National Anti-Boredom Month

We are now in the depths of July, the long stretch between the 4th and the beginning of autumn. These are the hottest days of summer, trapping us indoors and leading to the advent of National Anti-Boredom Month; a month dedicated to fighting against the effects of boredom. In the workplace, too, boredom is a present threat to face. Long accepted as normal, the tedium of a “boring job” can become dangerous when applied to employee health and high-risk environments.

In a workplace where an employee’s job is to monitor screens or displays for hours on end, boredom is a given component of their daily life. While emotional states like burnout receive a lot of attention in workplace mental health circles, the opposite effect, bore-out, is often overlooked. Many of the symptoms are similar to burnout, but are caused by a loss of workplace purpose rather than overwork.

Bore-out can lead to anxiety, depression, stress, and insomnia; all of which can cause fatigue and distraction in the workplace. Boredom is also the number one reported reason that people leave their jobs, leading to higher turnover in boring work positions.

Boredom can become especially dangerous in fields that deal with multiple hazards and safeguards. This can include jobs where it is important to monitor a screen or display for changes, jobs with late night shifts, or even detail-oriented and difficult jobs that have been completed successfully enough times to lead to complacency.

Boredom is one of the many symptoms we investigate in the TapRooT® RCA process to improve human performance. Here are a few ideas we include in the Corrective Action Helper® Guide:

• Job Sharing: Employers can employ shorter shifts or a rotating schedule to ensure fresh eyes are on the displays.
• Automated Monitoring: Removing or distancing the human from the problem is always a top tier (albeit expensive) solution. Automating your monitoring system to alert the necessary employee while they do other, more engaging tasks could help to remove the necessity of a boring job altogether.
• Increased Frequency or Length of Breaks: Breaks make a big difference in preventing fatigue in the workplace. Giving employees adequate time to do something restful that they enjoy can improve their monitoring alertness.

In the increased research on solutions to the “bore-out” problem, a few additional ideas have begun to be adopted by major companies like Google, focused especially on adding passion to the workplace. “Job crafting,” for example, refers to when an employee is able to redesign their job to align with their passions and interests, while still ensuring the essential tasks of the job are performed. Similarly, many companies find it useful to set aside time on the clock for the part of the job the employee is most passionate about, allowing them to remember and enjoy the reasons why they chose their job in the first place.

Most importantly of all, supervisors should ask their team for ideas on how to decrease boredom in their workplace. They know the job and they know their own minds, and therefore have more insight on what they can and cannot do than someone could have via outside research alone. Additionally, the knowledge that they helped to design their own workplace standards and procedures can help to increase the feeling of passion and connection to the workplace that is necessary to reduce bore-out.

If your company struggles to treat the dangerous symptoms of boredom, we’re here to help. We work with your company to create safe and effective systems without having to face disaster to reach them. If you’re interested in learning how to improve the system at your workplace, you can contact us for a free briefing here.

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