It is important not to confuse the terms burnout and stress as the two are, in fact, not interchangeable. This is because stress, especially when it is felt in the workplace, is not necessarily a problem for many workers unless it goes on unchecked. When people start to feel burned out, it is usually because there have not been sufficient breaks from stressful situations or that the level of stress they have been put under has reached intolerable levels. In other words, excessive stress – along with other factors - may lead to someone being burned out, but they are not precisely the same thing.