by Roberta Balagopal
What does boredom have to do with burnout?
When you aren’t feeling challenged, or learning anything new, you may find you get stuck with doing the same sort of tasks over and over – probably because you’ve gotten so good at them, and your boss knows it.
However, we aren’t machines. Doing the same thing day in day with no mental stimulation begins to wear on us.
You may find yourself:
– Procrastinating, when you never felt like doing that before,
– Calling in sick more often than usual,
– Taking any opportunity to be out of the office, even signing up for courses you aren’t that interested in.
This restlessness can lead to deep frustration with your workplace, which, if unaddressed, can then lead to burnout.
This boredom is quite harmful to overall well-being too. It has also been called ‘rust out’ as you are not doing anything to change. After a while, you may convince yourself that change isn’t possible. Sometimes too, it may be hard to settle on a plan to change. For example, thinking of it in terms of what is possible within the current job, which is limiting the options. It may take a bigger change than that.
If you feel bored, or stuck at work, you may be experiencing the boredom variety of burnout. Contact us, if you’d like to chat about it.