Do you like your job?

Do you enjoy your job?

Is your job exciting?

Did you find your job less interesting when you worked from home?

What are some of the consequences of being bored at work?

Would you rather get paid a lot of money to do a boring job, or less
money to do an exciting/fun job?

What do you deal with a particularly boring task at work?

Part 1:
The damaging effects of 'boreout' at work - BBC Worklife

We all know what burnout is and why it’s bad. But fewer of us have heard of ‘boreout’ – a related
phenomenon that’s arguably just as pernicious.

While burnout is linked to long hours, poor work-life balance and our glamourisation of overwork,
boreout happens when we are bored by our work to the point that we feel it is totally meaningless.
Our job seems pointless, our tasks devoid of value.

Boreout doesn’t get as much attention as its workaholic cousin, but experts say that this
phenomenon – which occurs across industries – can result in some of the same health problems for
workers. It’s also bad for companies, because a workforce with boreout can lead to high staff
turnover.

Knowing what boreout is, and being able to identify it in ourselves, is critical for tackling it. There are
also actions both workers and companies can take to alleviate it. And experts suggest that as we
emerge into an evolving new world of work that prioritises worker wellbeing, boreout could merit
just as much attention as other workplace problems.

What is ‘burnout’?

What is ‘boreout’?

Vocabulary:
Match the words to their meanings.

1. Pernicious a. The rate employees leave a company and are replaced

2. Devoid b. Make something (bad) less severe
3. Turnover c. Having a harmful effect
4. Alleviate d. Deserves
5. Merit e. Without something

Complete the sentences.

1. The Brazilian president is _____ of basic human decency.

2. The new British anti-protest bill will have a _______ effect on the democracy and freedom of
the country.
3. The current administration has seen a high _______ of ministers and secretaries.
4. Jason ______ many awards for his excellence in teaching, and stunning beauty.
5. My physiotherapy ________ my back pain for a while.
Part 2:
Ruth Stock-Homburg, a professor of management and human resources management at the
Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, says she’s witnessed the phenomenon across multiple
industries. “I started observing people in quiet hours in retail stores, and people are just standing
there bored. Or taxi drivers that have to wait sometimes for hours in quiet times in the countryside.”
Tech workers in Silicon Valley have also told her they feel the same way, she says.

Stock-Homburg and her colleagues have identified three main aspects of the boreout phenomenon:
“being terribly bored, having a crisis of growth and having a crisis of meaning”.

Although it’s normal for everyone to get bored at work occasionally, being chronically bored for days
on end may indicate that you need to address the issue, because failing to do so can have
consequences. In 2014, she worked on a study, looking at more than 11,000 workers at 87 Finnish
organisations. She found that chronic boredom “increased the likelihood of employees’ turnover and
early retirement intentions, poor self-rated health and stress symptoms”.

Other research backs this up. A 2021 study showed that 186 government workers in Turkey who
suffered from boreout also dealt with depression, and high rates of stress and anxiety. Studies show
depression from boreout can follow workers outside the office, and lead to physical ailments from
insomnia to headaches.

Who is Ruth Stock-Homburg?

Which industries does she mention suffering from boreout?

Can you explain the three aspects of boreout?

What are some of the symptoms of boreout?

Do you think you have suffered from boreout at any job?

Part 3:

Tackling boreout can be tricky, however, because generally by the time you recognise it, you’ve been
chronically bored for a while.

“Boreout is different from burnout in the sense that bored-out employees rarely collapse out of
exhaustion. Bored-out people may be present physically but not in spirit, and people can keep doing
this for a good while,” says Harju.

Workers who realise they’re experiencing boreout may also be reluctant to flag it up as an issue to
line managers or human resources. While the behaviours that feed into burnout – overwork, drive –
are appreciated and rewarded by employers, boreout “reflects a lack of interest, a lack of
motivation”, says Harju. “These are very much taboo in organisations.”

There are some quick fixes, like taking on work tasks that are more interesting to you. “To improve
would require finding some purpose or inspiration in what one is doing,” she says. And people are
more likely to be able to rediscover enthusiasm for their work if they had it in the first place. But a
2016 study Harju and her colleagues worked on showed that people who had boreout were less
likely to engage in constructive activities like trying to find new, interesting challenges at work.

What happens more often, she says, is that people will just show up at their desks and spend time
shopping online, cyberloafing, chatting with colleagues or planning other activities. She says that
these people aren’t lazy, but are using these behaviours as “coping mechanisms”.

Why is boreout considered more difficult to tackle than burnout?

Why are workers unlikely to tell their managers/HR that they are
suffering from boreout?

What is ‘cyberloafing’?

How much time do you spend on other activities on an average

workday?

Do you actively do anything to try and keep your job interesting?

Part 4:

Focusing on boreout right now might be particularly useful, given that since the pandemic hit,
people have been re-evaluating their employment choices for a variety of reasons. It’s clear Covid-19
has provided an opportunity for some people to reassess whether they find what they are doing
meaningful.

As we try to reshape the workplace based on what we’ve learned and felt during the pandemic,
experts say that we need to make boreout part of the conversation – the same way we’re increasing
discussions around burnout, presenteeism, work-life balance, remote work and workplace
inequalities.

Harju describes boreout as “kind of a signature syndrome” of the pandemic, fueled by too much
time in Zoom meetings, surrounded by the same four walls. “My hope is that these boreout-related
trends will force some organisations to re-think their human resource philosophies and policies, and
organise work in a more sustainable way in general in the post-pandemic era.”

Boreout can mark a transition into something else: a different career entirely, or a different role in
the organisation,” she says. “If people only take its cue.”

Have you recently thought about changing something in your job (or
changing job completely)?

What commonly stops people from changing job?

What are your TOP 5 TIPS FOR BEATING BOREDOM AT WORK?

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