“Boreout” at Work: How to Combat the Workplace Trend That is Draining Your Culture

Burned out. Bored. If you have been in the workforce for any length of time there is a good chance that you have experienced one or both of those feelings, even fleetingly. Feeling either burned out or bored by a place you spend one-third of your life is not ideal. It can impact mental health, wellbeing, productivity, and more. And for organizations, if your people are showing signs of boredom and burnout, consider that a red flag that your culture could use some attention.

An emerging trend in the world of work is called “boreout.” Described as a state of chronic boredom, while simultaneously feeling a high degree of overwhelm due to the demands of a job, boreout is having a major impact on organizations everywhere. While demanding jobs that a person feels connected to or passionate about can be exhausting, there are emotional and tangible benefits that can outweigh temporary overwhelm. Boreout refers to an ongoing state of both boredom and burnout – a toxic combination for both individuals and organizations that can lead to chronic mental health issues as well as turnover, lost productivity, and more.

Wiley Workplace Intelligence surveyed 2,023 respondents and had to know: is boreout as prevalent as the headlines would make it seem? And does the degree of boreout indicators vary based on the role of the respondent? Our results provided insight into this phenomenon and gave clear guidance for organizations who are experiencing the signs of boreout.

Individual Contributors Report Higher Levels of Boredom

Boredom is a fairly common feeling most people experience with some degree of frequency. Whether it was being stuck in the never-ending classes of our youth while the sunny afternoon called our names, or the meeting that seems in no way relevant to us ticking away our precious minutes, boredom can be a somewhat natural part of life.

However, when someone experiences boredom regularly, it can cause a significant impact on their mental health and engagement. A primary indicator of the boreout phenomenon, boredom can be equally as insidious as its perhaps more talked about counterpart: burnout. While burnout can manifest in feelings of anxiety, exhaustion, and cynicism, boredom manifests as avoidance, detachment, apathy, and even procrastination – all of which means trouble for your business.

Interestingly, our respondents showed a difference in their levels of boredom, with 25% of non-managers reporting boredom more than twice a week, and only 14% of managers reporting boredom with the same frequency.

That discrepancy is intriguing and points to a number of potential factors that could cause increased boredom among individual contributors, including a lack of trust and autonomy from their superiors, too many repetitive tasks, and less opportunity for skill development and advancement, to name a few.

People Managers Report Severe Levels of Stress

In a shocking statistic, almost half of people managers that responded to our survey reported severe levels of stress. That is a profound statistic, as elevated levels of stress, let alone severe stress, can lead to burnout, turnover, disengagement, and more. Organizations rely on their people managers to be leaders, as they set the tone for their teams and the organization at large and cultures that do not have good work/life balance, a priority on flexibility and wellbeing, in addition to achieving results can have a profound impact on the mental and physical health of their people.

While the severe stress reported by individual contributors was less, it is still over a quarter of those surveyed. That discrepancy makes sense given the higher levels of boredom that individual contributors felt and suggests that people managers can often function as gatekeepers of sorts, however unintentionally. Without effective management and leadership training, people managers can believe that perhaps they are doing the right thing by taking on more work while struggling to delegate and empower their people.

This can not only increase their own stress but contribute to the boredom that individual contributors report because they do not feel challenged or trusted by their managers. It is an easy dynamic to fall into without taking time for intentional communication between managers and reports. By frequently checking in regarding workload, career interests, and skills development there is an opportunity for managers to be in better tune with their teams and work to balance the levels of boreout in organizations.

The Boreout Disconnect

One of the greatest insights from this round of research is the disconnect between how people managers and individual contributors are feeling, whether it is the levels of boredom and stress they report or the perception of how challenged they feel at work. A whopping 90% of people managers agreed that they ensure their direct reports are adequately challenged, while only 33% of individual contributors shared that they feel challenged by their work. That is a massive discrepancy that could be perpetuating symptoms of boreout in your organization.

Creating opportunities for managers to participate in management and leadership development training is a way to empower them to learn new ways to lead their teams, grounded in trust and empowerment vs. micromanagement and control and can improve the symptoms that lead to boreout.

Feeling challenged at work is a key element of personal and professional growth, promoting engagement, creativity, and innovation, all crucial factors in feeling connected to your organization’s purpose. It also supports career advancement while benefiting the organization through improved performance.

Tips for Battling Boreout

As we have learned, boreout can have a profoundly negative impact on the culture in your organization. The good news is that our respondents provided insight into how you can combat boreout and promote engagement by leveraging tips that prioritize collaboration, career advancement, adaptability, and innovation.

• Provide opportunities to learn new skills or spend time on passion projects
• Offer stretch opportunities that expand responsibility and autonomy
• Promote work/life balance
• Have clear communication
• Provide opportunities for leadership development

While the effects of boreout can mean trouble for your people and your business, by putting an emphasis on ways you can invest in development, growth, and engagement you can promote more connected organizations and combat the symptoms of boreout.

One way you can help your people have better communication and promote connection and cohesion, in addition to manager-specific training, is to engage assessment and facilitated learning experiences that help individuals get to know themselves and others on a deeper level. Solutions like Everything DiSC^® empower organizations to work better together by understanding the communication styles, priorities, and preferences of each individual, creating a healthy organizational culture.

Wiley’s suite of professional solutions provides a structure and common language to help empower entire organizations with the skills needed to get to the next level. From building better teams with The Five Behaviors^®, and improving understanding to create engaged, collaborative, and adaptive cultures with Everything DiSC^® on Catalyst, helping you make confident hiring decisions with PXT Select^®, or unlocking the power of leadership at every level with The Leadership Challenge^®, Wiley has innovative solutions that help make the workplace a better place.