Boredom at Work

We all have days when things are a bit slow. Perhaps your job requires you to run around nonstop for 8-10 hours every single day, but most people have periods when they’re sitting on their hands for a variety of reasons.

Personally I’d rather be too busy than too lightly loaded. Usually when I’m busy I feel like I‘m accomplishing something important, as long as it’s not just busy work. But when I’m bored twiddling my thumbs I feel like I’m wasting my time as well as the company’s, and not adding any value. And then there’s that nagging feeling that upper management is also aware of it, much to my detriment.

So at what point does boredom become a serious issue? If it’s a chronic problem, ask yourself why you don’t have more work assigned to you. Are you truly blocked in your work due to forces beyond your control, or does your manager not assign tasks to you?

If you are idle because of external factors, you should try to make effective use of your downtime. Perhaps the most productive thing you can do is to read technical books or browse technical web sites. Your employer may not be willing to spend money to send you to training, but by leveraging your downtime you can still learn new skills on the company’s dime.

If on the other hand you find yourself asking your boss for more work, and your boss pushes back, then you might want to be concerned. Perhaps your manager fears that you might not be able to handle important or complex assignments. In such cases it’s important that you go out of your way to earn your manager’s trust, by demonstrating whenever you get the chance that that you are reliable and can accomplish demanding tasks.