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Burned out at work by boredom

Does work drag? Do you start watching the clock at 9.35 a.m.? Is the only thing that motivated you to return after Christmas the fact that your employer has not blocked Facebook yet? If the answer to these is yes, you may be suffering from “rust-out.”

As the name suggests, rust-out is burnout’s boredom-based counterpart. Instead of working all hours and going out in a blaze of stress-related glory, you do an uninspiring job that fails to stretch you and become disinterested and apathetic. It is surprisingly common: according to new research by occupational psychologist Sandi Mann, a third of workers in (for example) the U.K. find their jobs boring. Worse still, Dr. Mann believes that the harm caused by boredom may exceed that caused by overwork. Unchecked rust can lead to depression and even physical symptoms.

The causes of rust-out read like a checklist of modern workplace woes: the deskilling of once complex jobs, lack of empowerment, paperwork overload, endless meetings, repetitive tasks, and so on. It can affect anyone but hits two groups particularly hard.

The first is middle managers whose careers have ground to a halt; the second is the younger workers who in more hierarchical days would have been promoted, but in today’s flatter structures are stuck in jobs that are beneath them.

So what can be done? Businesses need to recognise rust and talk about it. They should ensure people are in jobs suited to their skills and build a workplace with creative tension — that is, that little bit of stress that is good for you. If your work has become de-motivating, tell your boss, try to take on new responsibilities, clarify your goals and vary routines. And if your job is fundamentally rusty, find a new one. Perhaps the worst thing you can do is nothing.

As the old German saying has it, “He who rests, rusts.” — ©Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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