Understanding Your Burnout Risk (Beta)

Dr Nathan Jones (CEO)

• 2 min read

Your Burnout Risk score is a quick visual summary of how much pressure you're under – emotionally and mentally. It appears on your MOOD.ai dashboard to help you track subtle changes in your emotional health over time.

What does it measure?

This score blends how you're feeling with how intensely you're feeling it. It's not just about stress – it's about the emotional cost of being switched on, activated, and carrying that load over multiple days.

Burnout doesn't usually hit all at once. It builds slowly, often beneath the surface (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). It's a pattern of emotional exhaustion, reduced motivation, and a sense of running on empty. That’s why this score reflects not just how you felt once, but how your emotional state has been trending.

How is it calculated?

Your score is grounded in psychological science. It draws from the Circumplex Model of Emotion (Russell, 1980), which maps emotions along two key dimensions:

  • Valence – how pleasant or unpleasant an emotion feels
  • Arousal – how energised or activated the emotion is

When you're experiencing high arousal and low valence – for example, feeling wired, flat, or agitated – your burnout risk goes up. When you're calm, positive, or meaningfully engaged, it goes down. The score adapts in real time based on your daily input and changes depending on your selected date range.

This rolling window reflects evidence that emotional carryover – sometimes called "mood inertia" – can build up over days and contribute to chronic stress and fatigue (Kuppens et al., 2010).

What does the meter mean?

The score appears as a visual meter with a needle, like the fire danger index. Here’s how to interpret the position of the needle:

  • Far left = Low risk – your emotional state is resourced, calm, or in balance.
  • Middle = Moderate risk – you’re carrying some tension or fatigue.
  • Far right = High risk – your system may be overextended or in need of a reset.

You might notice some days where the needle shifts unexpectedly. That’s okay – it’s not about diagnosing you, it’s about noticing patterns. Think of it like emotional weather: tracking the forecast, not judging the climate.

Why does it matter?

Burnout is now recognised by the World Health Organization as a workplace syndrome, caused by chronic emotional stress and unmanaged fatigue (WHO, 2019). Most tools only detect it once it's already taken a toll.

MOOD.ai is designed to notice the early signals. Your Burnout Risk score is one of them.

What should I do if my score is high?

First: don’t panic. A high score doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means your system is working hard – and it might be time to take stock.

Here are some helpful next steps:

  • Review your recent check-ins. Are there patterns emerging over the past couple of weeks? Certain colours or times of day?
  • Use your insights. At the top of your dashboard, you'll find an AI-powered summary of the past week, month, or even year.
  • Speak up. Your feelings are valid, and your wellbeing matters. You don’t have to go it alone.

Remember, your emotions aren’t a flaw. They’re data.

And now, they’re part of a smarter system designed to help you feel better at work – and beyond.

References