The Burnout
Telling your manager the truth
You haven't slept properly in weeks. Your manager asks how the project is going and you almost tell the truth. Almost. The words are right there — but admitting you're drowning feels like career suicide.
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Part of this story
The First Check-In
→Raj hasn't been himself. You notice the signs. Most people don't. Navigate the four conversations that make up a mental health check-in.
Part of the quest
Mental Health Conversations
→The signs you notice in a colleague, the burnout you name for yourself, the friend in crisis at 2am, and the manager's responsibility when something is wrong. Navigate the hardest conversations about mental health.
What you'll learn from The Burnout
This scenario focuses on Telling your manager the truth — a critical skill inside the broader mental health domain. You'll face a decision where the instinctive response is often the wrong one. After you make your choice, you'll see exactly what happened in the other person's head and why it mattered. The scenario is part of The First Check-In, a full interactive story inside the Mental Health Conversations quest.
Skills you'll build in Mental Health Conversations
More scenarios in this quest
Raj missed the third meeting this week. He laughed it off — bad Wi-Fi. But you noticed the dark circles, the flat voice, the way he disappears from group chats. Something is off, and you're the only one who sees it.
Your phone buzzes at 2am. Nadia's message is short, vague, and nothing like her usual tone. Your stomach drops. Something is wrong — and the next few minutes matter more than you realize.
Raj's performance is slipping and HR says document it. But you've seen the signs — the withdrawal, the exhaustion, the hollow laugh. This isn't a performance issue. You know it. The question is what you do about it.
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