If you need support now
This page is not a crisis service and nobody reads your answers. If you are thinking about harming yourself or you are in danger, reach a person today. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or text HOME to 741741 to reach Crisis Text Line.
In the UK and Ireland, call Samaritans on 116 123, or text SHOUT to 85258. Anywhere else, call your local emergency number. If work is affecting your sleep or your health, see a doctor. A coach is not the right first call for that, and neither is a quiz.
If this is a legal matter
Harassment and discrimination at work are legal questions, and a quiz cannot answer them. In the US, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission explains what the law covers and how to file a charge at eeoc.gov. In the UK, ACAS gives free, impartial advice at acas.org.uk. An employment lawyer can tell you what applies to you. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
The other results
- Quiet PlaceSafety is weakest. People say it afterwards, in private.
- Uneven PlaceFairness is weakest. Rules bend for some people, not others.
- Unheard PlaceConsequence is weakest. Problems are raised and nothing changes.
About this result
This is one of 4 results from the Toxic Workplace Test: the place, the boss or the week, a free tool that shows the score without an email. Aggregate figures are at the statistics page once 30 completions have been reached. More free tools are at the tools shelf.