Welcome to “Beating Team Burnout,” our five-week email series that will help you identify signs of burnout in your team and take action to address them. The series is based on guidance from Jennifer Moss, author of The Burnout Epidemic. Each email features a quick, actionable task for understanding your employees’ stress levels so you can begin to alleviate some pressure.

Burnout is a massive organizational issue — managers can’t cure it alone (especially not in five weeks). But by taking some simple steps, you can watch for a few of its most troublesome symptoms and provide immediate relief to your employees.

Here’s what you’ll find in your inbox each Thursday:

This week: Gauge your team’s stress levels

Week 2: Learn why burnout might be happening

Week 3: Evaluate your team’s meetings

Week 4: Make a habit of empathetic recognition

Week 5: Share small weekly goals

Let’s start by surveying your team members about their stress levels. Copy and paste the text below into an email and send it to your employees (feel free to make it your own). Or, if you prefer, ask them these questions individually and jot down their responses.

We’ve all been working under a lot of stress. I wanted to gauge how the team is feeling, and see if there’s anything I can do to help mitigate feelings of burnout. Please answer these questions and send your responses back to me before the end of the day tomorrow. Feel free to provide more context in any of your answers. And please be honest — the goal here is for me to find out how you’re really doing, not to punish anyone for feeling unproductive or overwhelmed. Everything you say will be kept confidential.

Over the past week...

1. How overwhelmed did you feel, on a scale of 1 to 5? (1 is lowest, 5 is highest)
2. How many days did you work later than you should?
3. How many days did you answer emails after hours?
4. How effective did you feel, on a scale of 1 to 5?
5. How productive did you feel, on a scale of 1 to 5?
6. How much fun did you have, on a scale of 1 to 5?

In next Thursday’s email, we’ll tell you how to analyze your employees’ responses. Block out an hour on your calendar to give yourself time to do so.

In the meantime, take stock of the resources your organization offers to employees who might be on the brink of burnout. Are flexible schedules an option? What about longer-term leaves? What types of employee assistance programs, or EAPs, are available? You’ll want to know this information when you discuss the results with your employees—we’ll cover how to do that in next week’s email too.

Throughout this email series, we welcome feedback or questions at audience@hbr.org.