“I have a Bore out!” – A what?

Mila Haase

Talented International

Does your work make you seem unstimulated, unfocused, and restless? Are you unable to find even the slightest bit of motivation to persevere? In short, you feel bored every time you enter your office.

 

I think all of us know what burnout is. A personal crisis often arises from constant pressure, stress, and overwork at work. The first signs are irritability and withdrawal from hobbies and one’s social environment, always being tired during the day and not being able to sleep at night.

 

 

Bore out is the opposite of burnout. It is not the amount of work that stresses you out. It is the non-existent work. You are constantly bored at work and feel unfulfilled by a lack of (challenging) tasks. You feel underchallenged at work, which can lead to chronic boredom and result in depression, anxiety, stress, and higher turnover. This is not an official clinical term, but a term used in the field of occupational well-being.

 

Chronic boredom at work can manifest itself on various psychological levels. Declining attention, demotivation, apathy, lack of energy or feeling exhausted can be symptoms and different levels of boredom. It can be experienced mentally, physically or emotionally. Each stage can be felt differently and have a big impact on our behaviour towards others or our responsibilities. A person with bore-out may appear relaxed and rested. But they aren’t. They often feel restless and agitated because they feel that time is not passing. It is often experienced silently and in a covert way. People may not think of bore-out syndrome, but of not doing their duty at work, which can lead to a guilty conscience. It is also possible for employees to lose their jobs because it looks to management like they don’t want to work or are bored to death, because bore out is not as well regarded as burnout and is often not recognised quickly enough.

 

It can be a consequence of a company culture based on the idea that you absolutely have to go to work, whether there is a task or not. Employees have to stay at work even if a wiser alternative would be to do the task and leave when it is done.

 

Poorly organised tasks can also be a reason for bore-out. A lack of content, with tasks, whether appropriate to the job profile, are too little for the time allocated to them. Sometimes the problem is not the lack of tasks, but the fact that most tasks are repetitive, uncreative, uninspiring, and boring.

 

 

It is important that companies and especially HR managers learn how to protect the mental health of their employees from the bore-out syndrome, and here is why:

 

 

  1. It disrupts commitment to the company.

Happy workers who are motivated want to stay with the company. When employees feel unmotivated and do not find their work meaningful, they tend to neglect their tasks and the sense of belonging to the company decreases.

 

 

  1. The work environment deteriorates.

When employees are dissatisfied with their work and feel demotivated and bored. There is a lack of fun and balance in the office, which is important for a healthy environment.

 

 

  1. The quality of products and services decreases.

If you as a company offer different products or services, they need to be carried out by employees who put interest, attention, and qualities into the task. Routine and monotonous work leads to boredom and disinterest, which reduces the performance of workers and greatly affects the quality of products and services offered by a company.

 

 

  1. Damage to the reputation of the company.

If an employee suffers from bore-out syndrome, it can damage the internal and external reputation of a company.

 

 

As a company, you can prevent the bore-out syndrome by conducting a critical analysis of the team’s work methodology. Be flexible and innovative in designing work plans that respond to the current needs of the company and always try to optimise the quality of work for the employees.

 

Effectively and self-critically allocate and review tasks, roles and responsibilities among different team members.

 

To avoid boredom or the bore-out syndrome, companies should provide for rotation in the performance of the most arduous or repetitive tasks to spread the load among several participants.

Sources:

Rafael S. R. Rodríguez, Boreout syndrom: Discover the 10 causes and consequences, 21.10.2021

Thomas DUPORT

thomas.duport@talentedint.com

Talent Sales Account Manager

Talented International – Artificial Intelligence Recruiting

Barcelona – Berlin – Dublin – Paris

Phone : +33 1 84 88 97 97

 

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