Burnout is depletion caused by work. Overworking is a pull back toward it. A fortnight off tells them apart, and there is a third answer, which is that the job is the problem.
Burnout is depletion caused by work. Compulsive overworking is a pull back toward it. The quickest test is what a real fortnight off does to you: if you badly want it and come back better, that points to depletion. If you cancel it, or take the laptop, something else is running. There is also a third answer, which is that the job itself is the problem.
Those three need different responses, and picking the wrong one costs months.
The two-minute version
Answer these honestly rather than modestly.
**Imagine two weeks off, properly off, nothing to log into.** Relief, or dread?
**Think about the work itself.** Flat and cynical about it, or still pulled toward it?
**When you are idle on a Sunday afternoon, what happens in your body?** Nothing much, or a low alarm that only quietens when you open something.
**Would this pattern follow you to a different employer?** Be honest. You may already have tested this.
Relief, cynicism, nothing much, and no: that reads as depletion. Dread, pull, the low alarm, and yes: that reads as compulsion. A mix is extremely common and does not mean you failed the test.
What burnout is, exactly
This gets misreported constantly, so here is the actual wording. The World Health Organization puts burnout in the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases as "an occupational phenomenon" and states plainly: "It is not classified as a medical condition."
It describes a syndrome "conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed", with three dimensions:
"feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion"
"increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job"
"reduced professional efficacy"
One more line from WHO matters more than people realise: burnout "refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life". So if the restlessness follows you into weekends, hobbies and holidays, burnout is not the word for that part. It might still be the word for the rest.
Notice what the definition points at. Chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. The subject of that sentence is the workplace.
What the other thing is, and what it is not
Be equally straight here. Compulsive overworking is **not a diagnosis anywhere**. Not in the ICD-11, not in the DSM-5. No clinician can write it on a form, there is no agreed threshold, and there is no reliable UK figure for how many people have it. If you have been hunting for a label, it does not exist.
What does exist is a description in NHS guidance. Its addiction page defines addiction as "not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you", and names work directly: "if your relationship, family and social life are affected and you never take holidays, you may be addicted to work". That is public health language, not a diagnosis, and it is the closest official recognition there is.
The other useful description comes from people living it. Workaholics Anonymous asks, among twenty self-check questions, whether you "feel agitated when you are idle", whether you "take work with you to bed" and on weekends and holidays, and whether you "resist rest when tired and use stimulants to stay awake longer". Those questions name things no clinical instrument does, which is exactly why they are worth reading.
Side by side
| | Burnout | A pull back toward the work | |---|---|---| | The dominant feeling | Flat, drained, cynical about the job | Restless, agitated, wrong when idle | | Time off | Wanted, and often not enough on its own | Cancelled, shortened, or worked through | | Changing employer | Symptoms often lift for a while | The pattern usually travels with you | | Working less | Feels like relief | Feels like risk | | The fix that helps most | Less load, real recovery, and changes at work | Boundaries other people can see, and looking at what the work is regulating |
The third answer, which is usually skipped
A lot of writing on this subject quietly assumes the reader is the problem. Often they are not.
The Health and Safety Executive is blunt about where the duty sits: "Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it." Its Management Standards break the causes into six areas, and it is worth reading them as a diagnostic list for your own situation rather than as HR furniture:
**Demands**, meaning "workload, work patterns and the work environment"
**Control**, meaning "how much say the person has in the way they do their work"
**Support**, meaning "encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation"
**Relationships**, meaning "promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour"
**Role**, meaning "whether people understand their role within the organisation"
**Change**, meaning "how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated"
Read those six back. If your honest answer is that the demands are impossible for the headcount, or that you have no control over how the work happens, then no amount of shutdown routines will fix it, and blaming your own character for it is both unfair and useless. Two people can do identical hours, one because nobody else will do the work and one because stopping feels unbearable. They need different things.
The practical marker: if the load would still be there for whoever replaced you, that is a job problem. If you would find extra work in a job that did not require it, that is the other thing.
Both at once is the common case
Most people reading this are somewhere in the middle. A demanding job met a person who is not good at stopping, and after a couple of years neither of them is easy to separate from the other.
That is fine, and you can work both ends. Treat the load as a workplace matter and take it to the person who can change it. Treat the pull as your own and act on it at home, with [a boundary something other than your willpower enforces](/guides/work/notifications-devices-and-a-real-boundary).
Try not to spend six months deciding which one it is before doing anything. The first moves are the same either way.
What to do this week
**If it reads as depletion.** See a GP, particularly if sleep, appetite or mood have changed, because exhaustion and depression overlap and the treatment differs. Ask for a stress risk assessment at work, using the six areas above as your list. Take actual leave, and take it in a block rather than a day here and there.
**If it reads as compulsion.** Set one boundary that a device or a diary enforces, and look at what the work is doing for you, which is the subject of [what you get from working late](/guides/work/what-you-get-from-working-late). Rest will feel bad first. That is expected rather than a sign it is not working.
**If it reads as the job.** Write down the six areas and which ones are failing, with examples and dates. That document is what turns a complaint into a conversation, and it is useful whether you stay or go.
Renovyn can log the hours and let someone you trust see whether the boundary held. That is a tracking tool, not treatment or a workplace assessment.
Common questions
**Can you be burnt out and also addicted to work?** Yes, and it is probably the most common pattern. Chronic overload depletes you, and a compulsive pull keeps you in it long after any reasonable person would have stopped. Work both ends rather than waiting to decide which came first.
**Is burnout a medical condition?** No. WHO includes it in the ICD-11 as an occupational phenomenon and states explicitly that it is not classified as a medical condition. That does not mean it is not real or not serious. It means it is not a diagnosis, and a GP is treating the exhaustion, sleep or mood problems that come with it rather than the burnout itself.
**Will a new job fix it?** It fixes the version caused by the job, at least for a while. It does not fix the version where you find the work. The honest test is your own history: if the last two jobs ended the same way, the constant is worth looking at.
**How long should I give a fortnight off before I judge it?** Most people need several days before the noise dies down, so a long weekend proves nothing. Take the full two weeks, stay out of email, and notice what happens in the second week rather than the first.
Sources
[WHO, Burn-out an occupational phenomenon (ICD-11)](https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases): Burnout's ICD-11 status, its three dimensions, that it is not a medical condition, and that it should not be applied outside the occupational context.
[HSE, What are the Management Standards?](https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/overview.htm): The employer's legal duty to assess the risk of work-related stress, and the six areas.
[NHS, Addiction: what is it?](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/addiction-what-is-it/): The definition of addiction and work named directly.
[Workaholics Anonymous, Am I a Workaholic?](https://workaholics-anonymous.org/am-i-a-workaholic/): The self-check questions on agitation when idle, work in bed and at weekends, and resisting rest.
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