Boreout – how to manage the latest threat to productivity in the workplace

Boreout is the latest trend to impact worker performance. While it is not as serious as other issues like quiet quitting or burnout, it can be detrimental to productivity and efforts to sustain business.

As its name implies, boreout describes a situation in which an employee has lost the desire to do what they are expected to do, to carry out their responsibilities and/or have become apathetic to their function in the business.

Human Capital Management (HCM) specialist CRS Technologies says boreout happens when employees lose motivation and drive because of routine, being bogged down by monotony and no change or challenge.

“Like many other post-Covid human resource challenges, boreout leads to reduced productivity and below average performance. This is a vicious cycle because workers who battle with boreout become complacent and indifferent about their jobs, and as this feeling intensifies, it reflects in their productivity. As this continues, workers become increasingly despondent and the situation only becomes worse,” says Nicol Myburgh, Head: Human Resource Business Unit, CRS Technologies.

Myburgh says human resource professionals have a sizeable task with trying to achieve balance in the workplace, one that is only made more difficult by the impact of quiet quitting, burnout and boomerang employees – and so, it is entirely feasible that boreout can creep onto the list of difficulties.

As CRS Technologies continues to maintain focus on existing and emerging trends that impact labour, regarding boreout, the company points out that acknowledging there is a problem is the first major step towards a solution that works for everyone.

There are other steps that employers can take to support a worker that is battling to curb boreout.

“For example, the business can change the dynamics that typify a role, remove some of the more mundane tasks, introduce fresh incentives and apply new challenges to these incentives. It will change the scope of what that employee is expected to do, and, of course, change is exciting,” adds Myburgh.

Another aspect to consider is the need to cultivate an environment that is conducive to frank, open and honest discussion.

CRS Technologies adds that in today’s market it is possible to adapt positions, change the specifications and KPIs of roles, and rework or reengineer roles to line up with the characters of workers.

“We also endorse innovation and a workplace environment that rewards progressive thinking. Markets around the world continue to struggle; there is little time left to adapt and emerge with new ways of doing things,” says Myburgh.