ABSTRACT
This chapter details how the Sydney Burnout Measure (SBM) (Appendix A), was developed from research by authors Parker and Tavella. Study 1 (1019 participants) identified the main domains of the disorder: exhaustion, lack of energy, fatigue, worrying, inability to relax, insularity (or cocooning), depression and impaired concentration plus three independent factors: an inability to feel, compromised work performance, and a work-focused component indicating a dutiful or perfectionistic personality style. Study 2 (622 participants) examined whether burnout and depression are synonymous, finding that depression is associated with or a consequence of burnout but that the disorders are not one and the same. This study further refined the domains to five main factors: exhaustion, cognitive dysfunction, loss of empathy, decreased work performance and social withdrawal, and thus generated the final SBM questionnaire. The main symptoms volunteered by participants in the Sydney studies were exhaustion; anxiety; indifference and lack of empathy or interest or pleasure in work or activities outside of work; cynicism; apathy; disengagement; lack of feeling; ‘going through the motions’; depression; lack of motivation and passion; cognitive problems; becoming asocial; irritability and anger and emotional lability; and physical symptoms such as aches and headaches, sleep disturbance, eating and appetite changes, nausea and low libido.
