The Safety–Burnout Matrix
Fifteen items, self-scored, four quadrants. Not a diagnostic.
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Please rate each statement based on your experience in your current or most recent workplace. If you are on leave or between roles, think about the workplace that led to your current situation. There are no right or wrong answers. Please respond based on how things actually are, not how you wish they were.
If you would rather talk to someone than read a result, here is who to call.
- 9-8-8 — call or text, anywhere in Canada, free, any hour, in English or French.
- In Quebec: 1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553), or text 53 53 53.
- Indigenous-specific support: the Hope for Wellness Helpline, 1-855-242-3310, or chat at hopeforwellness.ca, any hour.
- If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
You are depleted, and it is not safe to say so
This is the most serious of the four, and it is worth saying plainly why: you are running out of road in a place where telling anyone costs you something. Those two things together are harder than either alone, and they are why advice about resilience has not helped.
Nothing here is going to ask you to make a decision about your job tonight. What comes first is steadying things and protecting yourself. The career question keeps.
9-8-8, call or text, any hour. In immediate danger, 911.
These name which question you are actually answering. The deciding is yours, and this is a structured set of questions, not a medical test — it does not diagnose anything.
Start by writing things down. Dates, what was said, who was there. Not to build a case — to stop carrying it in your head, and because memory gets unreliable when you are this tired. It is the one thing that is useful whatever you decide later.
You are depleted, but you are safe where you are
You are burned out, and the place you work is not the cause of it. That is genuinely better news than it feels like right now, because it means recovery does not require you to leave.
The trap in this quadrant is treating exhaustion as a personal failure and responding with more effort. What this needs is boundaries and an actual recovery — not a harder-working version of you.
These name which question you are actually answering. The deciding is yours, and this is a structured set of questions, not a medical test — it does not diagnose anything.
Start with one boundary you have not been holding, and hold that one.
You are not depleted, but you are not safe either
You still have your energy. The place you work is not safe to speak up in. That combination is a window, and it does not stay open — this is the quadrant people leave too late, because nothing has broken yet.
This is usually where leaving well starts being the right answer rather than the failure answer. Not tonight, and not in a hurry. But planned, while you still have the capacity to plan.
These name which question you are actually answering. The deciding is yours, and this is a structured set of questions, not a medical test — it does not diagnose anything.
Start by working out what leaving would actually require — runway, timing, who you would need.
You are safe, and you are not depleted
Neither the place nor your capacity is the problem. So the question you came here with is probably a different question than the one this instrument answers.
That is a real result, not a null one. If something still feels wrong, it is worth knowing it is not these two things — that narrows it considerably.
These name which question you are actually answering. The deciding is yours, and this is a structured set of questions, not a medical test — it does not diagnose anything.
Start with what you actually want to build from here.
How it is scoredPart A out of 40, Part B out of 35. Safety of 20 or under is low; burnout of 18 or over is high. Items 2, 5 and 8 are scored in reverse. Until every statement is answered, the mark is an estimate from the ones you have.
What it is notNot a diagnostic.