While you have probably heard about work burnout, on the opposite side of the spectrum is boreout. As the term suggests, it’s when employees feel bored and disengaged at their workplace. With compelling evidence that boreout is affecting a sizable chunk of office workers these days, this is a good time to take a deeper look at this workplace trend. 

In this blog post, we will explore what truly causes boreout, how to spot it, and how to effectively deal with it in your organization.

What is boreout?

Simply put, boreout at work means that someone has been bored, underchallenged, and generally disinterested in their role for an extended period. Although boreout has different causes than burnout, it can also seriously harm employees’ well-being. You should be on high alert for bored-out employees because they can be less productive, difficult to communicate with, and not invested in company culture and values.

If we dig a bit deeper with the aid of psychology, boreout can be explained by human nature. We all have an innate need to learn new things, establish meaningful goals, and feel rewarded by achieving them. If our office job—which for many of us takes up a large proportion of our waking hours—does not fulfill this fundamental need, we can simply start to feel bored. And if it keeps going like that for some time, this understimulation can become a deep and persistent condition—in other words, a boreout.

While the way boreout shows up can vary for each individual, it often comes down to an employee being in a role that isn’t quite the right fit: perhaps it doesn’t align with their interests, isn’t challenging enough, or lacks sufficient rewards. Whatever the underlying cause, the result is a disengaged and dissatisfied employee, which, obviously, benefits neither them nor their colleagues. 

If you want to address boreout at work, it all starts with figuring out who’s affected—let’s talk about that.

Boreout symptoms: How to spot bored-out employees

First, it’s important to realize that some boreout symptoms can also occur as part of the typical work experience. Occasional boredom or lack of energy shouldn’t be a cause for panic. Anyone can have an unmotivated day at work when they can only muster the bare minimum. It only becomes a concern if it happens regularly and becomes a persistent trend. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some symptoms of boreout.

A mismatch between employee and the role

As we already touched upon, the root cause of boreout is often someone having a role that is not engaging enough to keep them consistently interested. This can happen due to these common reasons:

• Overqualification

One of the leading causes of boreout is overqualification. Highly educated or skilled individuals sometimes find themselves in roles that don’t come close to matching their abilities. This can happen for several reasons, such as entering a new industry, changing careers, relocating, or simply needing a job quickly during a tough job market (like the current one).

• Lack of meaningful tasks

Boreout isn’t just about doing too little—it’s about doing work that fails to fully engage the mind. An employee might have a to-do list full of difficult tasks, but if those tasks aren’t interesting or meaningful enough from their perspective, they can still feel disengaged. For some people, a busy but uninspiring workday can feel just as empty as having nothing to do at all.

• Lack of broader purpose

When there are no clear opportunities for growth or career progression within an organization, employees can start to feel stagnant and lose motivation. Also, if they don’t see their work contributing to larger organizational goals or don’t feel they can embrace the company’s culture, this can eventually lead to boreout.

Deception strategies

It’s important to understand that bored-out employees are not necessarily looking for a way out. Despite a lack of interest in their work, their strategy is often to keep doing it. Much like someone suffering burnout, an employee experiencing boreout might struggle to view their situation objectively.

In fact, another symptom of boreout is ghostworking, where employees use certain tactics to maintain a low profile and a light workload. Keep an eye out for things like:

• Task manipulation

Some employees might deliberately stretch out tasks to appear constantly engaged to avoid the impression of having idle time. Others may take the opposite approach—completing their work quickly and efficiently but delaying delivery. Essentially, because they find the work boring, the aim is to avoid more work and keep their tasks manageable.

• Performative performance

Bored-out employees may try to create the impression of being busy by, for example, setting up fake tasks or pretending to take work home. They might also feign stress to appear overwhelmed and exhausted. The idea, again, is to avoid additional responsibilities at all costs and do as little as possible.

• Deceptive communication

Some workers may engage in overwhelming communication to create an impression of activity, deliberately saturating emails, reports, or other contributions with excessive and pointless comments or questions. The point is to appear active and involved at all times—despite actually wanting the opposite.

The point of these tricks is to help employees experiencing boreout avoid additional responsibilities while also shielding them from unwanted scrutiny. At its core, it is a form of self-preservation. Employees who are disengaged from their current role might not be excited about it, but they also may not fancy their chances at finding another one in current market conditions.

Now, let’s look at how to tackle boreout at work.

How to deal with boreout at work

Use time-tracking

One effective way to combat boreout is to implement time-tracking tools such as DeskTime. Time-tracking allows you to monitor how much time employees spend on different tasks, and what websites and applications they use. By identifying areas where someone may be struggling, you can take action proactively before something serious like boreout takes hold.

It’s not just about monitoring potentially underperforming employees—check out the free demo to get a feel for the whole host of features that will change the way you manage your workforce.

Ensure that tasks match an employee’s abilities and interests

Another important factor in preventing boreout is ensuring that tasks match an employee’s abilities/interests and provide opportunities for them to engage and grow their skills. If they are overqualified for their job or feel unchallenged, they may become disengaged and unmotivated. 

While it’s unrealistic to expect a perfect match between every role and the person in it within a large organization, it’s a worthwhile effort to find the best possible compromise. This is a continuous effort, as both employees and organizations grow and change over time. So, keep an open mind, and don’t let the talent within your team grow too restless.

Create a positive and supportive work environment 

A positive and supportive work environment can help prevent boreout and improve overall employee engagement and productivity. Your organization should provide regular feedback and recognition, foster a culture of collaboration and teamwork, and create ample opportunities for social interaction and relationship-building. By creating such a work environment, you can help employees feel valued and motivated even during challenging times.

Don’t let boreout epidemic break out in your team

While boredom itself might seem innocuous and, for some office workers, almost inevitable at times, it becomes a cause for concern when it develops into boreout. Such disengaged employees are unlikely to contribute to the company to their full potential. At its core, boreout is a mismatch between an individual’s personality and their role—it’s either not interesting, challenging, or motivating enough (or all at once).

Needless to say, boreout is not something you want on your team or in your organization. However, by implementing time-tracking, ensuring that tasks match an employee’s abilities, and fostering a positive and supportive work environment, you can minimize the risk of boreout. Once recognized, boreout is not only manageable—it’s entirely preventable. The key lies in aligning roles with people’s skills, aspirations, and their fundamental need for purpose.

Article written by

Viesturs Abelis

A fan of crunching complex topics into digestible bites, Viesturs helps tech companies – and startups in particular – convey their unique stories to broader audiences. In addition to his work on DeskTime’s blog, you’ll come across his writing in Tech.eu, The Next Web, Crunchbase, and more.