On 30th October, Kogan Page published Philippe Rothlin’s and Peter R. Werder’s book ‘Boreout! Overcoming Workplace Boredom’ (£14.99). ‘Boreout’, say the authors, is an increasingly important phenomenon which happens when employees feel disengaged with their work and become cut off from their company. Common causes of boreout are said to be feeling ‘understretched’ and dissatisfied with your job; a lack of commitment, and being bored, so you retreat into your own world and start planning your next holiday or the weekend shopping trip. Symptoms are said to include constant tiredness, irritability, listlessness and introversion.
Comment: Here is an example of a book whose time had gone as it was being published. Boreout is a luxury in which workers can indulge only during the good times, when jobs are relatively plentiful and fairly easy to come by. In the current – and continuing – employment climate around the developed world, those who feel understretched and bored with their job are likely to have plenty of time to think about it – while being unemployed. At least they won’t have to waste what little remaining money they have on buying the book.
Hi Bob,
May I ask you if you have actually read this book? So do you really mean that being undervalued and under-stimulated at work does not have an effect on the person as a whole, self-esteem, energy levels, frustration etc. I’d say watch this space… It’s a fascinating phenomenon and if we have accepted burnout why not accept boreout too. I think a lot of people are suffering from boreout at work and to completely ignore this will have severe effects on not only the well being of these employees but also the companies they work for.
Kind regards,
Moa
Hi Moa,
Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to comment on this piece.
I was not attacking the concept of burnout or boreout – merely saying that (a) this is not a new work-based phenomenon and (b) in the current economic climate – as it was then, in November 2008 and is now, in January 2013 – not only do employers have the upper hand in terms of only keeping those workers who do not display the signs of burnout or boreout but the workers will tend to have more pressing (financial) worries than worrying whether they are suffering from these maladies.
As it’s turned out, you can add to this heady mix the fact that employers are appearing increasingly reluctant to address any symptoms of these things among workers. So training budgets are being squeezed (nothing new here) and employers are unwilling to engage in staff development programmes that enable people to ‘bring their whole selves to work’ (and, thus, feel appreciated as ‘whole people’). The consultancy arm of an organisation called Workplace Matters (www.workplacematters.org.uk), in the UK, is doing great work in this field and is well worth contacting if you’d like to find out more about what they do.
Best wishes – and keep reading the blog!
Bob