7.4 Focus on “Bore-out”
Dawn Hadwen
What is “Boreout”?
Boreout describes the psychological state of extreme boredom that stems from a lack of mental stimuli. Boreout at work may lead to more intense feelings such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Unfortunately, often, individuals’ mental health significantly impacts how they view themselves concerning the low quality of their work resulting from their lack of motivation.
Boreout is characterized by declining work motivation and performance as a result of chronic under-stimulation, which eventually leads to various stress-related psychological and physical complaints. Individuals experiencing boreout syndrome might feel:
(1) boredom,
(2) crisis of meaning at work (meaning, the extent to which individuals perceive their work/ tasks as insignificant and of little importance or contribution to the workplace), and,
(3) crisis of growth (meaning, extent to which individuals perceive their work as having little growth opportunities such as task-related and personal skills development.
Remote work can bring with it a set of unique set of concerns related to boreout. Workers might not have intellectual stimuli built into their days in the same way.
