Bored with your job? Take action

Boredom, “the new stress” is more dangerous and debilitating than overwork and it’s prevalent in both menial jobs and those of the highest degree.

Automated procedures, bureaucratic procedures, busy work and meetings, night shifts, lack of personal interaction, and information overload are numbing people throughout the work world. University of Lancaster researcher Sandi Mann says: “Many graduate or skilled jobs now have detailed guidelines or even a script setting out what you must say or do.” Midlife workers are also at risk, those who know how to do their jobs so well that it offers them no challenge.

Gallup’s Curt Coffman says: “We know that 55 per cent of all US employees are not engaged at work. They are basically in a holding pattern. They feel like their capabilities aren’t being tapped into and utilised and therefore, they really don’t have a psychological connection to the organisation.”

Workers all over the world don’t love their job, aren’t excited about what they do, and are simply not really present when they’re at work. Studies have found that too little work contributes to job dissatisfaction more than having too much. Checking out in this way leaves you feeling depressed and undervalued: it damages your self-worth.

Mann’s recent research has found that bored employees tend to snack on junk food, load up on caffeine while at work and indulge in alcohol afterwards.

Twenty-five per cent of UK workers are bored most of the time. This contributes to work absences and a desire to quit. Bored workers also indulge in risk-taking to stimulate themselves. They sabotage work efforts, steal and vandalize.

Eighty per cent of the employees Mann studied said that boredom affected their ability to concentrate and over half said that boredom led to mistakes in their work. Almost half of the workers, chronically bored or not, said that boredom might cause them to quit their jobs.

Another study, conducted jointly by Montclair State University and University of South Florida researchers, discovered that boredom contributes to employees enacting harm on the companies they work for. Bored workers abuse other employees, purposely fail at tasks, sabotage work efforts, withdraw from work efforts, steal and engage in unproductive horseplay. Boredom breeds resentment.

So what really causes boredom at work?

Mann says the biggest cause of boredom is an undemanding workload. Repetitive tasks and simply uninteresting work follow.

Organisational psychologist Rob Briner says: “Boredom is a protest when the job doesn’t seem part of who you feel you are. You feel negative about the organisation and lack job satisfaction. It is a risk when you are not being told what your job means.”

Mann says that boredom is a professional’s disease — especially at midlife when many yearn to learn something new, be excited and take risks. They are held back by the safety of a job they know and a steady income.

Work boredom occurs when your work doesn’t match your experience, talents or values. It occurs when your best abilities and talents aren’t utilised. And it occurs when you feel stuck and not able to grow, learn new things, master different skills.

Steve Jobs once said: “I’m a big believer in boredom.” That’s because boredom can make you investigative and curious and Jobs said: “Out of curiosity comes everything.” Indeed, boredom has contributed to our evolution.

But it you don’t use boredom constructively, if you don’t take action or feel that you have an outlet, boredom can lead to anger and substance abuse.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the psychologist who introduced the concept of “flow.” When you experience flow, you are completely absorbed and engaged in what you’re doing, and this creates exceptional work, enjoyment and alignment. Csikszentmihalyi advises that you restructure your job in your own mind, that you “Approach it with the discipline of an Olympic athlete.” That you “Develop strategies for doing it as fast and as elegantly as you can.” He says that this can spark your interest and challenge you so that you end up delivering peak performances that will launch you up the career ladder.

To take action against your workplace boredom, you must first practice “creative indifference.” That’s where you step away, in a matter of speaking, and look at your situation objectively. You free yourself from feelings of frustration, resentment and apathy and start looking at how to direct your energy into a solution.

Then think about the times that you experienced flow. When was the last time you were so absorbed in what you were doing that you lost all track of time? When you were so engaged that you paid no attention to anything else? When you felt completely in the moment and gained much satisfaction? What were you doing? What skills were you employing?

Look at what opportunities you might find in your organisation. Is there anything you can seek out that will challenge you more? Talk to others, network to find out about opportunities you hadn’t noticed. Devise a strategy to change the nature of your work.

Talk to your boss or manager. Explain to them that you want a more challenging position or that you want to take on more responsibility. Go above them if necessary.

Build your skills outside your job. Take a class, join a movement, volunteer in order to expand you skills and feel worthwhile.

At work or outside it, stretch yourself. Take risks. Look for more. And if you can’t find challenge at work, look for a new job.

The writer is an executive coach and HR training and development expert. She can be reached at oksana@academiaofhumanpotential.com 
or www.academiaofhumanpotential.com. Views expressed are her own and do not reflect
the newspaper’s policy