Boredom and Burnout Are A Deadly Pair By Ramon Greenwood
We all get bored with our jobs at one time or another. It's a
miserable feeling, but we can continue to function, although at
less than full speed. However, left unattended, boredom can get
so intense and lasts so long that it results in burnout. When
that happens, we are facing a costly and potentially dangerous
threat to our health and our careers.
There is some comfort in knowing we are not alone if burnout
strikes us. "Burnout is the biggest occupational hazard in the
21st century," according to Christina MasLach, a PhD who has
written a book on the subject. There is also solace of sorts in
realizing that boredom and burnout most often strike the
brightest and best, the most ambitious of us.
Recognize The Classic Symptoms
The classic symptoms of boredom are all too easy too familiar.
We no longer enjoy what we are doing. We dread to go to work.
One wag said, "You know you are bored when it takes twice as
long to drive to work in the morning as it does to get home at
night."
Being bored with some specific part of your job is different and
more serious than suffering from boredom with the job itself. It
is not unusual to find at least one-half of the things we do on
any given job are boring. Critical boredom is being tired of the
whole scene, day in and day out. Boredom at this level is the
forerunner of burnout.
The signs of burnout include fatigue, low morale, absenteeism,
fear, despair, hostility at home and on the job, increased
health problems and drug or alcohol abuse, all of which pose
threats to health and career.
Usually boredom and burnout grow out of such causes as our
bringing more ability to a task over a period of time than the
assignment warrants. In other words, we can do the job with half
our brain and half our energy. We have time to get bored. Or we
suffer from frustrated ambitions; we are stuck on a rung of the
ladder and see no way to the top. We expect more than life can
deliver and we want it now. Or we may be buckling under
relentless pressure.
Unfortunately, there are no sure, instant cures ... no pills or
shots to take to cure boredom and burnout. Prevention or the
healing must come, for the most part, from within ourselves.
Act today to deal with boredom and burnout. Almost any positive
action is better than sitting around in a funk. Every day we
delay, we sink a little deeper in the hole of despair and
discouragement. One expert on the matter says, "Most maddening
is the self-torturing inertia. You know you should be doing more
... that there are lots of things you could do, but then, what's
the use?"
How To Deal With The Deadly B's
It takes a lot of good common sense, discipline and hard work to
deal with the Deadly B's.
If upon rational analysis you find you are bored with your job
as a whole and not just some routine part of it, you should
discuss the problem with your boss and ask for a transfer to
another, more challenging position. (If you can't discuss your
feelings with your boss, you have a problem of another kind.)
If a transfer is not feasible, then you need to make a dedicated
effort to enlarge your present responsibilities. Or find new
ways to carry them out; learn new skills. Change your daily
routine. Find life-enlarging interests aside from your job.
It helps to see your job in the context of the larger mission of
the organization. That is, to understand that no matter how
small, you are an integral part of the organization. What you do
is important.
Boredom and burnout have a hard time surviving when you learn to
take pride in your work and try constantly to improve what you
do.
Finally, if none of these steps provide any relief, then you
need to seriously consider moving on to another position with
new challenges. But you should be careful about taking this
extreme step. You have to be sure that you are not running away
from yourself and the realities of the challenges and periods of
boredom that are inevitable parts of life.
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