A1 Level – Elementary
1. Do you feel tired often?
2. What is a lot of work?
3. Do you like long holidays?
4. What is a big stress?
5. Do you sleep enough?
6. What is a break?
7. Do you feel interested in your job?
8. What is a simple hobby?
9. Do you drink coffee a lot?
10. What is a health problem?
11. Do you say “no” easily?
12. What is a quiet room?
13. Do you feel too busy?
14. What are three signs of burnout?
15. Do you think burnout is serious?
A2 Level – Pre-Intermediate
1. What is the difference between stress and burnout?
2. Why are people getting more burned out now?
3. What are the good things and bad things about working very hard?
4. How can a person prevent getting completely burned out?
5. Should work companies check if their employees are too stressed?
6. Why is it important to ask for help when you feel overwhelmed?
7. Do you think burnout affects the mind or the body more?
8. What is the purpose of sick leave?
9. How does technology (notifications) make it harder to relax?
10. What is the difference between physical exhaustion and emotional exhaustion?
11. Do you think taking a short nap helps prevent burnout?
12. What are the problems when burnout is not recognized as a real illness?
13. When is the best time to take a long break from work?
14. What are two things that help you relax after a long workday?
15. How does burnout affect a person’s relationship with family?
B1 Level – Intermediate
1. What are the rules for politely telling your boss you need time off for stress?
2. How does the cost of living affect the risk of burnout?
3. Should the government provide free mental health care to people with work stress?
4. What is the difference between personal perfectionism and outside pressure?
5. Do you believe that burnout is a necessary part of a successful career?
6. What are the challenges of returning to work after recovering from burnout?
7. How does the fear of losing a job make people hide their burnout?
8. What is the idea of “quiet quitting”?
9. Is it fair or unfair when some jobs naturally cause more stress than others?
10. How does a company’s culture (long hours, no breaks) contribute to burnout?
11. What are the steps for properly setting boundaries between work and personal life?
12. What is the value of spending time on a hobby that requires high focus?
13. Should public companies be required to report their employee burnout rates?
14. What are the reasons why certain jobs (like teaching or nursing) have high burnout rates?
15. How does a lack of control over your work schedule contribute to stress?
B2 Level – Upper-Intermediate
1. What are the social pressures to work longer hours to appear dedicated?
2. What are the moral problems when companies blame the employee for their burnout?
3. How does constant work-related communication (email, chat) affect the feeling of being “always on”?
4. Should companies be legally required to provide dedicated rest areas for employees?
5. Analyze the psychological effect of having a job where your values do not align with the company’s goals.
6. Who is responsible for promoting a culture that normalizes taking time off for mental health?
7. What is your view on the practice of using short-term coping mechanisms (like alcohol) to deal with work stress?
8. Evaluate the role of Human Resources (HR) in preventing and managing burnout.
9. How does the economic push for high productivity intensify the risk of employee burnout?
10. Discuss the concept of “presenteeism” (being at work but not productive) caused by stress.
11. What are the problems with having very different burnout definitions in different industries?
12. What are the legal differences between burnout and clinical depression?
13. Do you agree that the purpose of identifying burnout is mainly to maintain a productive workforce?
14. What steps should be taken to ensure that parents who work full-time can manage family stress without burnout?
15. How does the belief that “work is identity” contribute to the difficulty of overcoming burnout?
C1 Level – Advanced
1. Is it fair that the cost of recovering from burnout often falls on the individual, not the company?
2. What is the right way to think about a company’s moral duty to prevent stress that leads to employee illness?
3. How do the platform’s algorithms influence the visibility of content promoting extreme productivity?
4. When should the government consider mandatory limits on working hours across all industries?
5. What are the moral questions when we talk about using AI to monitor employee stress levels?
6. How does the focus on quick recovery affect the long-term, necessary changes to work culture?
7. Discuss the impact of global economic competition on the pressure put on workers in all countries.
8. How should leaders use knowledge about burnout to design fairer and more sustainable work systems?
9. What is the idea of “The Achievement Trap” and its relationship to the fear of stopping work?
10. What are the long-term effects on society when the highest positions of power are held by people who have never experienced burnout?
11. What are the difficulties when courts try to decide if a company caused an employee’s burnout?
12. How does the search for total personal optimization conflict with the biological need for rest?
13. Do you agree that the most important thing is a worker’s personal fulfillment, even if it means lower productivity?
14. What are the simple moral rules a colleague should follow when they notice a friend showing signs of burnout?
15. Should the government set a legal minimum for the amount of mental health sick days every worker must receive?
C2 Level – Proficiency
1. What is the real difference between a person’s feeling of personal failure and the failure of the work system (burnout)?
2. Debate the idea: Should we completely eliminate the concept of the 40-hour work week?
3. How does the concept of “success” change when a generation prioritizes well-being over career advancement?
4. What laws or rules are needed to control how technology platforms use personalized data to encourage longer working hours?
5. How do historical views of labor and idleness affect modern societal acceptance of mental health days?
6. How can communities maintain economic growth when there is a collective decision to work less?
7. Argue the point that humans should stop all attempts to control the work process and rely on the worker’s own sense of pace.
8. What protection should laws give to employees who report unsafe work environments that cause high stress?
9. How can we stop the problem of using the term “burnout” to avoid discussing deeper issues like low pay?
10. What did old thinkers say about moderation, self-control, and human limits that is still important today?
11. What will happen to the need for human managers if AI can perfectly balance workload and prevent employee stress?
12. How do people use the idea of “passion project” to avoid discussing the cost of working for free?
13. How does the experience of recovering from burnout improve a person’s understanding of their own limits?
14. What is the power of international organizations to define and categorize burnout as an official medical condition?
15. If scientists could create a perfect, safe pill that removes all work stress, how would that fundamentally change labor law?
