5 Ways To Combat Boredom At Work
Publié le 8 October 2021
Stay engaged, take on new challenges and grow professionally with 5 ways to combat boredom at work.
Bored employees are not happy employees. The best work environments are those where employees feel excited and engaged by their work. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. According to a recent 2021 survey, a shocking 85% of employees admit to feeling unengaged at work. Bored at work is a serious issue, and employees and employers need to be aware of the signs that indicate things must change. Professionals should be aware of the 5 ways to combat boredom at work, which will help them to reset their goals, engage in their work and feel satisfied while on the job.
5 Ways To Combat Boredom At Work
- Set more ambitious goals
- Mentor a new hire
- Become a leader
- Ask for more responsibility
- Look for another job
Set More Ambitious Goals
Achieving your professional goals is great, as it means you are performing your job well and have a strong understanding of how your business works. If you find that you are always meeting targets, or even dramatically exceed them, it can result in boredom at work due to a lack of challenge. Being challenged professionally is one of the best ways to grow and develop in your job and career. You can challenge yourself by setting more ambitious goals, such as improved sales figures or increased client retention.
Now, this does not mean that you should overload yourself with work to stave off boredom. Taking on too much is not good, and can very easily lead to overwork and burnout. When setting new goals, it’s important to do so incrementally. For example, instead of saying you want to double your results from the previous quarter and aim to improve them by 25%. This is a much more feasible goal, and by checking in every few weeks you can recalibrate if you are on the right track.
Mentor A New Hire
Starting a new job role can be intimidating, confusing and stressful. It can be a real challenge to adapt to a new work environment, learn the peculiarities of a job, and form professional relationships with multiple new colleagues. This is why onboarding and mentoring new hires is very beneficial on both a personal and professional level. It will help new employees successfully complete their training, perform their jobs to the best of their ability and, most importantly, feel that they are part of a team working together.
Mentoring a new employee will also allow you to shake up your routine, and impart valuable experience in a way that will improve the entire office. People know the value of mentoring, with one report finding that 75% of professionals want a mentor, but only 37% report having one. This is an opportunity to identify any ways that your own training and onboarding fell short, and address these issues. If the nature of the job has changed since your own hiring, switching to work-from-home for instance, you can update training materials and programs to reflect the current demands of the job. These are all different challenges, and helping a new hire integrate into the work environment can be a very effective method to combat boredom at work.
Become A Leader
Boredom at work is a strong sign that you are ready to expand your role. One way that you can change your job role in the workplace is to become a leader. Businesses need strong leaders, and leadership skills are something that recruiters should look for in employees as early as their first job interview.
Being a leader entails much more work, and involves the ability to multitask, plan ahead and be attuned to people’s needs. Becoming a strong leader is also a learning process, with abilities and procedures that can be gained and acquired through dedicated learning programs and courses. Undertaking a leadership study program can provide engaging activities that will set you on a new and exciting career path, and hopefully relieve feelings of boredom at work.
Ask For More Responsibility
If you want to play a larger role in your workplace and have the opportunity to work on projects you find more engaging, but perhaps aren’t completely ready for a full-on leadership role, the simplest salutation may simply be to ask for it. Having employees grow in their role is something that employers should not only expect, but encourage and reward whenever possible. If you want more responsibility, schedule a meeting with your supervisor or manager and make a formal request. All workplaces should conduct regular one-on-one performance reviews. This can be the perfect time to discuss expanding your role. If there is no meeting planned in the immediate future, you should feel able to request and schedule one yourself. It would be better for employers to take some time during one day for a meeting than to have a bored and unhappy employee continue that way for weeks or months.
During this meeting, you should make the effort to make your request in the most professional manner possible. Take the time to review your performance on recent projects, and present evidence and examples which demonstrate that you have gone beyond what is expected and greatly contributed to the overall success of the project. Make a clear case for why you should be given more responsibility and clearly demonstrate that you are ready for additional challenges. Be prepared for honest feedback and critique. It is possible that managers may feel that you are not ready for a higher level of responsibility. If you disagree or your managers simply do not have more responsibility to give you, it’s time to consider other options.
Look For Another Job
If you have made a serious attempt to take on increased responsibility, accept more challenging assignments and take on a leadership role in the workplace but still find yourself feeling bored at work, it is very possible that it is time to consider looking for another job. Every job does not present unlimited potential for growth and development, and if your job role is not letting you grow professionally then it may be time to find one that does.
One benefit of utilizing the other methods to combat boredom at work is that by the conclusion of the process you should have a clear idea of what form your ideal job role should take. When searching for new opportunities and speaking with hiring managers, be upfront with your professional goals. If you want a role where you can be a leader and guide a team towards successfully completing large goals, tell this to a hiring manager. This will help to ensure that you find a job role that you will find engaging and rewarding, and avoid getting stuck in another boring job.
Being bored at work is not good. It leads to unengaged and unsatisfied employees, who will not work at their best and will not feel happy or fulfilled while on the job. There are 5 ways to combat boredom at work, with the goal of helping employees take on new challenges, develop professionally and re-engage with the workplace. This will lead to organizational success and satisfied employees.
