Boredom in the work place can be an ordeal – to be slumped in the chair in a listless stupor, either underwhelmed and underchallenged by the mundaneness of the work, or simply through not having enough work, is a dispiriting experience.
A recent report from Dr Sandi Mann of the University of Central Lancashire states that such an existence can even be detrimental for physical and mental health. Dr. Mann is a psychology lecturer at the University, and she recently presented her findings at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology in Chester.
Dr. Mann stated that the overwhelming conlusion of her survey is that boredom is often a direct result of a worker feeling unchallenged in their role. This leads to a fulfillment deficit.
Such common ways of coping with workplace boredom include drinking too much coffee and grazing on chocolate and other snacks. She also highlighted a tendency to drink more alcohol at the end of a boring work day.
There are also productivity concerns in her findings – many of those surveyed firmly stated that boredom contributed to a loss of productivity and also caused them to make more mistakes in their work.
Dr. Mann strongly recommends that workplaces promote healthy snacks. Other means of dealing with boredom that Dr. Mann suggests are that workers be required to multi task rather than be locked into repetitive processes – multi tasking and job rotation can add a dimension of novelty to a worker’s role, and lead to increased productivity.
Stress has been traditionally viewed as a consequence of either too much work or a worker having undefined duties or responsibilities. Dr. Mann believes that boredom is in fact that most pre-dominant stressor in the modern work place.
A happy employee is one who will glance up from their work station, and announce: wow, is it five thirty already? This is an employee who as clearly defined and diverse tasks, ones with parameters and achievable goals, ones that allow the worker a sense of achievement at the end of each working day or week. A worker who enjoys these conditions will be one that never has time to be bored.