Christina Maslach
Burnout has three parts. Tired is one
The other two warn you earlier
Maslach & Jackson, Maslach Burnout Inventory, 1981
Tired and burnt out are not the same thing. The three measures Maslach used to separate them.
What actually happened?
In 1981 Maslach built an inventory that split burnout into three components: emotional exhaustion (drained in a way sleep doesn't repair), depersonalisation (you start handling people as items, and can't summon interest in any of them), and a fall in personal accomplishment (nothing you do feels like it matters). Only the first overlaps with being tired. So somebody can look like they're working normally and still be delivering, while the other two have been running for months.
Detachment warns earlier than exhaustion, and gets misread
Rest fixes tired. It does not fix detachment. Detachment looks like having nothing for colleagues, customers or family, and speech going formulaic. Others read it as someone turning cold; the person reads it as their personality changing. It's the second measure lighting up.
Your own voice on the phone sounds unfamiliar to you, like reading from a script.
'I'm useless' isn't modesty, it's a reading
The third component is accomplishment collapsing: the same work finished, and where there used to be a little satisfaction there is now nothing. It gets treated as an attitude problem. On the inventory it is as measurable as the other two.
The project landed and you felt nothing, only wanted it over. That is not being low-key.
They don't arrive together, so don't wait for the set
For most people detachment comes first, then exhaustion, and accomplishment collapses last. By the time all three are present, recovery takes far longer than it would have when one appeared. One of the three is enough to take seriously.
'I can still handle it' usually means using the one that hasn't shown up to deny the one that has.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you suspect you're burnt out and keep telling yourself it's just tiredness.
Ask first: which of the three do I have — drained, nothing left for people, no satisfaction on finishing? Only the first is tiredness. Either of the other two is a different thing.
Where it goes wrong: using it to diagnose yourself and stopping there — it's for locating the problem, not labelling yourself; and don't use it to judge whether someone else is slacking.
Lines to keep
Sleep fixes tired. It does not fix detachment.
Still working normally and still delivering proves nothing about the other two.
'I can still handle it' denies what's here using what isn't.