Interestingly, there is
this multinational company whose training explicitly explores boredom. They
start with the scenario “You are at work. You have had no break. What you are doing seems meaningless to
you. You notice an unpleasant feeling slowly
rise within. Your mind wanders. You fidget. You reach for a sweet,
crave a cigarette. You want to escape,
to be anywhere but here. There is only
one word for it. You are bored”.
It may feel familiar to
many of you.
The leader goes on,
talking from their own experience and says “
we want to do all we can to help reduce the likelihood of you being bored here,
through the tasks we give you, embracing personal differences, caring about the
environment we create for you and matching the right people with the right job.
But you also have to take responsibility. And we are going to help you learn to
do that. To listen to your boredom when it does arise – because there are
benefits to be had”.
Well I don’t know if
this company exists (it was a daydream), but I do believe it should happen.
Boredom.
Described as one of the plagues of modern society* it affects our work
and our lives generally. Probably because
we neglect it as an emotion ourselves, it has been considered the neglected
emotion in research. Or perhaps it is
because it’s propping up a few industries.
Mum wouldn’t let us
say we were bored. How can you be bored
in this beautiful world she would say? She has a point. But it is common. It may be inevitable. And it exists for a reason. It can manifest
itself in disengagement, dissatisfaction, disruption, destruction...and curiosity,
creativity and change. If we can learn
to manage it, we can reduce its negative impacts. If we learn to listen to it,
we can embrace its gifts. As leaders
who create the environment in which people perform, we have a particular
responsibility to address it in our own lives and of the organisations we
lead.
Drawing on some of the research out there, we
can...
Task true: Too little, too much, are you getting
the task level right? Fisher (1993)
distinguishes 3 ways tasks can create boredom.
We can actually not have enough work (quantitative underload). It can be
repetitive and not utilise our skills (qualitative underload). In the words of organisational poet David Whyte*, “work,
paradoxically, does not ask enough of us, yet exhausts the narrow part we bring
to the door”. On the other side of the
spectrum, our tasks can also be so difficult and confusing we can’t hold our
attention (qualitative overload). I do wonder how many UN meetings suffer
because the issues at hand are so complex, our leaders switch off, overloaded.
Care for the environment: We know from running
leadership programmes that learning and performance is maximised when there
is both high support and challenge. This is true also of the organisational
environment. What are you doing to ensure this, in practical, intellectual and
emotional terms? Furthermore, whether it is in the board meeting or on the
factory floor, providing variation and opportunities for interaction, ensuring
breaks and reducing red tape all serve to help.
And knowing the impact of social influence on perceptions, how are you
and your peers talking about the work?
Embrace people
difference: Boredom
isn’t an attitude – it is transient, in that we can feel bored one moment and
not the next. We all have
different boredom thresholds. People
likely to get bored more often may be amongst the most interesting; they can be sensation seeking extroverts or be
so fearful that they shut themselves off*. There are even those
who take pleasure out of boredom*. How
does your recruitment cater for differences?
Being aware of our thresholds influences the work we choose. Research done on medical and psychology
practitioners, for example, distinguish between those higher sensation seekers
who choose to work in crisis intervention situations (such as emergency rooms
and rape crisis centres) and those peers who work in nonemergency settings*
Max the match: It goes without saying boredom is less likely
to happen when there is a good fit between the task and person. Asking
the psychologist used to working in emergency conditions, to go and work in the
court probably isn’t the best fit. However
it is also about the match between the situation on offer and what the person
wants. If the psychologist sees what’s
in it for them, that will help significantly.
What are you doing to help people understand the value of the work, to
them?
Notwithstanding the importance of the above
to reduce the likelihood of boredom, the challenge for ourselves is to actually
hold our nerve to let the boredom exist and speak its wisdom. Kiechell (1984)* noted bored
executives often “start to bug people” by attempting to micromanage
subordinates, or may be tempted to acquire another company just for the
excitement. So rather than channel our
boredom in potentially unhelpful ways – if we can train ourselves to look at it
mindfully, there are fruits to be had.
Mindfully, we learn to notice
those feelings inside us when they arise.
We observe them with openness and non judgement, without reacting in our
automatic familiar ways. Rather we sit with them, accepting their transient
nature. And we listen to what they are trying to tell us to do. This is because boredom is often a sign that
we need to get curious. Something needs to change.
Listening to it from this mindful state, we
have a greater chance of responding in a constructive way. It could be we need to:
· change
activity...take a break, engage with others, go and do that more urgent task
occupying our minds
· ask
for more or less support/ challenge and understand what’s ‘in it for me’
· change
our thinking - engage our ‘beginners mind’ to come into the situation afresh, think
positively (for it is a beautiful world after all) about what we are grateful
for in this moment, offer empathy and compassion to ourselves and others
· change
how we view the job to make it more interesting through new goal setting
· have
the courage to speak our truth and challenge the status quo with new ideas
· commit
to choosing a path that fulfils our own deepest needs and desires.
Interesting how many options there are in
being bored.
Sources
Fisher, C. D. (1993). Boredom at work: A
neglected concept. Human Relations,
46, 395-417.
Pekr, R; Goetz, T; Daniels, L. M.; Stupnisky,
R. H.; Perry, Raymond P. (2010) Boredom in achievement settings: Exploring
control – value antecedents and performance outcomes of a neglected emotion,
Journal
of Educational Psychology, 102(3), 531-549
Footnotes *
1. Klapp, O. (1986). Overload and boredom. New York: Greenwood Press. And Spacks, P. M.
( 1995). Boredom: The literary history of
a state of mind. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Quoted in Pekr,
R. et al (2010)
2 Whyte
David, The Heart Aroused, Audio Book
5. Best C.L & Kirkpatrick, D.G. (1971)
Psychological profiles of rape crisis counsellors, Psychological
reports, 40, 1127-1134 AND Irey, P.A.
(1974), Personality dimensions of
crisis interveners vs academic psychologists, traditional clinicians, and
paraprofessionals, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Southern
llinois University. Quoted in Fisher (1993)
6. Kiechell,W. (1984) Chairman of the bored, Fortune, March, 175-176. Quoted in
Fisher (1993)
Image: From Ambro http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/agree-terms.php?id=10041391
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