Burn-out or bore-out?
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Employees with little to do all day suffer similar stress levels to those who disappear under piles of work
Torsten Gottschall used to like going to work. As an official with a state-run disability programme, he had plenty to do - that is until 2005 when bosses decided to move him to another office.
Gottschall soon found himself in the controlling department of the German organisation. It was not where he wanted to be.
“They just wanted to get rid of me,” Gottschall says. With a degree in social science, he did not have much of a head for figures.
“All of a sudden I didn’t have any work to perform and there was less and less of it as time passed.”
The German was soon suffering from bore-out - a term coined by Swiss business consultants Philippe Rothlin and Peter Werder and explained at length in their 2007 German-language book “Diagnosis Bore-out”.
The word bore-out is used to describe demotivation in the corporate workplace, including general tedium caused by repetitive and unchallenging work.
“Since then, we have had an amazing amount of feedback,” Rothlin says.
Most people have heard of burn-out, which affects people who devote too much of their waking time to work-related matters.
Bore-out sufferers, on the other hand, are just not interested in their job. Outside of company hours they give no thought to work whatsoever.
Bore-out often arises in big bureaucratic organisations when employees who have long-term job guarantees are not given the right things to be getting on with, or when higher ups forget to keep them occupied.
Rothlin says the phenomenon has nothing to do with laziness.
He seeks to explode what he calls the “myth of sweet idleness”.
“There are of course some people who are plain lazy. They deserve to be sacked,” he says. But under-utilised members of staff suffering from bore-out are generally eager people who have been forced into the situation in which they find themselves.
Certain jobs are prone to bore-out, especially tasks where workflows can be rationalised or sometimes replaced by software.
Office workers such as civil servants and those in the financial sector are particularly at risk.
Figures released by Germany’s Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Baua) in a “stress report” show that in 2012 around 13 per cent of employees felt that their skills were not being deployed sufficiently in their current job.
Around 5 per cent felt they were not being given enough to do.
Gottschall would certainly have liked to do more.
“The stress came about because they didn’t think I was capable of doing anything anymore,” the German says. He studied social welfare at university, trained as psychotherapist and used to be in charge of a facility for old people. He had always enjoyed his work.
“Suddenly I was just nothing,” Gottschall says.
For years on end Gottschall sat at his desk, shuffling papers from one side to the other and counting the minutes until he could go home. He wasn’t allowed to surf the internet and reading books would have been a too obvious display of idleness.
He finally decided to teach himself Microsoft Excel and Word and helped pass the time by tinkering with various IT programmes.
“I did that to make it look as if I was actually doing something.”
Bore-out victims are paradoxically keen to appear busy and can be observed staring intently at the computer screen while telling colleagues that they have loads of work to be getting on with.
Employees who simply gaze into thin air are putting their job at risk. Unfortunately, keeping up this subterfuge of “going through the motions” is a major stress factor and it can lead to health problems.
“It’s hard to talk about being bored at a time when job performance is the be all and end all and everyone is battling to keep a job,” says Austrian labour sociologist Elisabeth Prammer.
After analysing some bore-out biographies she came to the conclusion that although the problem is widespread, a taboo has made it impossible to discuss openly. Ironically, it is as much a phenomenon of our age as the opposite extreme, burn-out.
Gottschall recalls feelings of worthlessness, apathy and depression.
“I was literally bored to tears,” he says.
“A long period of being under-utilized can make people ill,” adds Andrea Lohmann-Haislah of Baua. Depression can lead to chronic back pain and even cardiovascular problems.
Most companies or organizations do not have any contact person who can be consulted on the bore-out issue, Prammer says.
“The main thing is to have a sense of personal responsibility. You have to do something about it yourself,” Rothlin says.
Employees should alert those in charge and ask to be given tasks which are commensurate with their skills.
“Another strategy is to simply explore doing other things, without being asked to do so, and not just give in to the boredom.”
As a last resort, bore-out victims should resign, the expert advises.
Gottschall finally overcame the tedium in 2011. He handed in his notice and now works full-time in his own psychotherapy practice.
The 54-year-old is intensely busy. “I’ve sometimes got more work than I can cope with”, he says with a laugh.
