We all know about burn-out, which is burn-out due to overwork, but bore-out also exists. It is also burn-out, but due to boredom at work. Werder and Rothlin characterise it by three elements: boredom, lack of challenge and disinterest.
Unlike burn-out, “bore-out” is a term that does not exist in the English and French dictionaries, is three pages long on Wikipedia (thirty for burn-out) and has only been studied for a few years in companies and the service sector. However, 30% of employees are said to be unemployed, not by being “put in the wardrobe”. As for burn-out, it reaches less than 10% of the French (which is already significant). Today, neither one nor the other is recognised as an occupational disease. But before 2015, burn-out was considered an occupational disease.
In addition to not being recognised, it is difficult for those suffering from bore-out to talk about it. When people who work are valued, it is complicated to complain about burn-out due to boredom.
Affecting 30% of employees, the causes of bore-out are diverse:
– Isolation wanted by the management. The employee will be put on the back burner with little work, and with little social interaction.
– When work involves a lot of off-peak periods, for example with reception staff.
– Little work, a situation that is becoming more topical with the economic downturn.
– Over-qualification, when a person has a job that requires few skills compared to his or her own.
– Lack of career prospects, when the employee is not offered new assignments or new jobs for a long period of time.
– Lack of recognition at work, when the employee is not valued and his work does not seem to be looked at.
The person in a bore-out situation risks many consequences:
– Excess mortality due to cardiovascular diseases, with an almost threefold risk.
– Shame and guilt, where the person may feel responsible for their boredom. A drop in self-esteem may also be present.
– A sense of disqualification from the work done and skills.
– The person loses motivation in their work.
– Professional mistakes, made because of disinterest in the tasks.
– Depression. The person will therefore be on sick leave.
The employee may try to put up with this boredom by extending the time of the tasks. Working slower to work longer. A second strategy is the pseudo-investment strategy, by making colleagues and superiors believe that he is busy, by occupying his office, making him believe that he is working while he has personal occupations (easy when working from a computer).
To avoid this, companies have different ways of acting. They have a direct interest, since they have a duty to preserve the mental and physical health of their employees.
Often it is the organisation that creates these problems. It is noticeable that people with defined objectives are less affected by bore-out. In order to reduce the amount of time without work, a reorganisation can be carried out, in consultation with the people concerned. Finally, they have a duty not to “placard” their employees. Since the latter act is often voluntary on the part of the company, it can just as voluntarily stop these practices.
References:
Jordana, H. (2017). Management et «bore-out» dans le secteur médicosocial. Empan, (3), 78-80.
Rothlin, P., & Werder, P. R. (2007). Diagnose Boreout: warum Unterforderung im Job krank macht. Redline Wirtschaft.
Palfroy, M. (2020, 9 juillet). Qu’est-ce que le bore-out ? Cadremploi. https://www.cadremploi.fr/editorial/conseils/conseils-carriere/detail/article/4-situations-qui-menent-au-bore-out.html